VIEW FROM THE MIDWEST: NOVEMBER 1, 2007

Buckeyes Fans Assaulted Walking Past Penn State Frat

By Paul Smith / smith@collegeblitz.com

The YouTube.com video lasted only 42 seconds, but you can bet for Penn State University officialdom, they are 42 seconds that will live in imfamy. At least for the foreseeable future.

The scene: The not-too-spacious back lawn of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, where scores of Penn State students and fans were imbibing in a pre-game keg party, many pretty well-lit as they staggered around.

Behind the frat house is a convenient alley way where pedestrians can save 4-5 minutes walking time as they head down to College Avenue, State College's main drag.

A couple of Ohio State fans, clad in their scarlet and gray tops, decided to take the short cut as they apparently were heading down to meet up with some fellow Buckeyes.

A chorus of boos greeted the visitors as they walked alongside a brick wall on the far side of the alley. Unmistakably, they were not friendly. The cutting edge warned of trouble straight ahead.

Little did the Buckeyes know they were about to receive the same type of greeting Manchester United soccer fans get in Liverpool or Red Sox fans in Yankee Stadium.

In what might be a low point in Penn State's usually-admirable fan history, the following events took place...

1. Flying full beer containers aimed at the two Buckeyes.

2. A couple more, possibly a beer bottle among them.

3. A series of hateful chants, climaxed by a brainy "F*** O-HI-O" chant. Foul language that would have made nearby Lewisburg Penitentiary collectively blush.

4. One particularly brazen, slightly built citizen running up behind one visitor and firing a full beer container at his back with full force, then sprinting back, hugged by a muscular cohort who proclaimed "You are the mannnn!!!" and an obscenity laced approval. "This dude's from Pittsburgh. He doesn't even need to do it, but he does it."

Does what, exactly? Hire the strippers for the frat parties? Organize the beer-bongs? Start a "Pike" emergency fund for D.U.I.s, underaged drinking or drunk-and-disorderlies?

Nice going, guys, you give fraternities a great image.

If you were looking for positives, there was one for sure. The fool who uploaded the footage put it on Youtube.com. Gaetano Sacco, the "Pike" vice president whose YouTube screen name "crazysacc" was the name attached to the video, would not comment to The Daily Collegian Tuesday night.

Nor would fraternity president Brendan Wilson. That, in part, might be understandable.

But when The Daily Collegian contacted Tom Poole, associate to Penn State President Graham Spanier for administration, the university official said he'd responded to e-mails on the subject. "I don't know what can be done about it," he told Collegian reporter Katie Maloney. "People act like fools." Poole indicated Spanier's office had received "an awful lot of mail," calling the image the university was reaping a "Terrible impression."

Allow me to go one better. While 80% of today's college kids are the salt of the earth, solid citizens who are a joy to be around and socialize with, with this ugly incident, you are looking squarely at some of the other 20%.

At Rutgers earlier this season, a collection of Scarlet Knight students amused themselves by booing the Navy football team and directing obscene chants at the Mids in Rutgers Stadium.

Correctly, Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy and president Richard McCormick proactively sent U.S. Naval Academy Commandant Capt. Bruce Grooms and Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk a pair of heartfelt apologize and admonished the Rutgers fans for their conduct.

For the most part, the Rutgers folks offered the obligatory mea culpas for such boorish conduct and the school moved quickly to put some space between itself and the untoward incident.

A public statement will probably come from Spanier before long and the university will no doubt examine the video and possibly the local gendarmes may get involved and at least throw a scare into the goofball whose face is prominently featured on the video.

But as much as anything else, this is a commentary on how low the wretched excesses of today's "pop
culture" can go -- intolerance, violence, foul language, total disrespect for others.

Penn State and Rutgers are hardly the only offenders. Ohio State and Michigan State fans have rioted after huge victories, burning furniture, throwing perfectly good T.V.s out dorm windows, etc., and L.S.U. and Florida fans have indulged in plenty of treacherous behavior, threatening visiting fans, attacking team buses, etc., and Portage Avenue on the west side of Wisconsin's scenic Camp Randall Stadium is often a combination of boozy frat boys and half-cocked macho men.

The question before the collegeBLITZ.com jury is this: What will it take to deprogram people from the "pop culture" mindset, the "Papa, Don't Preach" of Madonna Ciccone and many other manifestations of disrespect for civility and traditional values.

If this type of behavior becomes the norm, God help us all.