Team switches back to nameless jerseys for upcoming season
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — James Franklin gathered his players in the squad room Thursday morning and told them it was for an important meeting.
“We thought we might be in trouble or something,” sophomore linebacker Jason Cabinda said.
Franklin made the decision and met with the seniors and select team members Wednesday night to let them in on a secret. The names were coming off of the back of Penn State’s football jerseys, giving the team the traditional look like it had under Joe Paterno. Former head coach Bill O’Brien and the players added the names in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal, a way to honor those who stayed during the NCAA’s sanctions. Penn State kept the names for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
“I’ve thought about this from
day one,” Franklin said Thursday evening on the Lasch Football practice field. “I just thought year one it wasn’t the right time to make this decision. There had been so much change and so much turnover in a short period of time, fifth head coach in 27 months, there’s a lot of issues a lot of things we had to overcome and it was just one more thing.”
Franklin enlisted the help of former Penn State lettermen who met with the players and told them about their stories of Penn State past and why the nameless jerseys were part of their history and tradition. Jack Ham drove in from Pittsburgh. Former longtime equipment manager Brad ‘Spider’ Caldwell, whose wife stitched the names on the jerseys a few years ago, told the players why it’s important to him.
Terry Smith, Penn State’s cornerbacks coach and defensive recruiting coordinator who played for the Nittany Lions from 1987-91, said it was a welcomed move by many of the former lettermen.
“When you’re a young guy that’s on a team you don’t realize history as much,” Smith said Thursday. “I can’t tell you how many text messages and phone calls I’ve gotten today from former players and lettermen, just ecstatic. Guys making comments like, ‘I can finally pay my dues to the letterman’s club now. I’m welcomed back. I feel like I’m connected again.’ ”
Current players took to the streets of State College Thursday evening to hand out posters that featured nameless players. The team did so wearing their jerseys without the names on the back. During a visit to the Hershey Children’s Hospital Wednesday, the names were stitched on the back.
Quarterback Christian Hackenberg in a white No. 14 jersey and shorts signed autographs and took pictures with fans who strolled along the town’s main drag after dinner. Other players went to the opposite end of town to do the same.
Former letterman and Minnesota Vikings linebacker Michael Mauti, who was instrumental in keeping the team together in 2012, said he’s happy to see Penn State return to the jersey his dad, brother and him wore during their collegiate careers.
“It’s never been about one single guy,” Mauti said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “That’s the philosophy that Joe [Paterno] had and that’s what makes Penn State a special place. It’s one of those traditional uniforms that’s classic and it’s been for a long time. I think it’s great that coach Franklin did this.”
Penn State’s addition by subtraction of letters means that Franklin will win back part of a fan base that saw the jerseys as one more way that Penn State distanced itself from Paterno. Whether or not 17- and 18-year-old recruits see it that way will be another story.
“It’s very iconic,” Cabinda said. “Having my name not be on the back of the jersey anymore now I feel like I’m able to represent all those 40s that went before me. The [Glenn] Carson’s, the Dan Connor’s, all those guys. … I feel like I now am very connected to those guys.”