Breakout Past: Fieldcamp (Literally) Writes the Book

I'm cheating a little bit this week, but I think that's okay when someone drops probably the definitive work on Penn State men's hockey history into your lap. I mean, why talk about some Daily Collegian article from 30 years ago when someone else already talked about all of them?

That someone else: Wes Fieldcamp, an undergraduate student completing an assignment for his internship at the Penn State All-Sports Museum via a 43-page paper. In addition to comprehensively digging through the Collegian archives, he spoke with (and would like to thank) Joe Battista, Bill Proudman, Steve Penstone, Larry Hendry and Paul Cohen.

Any summary I might offer won't do it justice, so without further ado, here's the link. It goes to a Google Docs page, and you can read it there, or there's a link to download the Word file if you prefer. It's pretty large (6 MB), so if you have a slower connection, go get some Chipotle and bring it back home to eat.

From the Pond to Pegula: The Penn State Hockey Story

Along with the paper, Fieldcamp also set up a display at the Penn State All-Sports Museum. I remember when hockey's presence in the museum consisted of a blip on its wall-sized timeline of varsity sports at PSU and an Icers replica jersey on a field hockey mannequin, so I'm pretty impressed.

That's Joe Battista's jersey in the middle. Siiiick.

This of course is just a prelude to hockey's permanent display, but be sure to go see it if you get a chance - the All-Sports Museum's summer hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Along with Fieldcamp, the exhibit was made possible by Ken Hickman and Jen Dahlke of the museum staff. I know I'll be popping in at some point, since just from the picture I see at least a couple things I've never seen in person before, the original Icers jerseys for example.

Thanks to Wes Fieldcamp for allowing me to share his project with all of you. He's really done a fantastic service to the Penn State hockey community.