Cheer "We Are — Penn State!"

A grey-haired American tourist wearing an old leather air force flying jacket and a blue baseball cap with the words "Nittany Lions" in white on the front stood on a wooden platform on a mountain above the town of Zermatt, Switzerland, and gazed across the chasm at the world-famous Matterhorn. At first, he didn't notice the young couple in their twenties walking out of the gift shop.

The woman was wearing a white hoodie with the words "Penn State" on the front. Just as the couple passed, the old man turned, spotted the young lady's hoodie, and smiled.

"We Are —," the old man shouted. Several other tourists looked at the man and probably wondered what he was yelling about.

The young couple turned toward the old man and immediately saw his blue cap. Almost in unison they yelled back, "Penn State!"

The terse tableau must have seemed strange to the dozens of international tourists, including fellow Americans, who had witnessed the perplexing verbal exchange between the old man and the young couple. They had never seen each other before, but they had a common bond instantly in four words. That's what frequently happens whenever Penn State fans encounter each other, no matter the location or the circumstances. It could be a crowded restaurant in Los Angeles or a ferry boat in Hong Kong. Or maybe on the streets of New York City or at a campground near Yellowstone Park.

"We Are — Penn State!"

It is one of the most famous and familiar sports cheers in college football, instantly identifying the people who yell it as dedicated Penn State fans.

Although there are other college cheers that rival Penn State's in familiarity — such as Alabama's "Roll Tide!" and Texas' "Hook 'em Horns" — none involve the participants in such a unique way because at least two people must be involved. One person or more yell the first part, "We Are —," and a second soulmate or more responds with "Penn State!" It can be uttered just once or several times in succession. And when concluding a quick series of the cheer, a tagline is also added, with the people who started it all off shouting, "Thank you," and the respondents yelling back, "You're welcome!"

As one might expect, the cheer has spawned many copycats. Marshall University fans believe the cheer was invented at their school. That myth stems from a 2006 popular inspirational movie, We Are Marshall, depicting the true story of a 1970 charter plane crash that killed 75 people, virtually wiping out Marshall's football team and devastating the college town of Huntingdon. However, an article in the Huntingdon News in January 2007 pointed out the Marshall version was heard for the first time in 1988, several years after the creation of Penn State's cheer.

Actually, the Penn State cheerleaders who crafted the cheer in the mid-1970s did borrow from the cheers of three other colleges — Ohio State, Southern Cal, and Kentucky — to create their own unique one. It started in 1975.

"The only cheer everyone in the stadium knew was 'N-I ... Double-T ... A-N ... Y ... Roar, Lions, Roar,' because the Blue Band would do it before the game with their hats to get the crowd going," remembered former cheerleader Bob Krimmel, then the group's advisor. The cheerleaders wanted to devise a new cheer to revitalize the crowd.

They found parts of what they were seeking in Penn State's third game of the season at Ohio State and a couple weeks later while watching a televised game from USC. They took the traditional "O-H-I-O" that rolls back and forth around Ohio Stadium and the "We Are SC! We Are SC!" shouted rapidly without pause by USC, and turned it into a cheer where everyone yells the same words: "We Are Penn State," but without the deliberate pause.

The cheerleaders tried out the new cheer in the student section at Beaver Stadium, then in the north end zone seating area, during the first three home games that opened the 1976 season. "It went nowhere," said Krimmel.

When Penn State played its first away game, at night against Kentucky in Lexington, they found the golden key. "There was this unbelievable roar back and forth across the stadium, with one half yelling 'Blue' and the other half screaming, 'White,'" said Krimmel. "We knew that would work for us."

Still, it took more than five years to fully succeed, first with the students — who had been moved near the south end zone in a major Beaver Stadium expansion before the 1978 season — and then with the rest of the fans. I vividly remember shouting the cheer as a spectator at the 1979 Sugar Bowl in the New Orleans Superdome, but it still had not caught on with the Penn State football nation.

A September 1981 game at Nebraska regenerated the cheerleaders when they heard the home fans yelling in unison, "Go ... Big Red" throughout the game. They intensified their teaching process, and by the end of that year, the Penn State crowd was cheering it without prompting from the cheerleaders. Somewhere along the way, the "Thank you" and "You're welcome" were added.

The cheer is now immortalized with a 12-foot sculpture installed the summer of 2014 on a prominent and busy corner at University Drive and Curtin Road close to Beaver Stadium, Pegula Arena, and the Bryce Jordan Center. The words "We Are" in large shining steel letters stand permanently on a concrete foundation for all to see, a gift by Penn State's Senior Class of 2013.

So, there you have it — the birth of the illustrious four words that all Penn State fans must cheer and opponents hate to hear.

"We Are — Penn State!"

The Suhey-Triplett Myth

In recent years, Penn State's famed cheer has been credited to Steve Suhey, an All-American guard on the 1946 and 1947 football teams. At a team meeting late in the 1946 season, the players voted unanimously not to play a scheduled game at segregated Miami when told they had to leave their two black teammates at home. With the two black players still on the team a year later, Penn State was invited to play in the Cotton Bowl in segregated Dallas. Wally Triplett, recognized as Penn State's first African American varsity player, was a standout wingback on those teams.

According to one variation of the story that Triplett began relating a few years ago, a player or two asked aloud sometime after the 1946 Miami team meeting if they would have to vote again if another such racial instance occurred. Another version has players wondering about another meeting before the Cotton Bowl invitation was accepted in 1947. Either way, Triplett says Suhey, the co-captain of the 1947 team, strongly asserted publicly to several players there would be no meetings because, he said, "We're Penn State."

Suhey probably used those words. He was a passionate leader and one of the players behind the team's decision not to play Miami. Penn State fans can accept the mythology the next time they holler the cheer, but be sure to remember those diligent cheerleaders who created it.

The Grand Experiment

Even before he became Penn State's head coach in 1966, Joe Paterno began thinking about the kind of football team he wanted. Paterno believed he could build an outstanding football team composed of superior athletes who also were superior students. He wanted to recruit the sons of ordinary farmers, mill hands, and other working-class families who were smart,...