There was a stairwell in the James Building that I must have walked up and down those steps thousands of times. Either end of the stairwell led to the places where I spent the most time of my college career. The bottom was the newsroom of The Daily Collegian. The top was the archives of the newspaper – dating back to at least the 1940s when the paper had a different name.
But in between the first and the second floors, fixed to the wall at the midpoint of the stairwell, was the greatest photo that I believe the Collegian has ever produced. Troy Smith is completely, perfectly on his head. Tamba Hali is lying on the ground next to him. The football is bouncing away to Scott Paxson’s arms.
It was the night Penn State football came roaring back from the Dark Years. It was the night that the White Out came to life.
That photo served as the first reminder: Something always happens in the White Out.
As Penn State plays in its 23rd White Out – 22nd in the regular season – something will happen. That is the beauty of Penn State’s greatest spectacle.
Two seasons later, Jimmy Clausen rolled into town as the quarterback that would save Notre Dame football.
Derrick Williams had other ideas when he returned a punt. Penn State clobbered Notre Dame, 31-10. Clausen went 17-for-32 and threw an interception, relatively never heard from again.
Something always happens in the White Out.
It’s been 10 years since Grant Haley sprinted across the goal line of the north end zone while the referee fell to the ground. I don’t remember much else of that play but I won’t forget the referee falling to the ground for some reason. About an hour later, I yelled into Anna’s ear, “We just beat Ohio State.”
I don’t think she heard me. How could she? The town hasn’t stopped talking about that play – for better or for worse – since.
Something loud always happens in the White Out.
A few years later, Jim Harbaugh had to take a timeout before a single down of football was played. The game was over at that point. Saquon Barkley made sure of it a few plays later.
Something always happens in the White Out – even when it’s not what you want to see.
Braxton Miller appeared to be down. The stadium DJ played Zombie Nation. Ohio State still scored. That was in 2012.
Two years later, scrappy Penn State took Ohio State to overtime. A Bosa brother blew up my favorite player on 4th down in overtime on his way to sacking the quarterback to end the game.
A 12-point lead with exactly eight minutes left in the game in 2018. I looked over at my friend Gavin a section away. He pointed at his watch. We both — with that gesture — agreed there was a lot of football left to play. A 4th-and-5 run play later, we were unfortunately right.
Last year, Penn State roared back from a deficit to force overtime on the night it was finally going to get over the hump. Then Drew Allar threw a ball into triple coverage. The White Out, the season, and not much long after, the James Franklin era was over.
Something always happens in the White Out.
Good or bad.
But that’s what makes it the biggest event for Penn Staters every single year. Even when Penn State is facing a two-game losing streak that could easily turn into three by 11 p.m. on Saturday night, something will happen.
It’s the best part of being a Penn State fan. No game brings the intensity the way the White Out does. Everyone will be squeezed onto the 15 inches of allotted bleachers they get but hardly anyone will sit for all four quarters. Feral. Boisterous. Intense.
Three hours and roughly 30 minutes of passion.
People will enter being able to talk. People will leave unable to make a sound. The inevitable sore throat Sunday morning is just part of the experience, the badge of honor that you got to witness something happen.
Penn State faces an uphill battle against USC – maybe the first real uphill battle it has faced in a White Out since 2015.
And either way, something is going to happen on Saturday night. There will be a moment we all collectively remember that will be printed on our brains in a way that we spend the rest of our fandom lives thinking about. That’s the beauty – and at times the frustration – of the White Out.
The Monday morning after Tamba’s hit, the Collegian featured that picture on its front page, and until its final days at the James Building, the Collegian kept that picture hanging on the wall in that stairwell.
I don’t know where that canvas print of the photo is now. As much as I would have loved to have snuck it out of that building one night, it doesn’t matter now. No one walks up and down that stairwell anymore. No one can. The James Building is long gone anyhow.
But that photo is saved in our archives forever as the first bit of proof that something always happens in the White Out.
vs 
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: NBC
Announcers: Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge, Kathryn Tappen
Radio: Penn State Sports Network
Announcers: Steve Jones, Jack Ham, Brian Tripp
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