Mason Wadleigh

Penn State won their White Out game of the 2024 season against the Washington Huskies, 35-6. The game drew a massive crowd of 110,233 students, all donning white. The school and its students prepared for the most electric moment of its season. 

But how did this energetic and larger-than-life tradition start?

Before 2004, Penn State and its fans had garnered a reputation in College Football, being known as “the quietest 100,000 fans in college football,” said Guido D’ella, the marketing and branding consultant of Penn State at the time. 

As the 2004 season began, D’ella knew he had to make a change. In Penn State’s 11th game of the year, the crowd of exclusively college students were encouraged to wear white shirts, painting the crowd white. 

Though the first trial resulted in a loss to Purdue, with a final score of 20-13, the energy had been noticeably shifted. 

The next year, as fans filled up the stands creating an ocean of white shirts, tension rose and the pressure was on for Penn State’s long-time rival, Ohio State University. 

“The only time I’ve ever felt the press box move at Beaver Stadium is during a White Out. The first time it happened was at the Ohio State game in 2005,” claims Steve Jones, the radio broadcaster for Penn State Football. 

In 2007, all fans were invited to participate in the new tradition, which produced a massive win against Notre Dame, with the final score being 31-10. 

Beaver Stadium is now feared and revered in the College Football landscape, due to the ground-shaking effect the 100’s of thousands of fans bring. 

The extent of fear caused by the renowned “greatest show in College sports” reaches further than you may expect. Even famed sportscaster and professional football coach Urban Meyer once stated “Once you’re in that setting – and that’s a lot of credit to their student body and just the way they orchestrate that whole environment–it’s awful. That’s a tough place to go play games.”

That’s not to say that a White Out game is a guaranteed win for Penn State. Overall, the school record for wins and losses in White Out games is 12-8. The teams that have beaten Penn State during White Out games include Purdue, Michigan, Iowa, Alabama, and Ohio State.

Last year’s White Out game resulted in a mind-boggling new attendance record, achieving 111,030 fans, all attending Penn States battle against the University of Iowa and their team, the Hawkeyes. The final score, 31 – 0.

In short, the White Out game is a well-known tradition that has solidified itself in College Football. As the tradition continues to grow and thrive, the energy and emotion of the fans continue to stay very high, exactly the wish of an exec working for Penn State in 2004. 

Thank you, Guido D’ella, for forming the greatest show in college sports!