Everyone finds a different way to spend a little down time on a work trip.
Covering the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles meant a little pickup basketball, where Harrisburg Patriot columnist Dave Jones and I ran out of gas (Dave's not so young anymore, you know) and got schooled by a couple of State College media types.
It also means finding something interesting to eat.
Penn State coach Joe Paterno said he will not coach the Rose Bowl from the sidelines because of concerns from his healing hip.
Paterno underwent hip replacement surgery after Thanksgiving, and though the operation was successful, he said his legs don't yet have the necessary endurance to permit standing and walking around for the length of a game.
He will coach Thursday's game against USC from the press box, as he has for most of the season.
Aaron Maybin
They asked about his temporary demotion to second-team status.
They asked about his NFL plans.
What did the pass-rushing specialist have to say?
These USC Trojans are loaded with talent like no other team in the country, that's for sure.
So maybe it doesn't mean much even when two key performers have been scratched for Thursday's Rose Bowl.
But Penn State fans will take the good news, no matter how it comes.
So the Nittany Lions didn't get to do some post-Christmas shopping in Miami, courtesy of the BCS national championship game.
It's Rose Bowl week in L.A. and you can only stay holed up in downtown hotel room, staring at a laptop, for so long.
(Of course, it's a little easier here with a view of the snow-capped San Gabriel mountain range in the distance.)
But we digress.
There is more to bowl week than talking to players and writing stories and searching around for what kind of free food and drink there is to be had.
It sounds like Jordan Norwood will be a receiving threat in Thursday's Rose Bowl despite a bad foot. The senior receiver who is the Nittany Lions best threat in the middle of a crowded field, said he's about "90 percent" healthy since injuring his left foot in the regular season finale against Michigan State.
Red Lion High School graduate Randy Helm, who now lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., shared this photo of himself with Joe Paterno from a couple years ago. There's a fun story behind the photo, which we'll pass along later.
Readers, feel free to pass along your Joe Paterno stories and photos to Sports Editor Chris Otto at cotto@ydr.com
Here are some facts and trivia about Rose Bowl combatants Southern Cal and Penn State, culled from the pre-Rose Bowl media releases put out by each school.
1. Penn State is No. 2 in the nation in bowl winning percentage among schools with at least 10 postseason victories, posting a 26-12-2 record for a .675 winning percentage.
2. KNSP-AM 710, the flagship station on the USC radio network, will have an eight-hour pregame show for the Rose Bowl and a three-hour postgame show.
3. Five Lions are listed as "out" for the Rose Bowl -- TB Brent Carter, DE Jerome Hayes, C Doug Klopacz, LB Sean Lee and SAF Nick Sukay.
4. USC's media notes state: "IT'S NOT SOUTHERN CAL -- Note to the media: In editorial references to athletic teams of the University of Southern California, the following are preferred: USC, Southern California, So. California, Troy, Trojans and (for women's teams) Women of Troy. PLEASE do not use Southern Cal."
Earlier this year, Joyce McWilliams of Windsor shared with us this photo of her time as Pennsylvania State Apple Queen. McWilliams was a 1971 Dallastown High graduate (then Joyce Markey) who began her reign as Apple Queen in January 1972. As Apple Queen, she got to offer a last-minute "health to you" wish to the Penn State football and Coach Paterno before they left from Harrisburg International Airport on Dec. 27, 1972, for their trip to the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Rose Bowl coaches Joe Paterno and Pete Carroll hammed it up on stage, with Paterno striking a boxer's pose and Carroll grinning and ducking away on Friday at Disneyland. To read the story, click here.
Quips Pete Alfano of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
"(Joe Paterno) has been the head coach since 1966. In 1966, the Vatican rescinded the rule forbidding U.S. Catholics to eat meat on Friday, gasoline cost 32 cents a gallon, President-elect Barack Obama was 5 years old and the Academy Award for Best Picture went to 'A Man for All Seasons.'"
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting story about Penn State's strange journey to the 1923 Rose Bowl. It's a tale that includes Mary Pickford (left) and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Some sportswriting from that era:
"In place of the sweet incense of freshly brewed attar, the smoke of battle will issue from the Rose Bowl in Arroyo Seco, hewn from the rock and today dedicated to that monarch among sporting events, the annual East vs. West struggle for moleskin supremacy," wrote Harry A. Williams in the Jan. 1, 1923 edition of The Times.
PHILADELPHIA --Following in Joe Flacco's footsteps, Pat Devlin became the latest high-profile recruit to transfer out of a Division I-A program and onto the roster of Division I-AA Delaware when the former Penn State quarterback committed to the Blue Hens on Monday, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
With this move, the redshirt sophomore is hoping to repeat Flacco's success at Delaware. A transfer from Pittsburgh, Flacco wound up being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of April's NFL draft.
Flacco lost a year of eligibility because Pitt would not sign off on his scholarship, but Devlin is expected to have two seasons with the Blue Hens starting this fall.
The all-time series between Penn State and USC is tied, 4-4. The first meeting was a 14-3 USC victory in the 1923 Rose Bowl. The two head coaches in that game went by the nicknames Sphinx and Gloomy Gus.
The Trojans won the most recent meeting, defeating Penn State by the odd score of 29-5 in the 2000 Kickoff Classic.
Prior to Penn State's Rose Bowl battle with Oregon on Jan. 1, 1995, the Big Ten Conference was mulling its long-term connection with the Rose Bowl, according to this York Daily Record story:
PASADENA, Calif. (Dec. 30, 1994) -- Penn State athletic director Tim Curley acknowledged Thursday that the Big Ten has discussed ending its involvement with the Rose Bowl but insisted that the discussions were not active ones.
"That was just casual conversation," Curley said of the talks, which came during a meeting of conference ADs earlier this month. "At many of those meetings, we have an awful lot of discussions. We review our situations, our alignments. At this point, it is no more than a conversation, and not seriously discussed or contemplated."
