The Penn State All-Sports Museum Announces Fall 2019 Speakers
On Friday, October 4, 2019 at 12pm noon, Trey Bauer will kick off the 2019 fall speakers with a discussion in the museum’s football gallery on the first floor. Bauer was part of Penn State’s 1986 National Championship football team, captain of the 1987 team, and a three year starter, as well as the first at Penn State to attend business school while competing with the football team. After graduation, Bauer spent his career as a professional securities trader and co-founder of financial services companies.
On Friday, October 18, 2019 at 12pm noon, the museum will host Ted Sebastianelli for a discussion in the Unbeaten and Uncrowned exhibition on the second floor. Sebastianelli was a member of Rip Engle’s last recruiting class, and played on Joe Paterno’s first 3 varsity teams. Initially as a linebacker and later as a center, Sebastianelli played on the undefeated 1968 team that finished second nationally at the 1969 Orange Bowl. Following graduation, Sebastianelli was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force. After retiring from the military after 34 years, Sebastianelli served as Deputy HR Director for the Military District of Washington.
On Friday, November 15, 2019 at 12pm, the museum will host a conversation on sport and race at Penn State featuring an academic analysis and a personal experience with panelists Wally Richardson and Mark Dyreson with discussion moderated by John Affleck, Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. On November 1, 1969, at halftime of a home game against Boston College, Penn State African American student leaders took the field and addressed 48,000 Nittany Lion fans about several racial problems that plagued black students on campus. Instead of celebrating these students as emissaries of Champions of Equality, as the historical marker celebrating Nittany Lion stars who helped to desegregate intercollegiate sport heralds them, Penn State fans booed them and stomped their feet to drown out the speakers.
A half-century after protestors condemned the racial climate at Penn State during a football game, African American athletes remain the most visible black students on campus and race relations in Happy Valley remain complicated and sometimes conflicted. The 50th anniversary of the football protests offers an invitation to reflect on the past, illumine the present, and think about the future. Richardson will reflect on his experiences as the first African American quarterback at Penn State to achieve major success on the field. Richardson has continued serving the football program in a variety of capacities off the field, from academic counselor to current Director of the Penn State Football Letterman’s Club. Dyreson is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and the Director of research and educational programs for PSU’s Center for the Study of Sports in Society. Dyreson is currently working on a history of race and sport at Penn State and will offer a historical perspective on the complex history of Penn State’s Champions of Equality.
All talks are free and open to the community.