BY CURT HARLER
It wasn’t a trip to balmy Florida or sunny Arizona. But when the Nittany Lions went to the frigid Pinstripe Bowl on December 27, 2025, the Blue Band heated up a frozen Yankee Stadium. The football team took down Clemson by a 22-10 score. And the marching Blue Band took home amazing memories despite not being able to march on the field either pre-game or at halftime.
Perhaps the Blue Band will remember their trip to New York City as a different kind of White Out game. Given the blizzard that struck Christmas week, it was amazing that the Blue Band got to NYC at all. Dr. Gregory Drane, director of athletic bands, spent much of his Christmas day reorganizing the trip. “It was interesting, to say the least,” Dr. Drane recalls.
Those ABBA members (like the author) old enough to recall the 1969 Orange Bowl trip will appreciate the upheaval that a State College snowstorm brings both for pre-trip practice plans and getting to the game. This year’s original plan called for a practice in State College before leaving for New York. That session was scrubbed.
The Blue Band got to New York safely and ate dinner; then the snow hit with a vengeance. Everyone was confined to the hotel. The musicians were supposed to rehearse in Yankee Stadium on the day of the game but the piles of snow put the kibosh on that. Eventually, the Band played from the stands. Fortunately, TV cameras gave the Blue Band lots of love during the game.
“The students understood the situation,” Dr. Drane says. “They made the best of it.” And their legacy certainly will be the “other” White Out game of the 2025 season.
