i can’t decide if it was baron davis, stephen “stole on you” jackson or my hate for dirk nowitzki and steve nash that had me loving that series to death, but that stands out as one of the best home showings especially for an nba crowd.

But enough rambling already. I enjoy the white outs, the black outs, the _______ outs, whatever it is, as long as the shirts aren’t given out at the gate, or resting on your seat when you get in the stadium. I think that basketball arenas look incredible in one color. And I know that the Nittany Lions did not start this tradition.

My bad on bringing up other sports, I completely breezed over the basketball nature of the original post and chose to have tunnel vision towards the color discussion. Partly due to the picture of Happy Valley that you included in the original post (third pic), but my error, nonetheless.

First of all, as the title of the post indicates, I’m addressing basketball fans. Not hockey fans. Not Penn St. fans. I never said the Miami Heat were the founders of the white-out. Rather, I said, “their fans changed the dynamic of basketball as we know it.” Not hockey. Not Penn St. Not sports. Just basketball. However, I think our readers will appreciate knowing where and why the first ever white-out started – that’s good stuff.

Secondly, as Ryan points out, Penn St. does have the classiest uniforms in football. All white. No logos. Classic. So it’s only natural that the fans mimic such a tradition. I applaud them for that. But again, it must be noted that my point applies, as stated above, to “get hyped for a basketball game.” This implies a one-time occurrence. Penn St.’s white-clad fans are as standard as Nebraska’s red, Tennessee’s orange or Kentucky’s blue. It happens every game. It’s the color most synonymous with the school. It’s not a marketing ploy. Large blocks of colors in student sections were not a direct spinoff of a Penn State football game in 2005 as you claim. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that fans of teams like Ohio State and Michigan were wearing their team’s colors to their annual battle a little before 2005, unless Michigan fans are okay being spotted in red that day.

And finally, the Miami Heat did not think of Happy Valley when envisioning their next marketing stunt, let alone a 1980’s hockey game. Nowhere in the Heat’s color scheme does white exist. White hot heat is nothing more than a play on words and a promotion for the guy who thought of it. It lasted no longer than the playoffs in 2006, minus a meager attempt the next year. But what did last is a recurring trend in college basketball that must be stopped. Wear your school colors. Don’t hand out white shirts to make up for school spirit.

Penn St. – as Ryan James suggests, you can wear white. But we all know none of you attends basketball games.

The most important part of your argument lies in the marketing/promotional background of some of these feeble attempts of support. That part is crap, and those organizations, whether a school or a professional team, should be utterly ashamed at the lengths they are going to in order to give an appearance of enthusiasm for mediocrity they are putting on the court/field.