Week 5 Awards

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this past Saturday's game against Northwestern was probably the worst game I've experienced since I started following Penn State football... and I was in attendance for the infamous 4-6 game against Iowa in 2004.  Therefore, I'm making an executive decision and declaring that no one deserves any awards this week.  Instead, I want to hand out a new award, so let's get to it.

The only award I will be giving out this week is a new one, the Legend Award, presented to a deserving Penn State legend, and the first one ever goes to long time – but retiring – Blue Band director, Dr. Orrin Richard Bundy.  Having been in the Blue Band for all 4 of my collegiate years, I join the chorus of people who have reminisced with bittersweet dissonance about the impact that Dr. Bundy has had on Penn State, the Blue Band, and all of the individuals who have ever been under his tutelage.  Although all good things must come to an end, and we can all agree that Dr. Bundy has more than earned a very happy retirement, that does not take away from how much he will be missed.  No matter what the circumstances were, Dr. Bundy always kept things in perspective and represented our great University with pride and dignity not seen very often in the modern age.  He was as quick to celebrate a Penn State win as he was to console his students after a tough loss, and he always reminded us what an honor and a privilege it was to represent our school and be allowed to play even a small role in the tremendous history of Penn State football.  He constantly pushed students to be better, and never let them settle for anything but their best performance with his classic catchphrase “carpe the heck out of the diem!”  I can say with confidence that my skills as a musician grew exponentially while a member of the band.  Still, my greatest memory of Dr. Bundy wasn't of a practice, but instead when I sat down privately with him to do an interview for a Blue Band history assignment I had been working on.  Just like the late Joe Paterno was known to do, Dr. Bundy easily rattled off story after story about his time as a trombone player in the Blue Band back when he was a student in the late 60s, through his time as an assistant under Dr. Ned Deihl, all the way up to the opening of the Blue Band Building during my freshmen year in 2004.  I learned how the restrooms located just outside the building (which are clutch for tailgaters on gamedays) were actually a last minute compromise to help bring the building up to code without sacrificing rehearsal space.  I learned about the future plans to get an artificial turf field behind the building for the band to practice on (currently the Blue Band utilizes the IM fields, which are unavailable on Tuesday nights, and can be boarderline hazardous following a full weekend of tailgating on them).  He even gave me a copy of a research paper titled “A Concise History of the Penn State Blue Band to 1982” which he wrote while still a grad student in the Spring of 1982.  It's one of my treasured possessions.  The whole interview was an experience I’ll never forget, and it’s just one of many.  So to Dr. Bundy, on behalf of Penn Staters everywhere, please allow me to say, THANK YOU!!!  Those two simple words are not nearly enough to express the collective gratitude of the thousands of students whose lives you touched over the years, but they’ll have to do.  You held your students to the highest standards, but more impressively, you were the quintessential model of class who never strayed from those same standards yourself.  Penn State will endure as it always has without you, but your mark is deep and the impact you made on generations of Nittany Lions will never be forgotten.  May your retirement years be numerous and filled with joy!  We love you, and we will miss you.  We are…