The history of Penn State intercollegiate athletics dates back more than 135 years, to the first football game in 1887. Baseball has been played continuously since 1893.
These days there are 31 varsity sports and the program’s rich history includes 83 NCAA team national championships, a total that puts it behind only Stanford, UCLA, USC and Texas. That list does not include AAU, AIAW or IC4A championships.
Penn State has hundreds of All-Americans to its credit across all those sports, dozens of conference championships and a history of success that seems to grow daily.
Still, Penn State is missing something, and we’re here — with your help — to fix that problem.
There’s an All-Sports Museum at the university (well, it exists but it’s temporarily closed because of the Beaver Stadium construction effort), but not a Hall of Fame. So, we’re determined to select who should be in the inaugural class of Hall of Famers if such a venue existed.
The inaugural class cannot be too large, otherwise the related induction ceremonies will last forever. So, it’s going to be exclusive, as it should be, with just 15 members. Yes, even with 31 varsity sports.
We’ll determine the inaugural class based on your votes from your nominees. This process — for the sake of being thorough and fair — will be done in two rounds. First, starting today, we will take your nominations. You must nominate at least three people, but you can nominate up to 10 per nomination form. (After you hit “submit”, refresh the page and add in at least three more if you feel inclined.)
After that, we will take the 30 people with the most nominations and put them on the ballot. Then it will be up to you to vote to see who makes the inaugural class.
Be sure to sign up for emails (you can do that below) to be informed as the voting progresses. Additionally, we ask that you share this with your Penn State friends, family and tailgate crews.
This is your Hall of Fame.
Voting Timeline
Nominations open Feb. 26 and will close on March 15. Voting will begin on March 18 and run until March 31 with the inaugural class to be announced in early April.
Eligibility Information
- The inaugural class will be limited to 15 people, with no more than six from football.
- Any student-athlete nominee must be out of school one generation (four years removed from last game at Penn State.)
- Nominees should be primarily considered for their contributions while at Penn State, not at the professional level.
- Coaches are eligible too, although not those currently active. (Sorry, Cael.)
