How to Make a Sailor in the Desert Happy...

Really, it's not that complicated. Add one part Penn State football, add access to the internets, fold in streaming audio of the Penn State Sports Networks and the mellifluous voice of Steve Jones' play-by-play, and I’m really one just one happy guy right now. Penn State Football 2007 is underway, and I'm listening live!

Which brings me back to one of my original questions when I started out on this mission last spring...how did people go to war without wi-fi?

Here I sit, in Baghdad, separated by deserts, oceans, time zones, lacking only tailgating and funnel cake, listening to the live broadcast of Penn State's season opener against Florida International. Without wi-fi how would I hear with my own ears, from more than 6,000 miles away, the roar erupting from Beaver Stadium as the announcer rouses the crowd of 108,000 with news that Mee-shee-gun is losing to Appalachian State 28-17? (Honestly, it's the small things like Michigan going down in flames that can bring joy to this military man's war-hardened heart!)

The guys I serve with are only beginning to understand the depth of my passion for college football, and I have counseled them that they will either come to love or hate Penn State by the time the season is over. Seriously, it's all in fun, it's (almost) never personal. It's simply something to get excited about and something to mark the passing of each week while I’m serving here in Iraq.

But most importantly, it’s something that ties me to friends and family, and that’s probably why I’m feeling it so much this year.

For my family, it's not just about going to Penn State, which every member of my family did. For us, it's about home. We moved to State College from Pittsburgh in August 1976 when my Dad left private industry and went to work for an academic research lab at Penn State. I was 10, and remember that we got to town too late that summer for him to purchase season tickets through the university as a faculty member. We answered an ad in the Centre Daily Times, and my folks bought two season tickets in the old north end zone. My first game with my Dad was the Penn State-Ohio State game that season, and it was only the first of many we have attended together. I remember PSU being trounced by some little school called Miami in 1979, and being there for Curt Warner's first breakout game.

Growing up in State College was a wonderful gift. Penn State's campus was like the nighborhood park for us, and as kids, we were pretty much free to enjoy donwtown State College in the same way that suburban kids roam the malls.

I'm sad that I won't be there this year to enjoy a day under a crisp autumn sky with you this year, Dad. But as I listen, I know you're there in the stadium cheering on the Blue and White from your seats in section WG just like you have for nearly 30 years. And I’m pretty sure that I heard a loud “boo, ref!” on that questionable interference call in the second half.