SENIOR DAY: In spring 2005, Sports Illustrated ran a story titled “When Tall Men Cry.”
The lede for that story – written during the end of college basketball season but applicable for any sport – went on to say that there is “no moment in sports as bittersweet as Senior Day.”
Elk County Catholic graduate Mitch Vallone, a reserve defensive back at Penn State, will finally get his turn in the spotlight in front of a packed Beaver Stadium crowd on Saturday.
Vallone, who graduated from ECC in 2013, played football, basketball and baseball for the Crusaders. As a senior on the football field, Vallone threw for 796 yards and eight touchdowns and ran for six more, while adding 72 tackles and being named team MVP and a league all-star. He was picked to play in the 40th annual Don Raabe Big 30 Charities Classic, helping Pennsylvania rout their neighbors to the north, 53-12.
From there, Vallone attended Division II Ashland University (Ohio) where he was on the roster, but didn’t see game action.
Last September, after transferring to Happy Valley, head coach James Franklin added Vallone as a “run-on” as the Nittany Lions won their first Big 10 conference outright title since 1994.
Vallone, a toxicology major, wears No. 34 and will be among the other 22 of his teammates being honored prior to the 4 p.m. kickoff against Nebraska.
NOT A CROOK: According to the Associated Press, it was 44 years ago today on Nov. 17, 1973, that President Richard Nixon told AP managing editors in Orlando, Florida: “People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
In summer 1974, a tape surfaced revealing he knew more about the Watergate cover-up than he previously stated. On Aug. 9, 1974, facing impeachment and removal from the presidency, Nixon resigned.
