STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When the Beaver Stadium parking lots are filled on Penn State football Saturdays, it’s a sight to behold. Look in any direction, and the landscape is blanketed with cars and tailgates around the 106,572-seat stadium, the second-largest in college football and one of the biggest in the world.
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Footballs whiz by and the smells of tailgate spreads permeate the air. It’s the thing that makes State College buzz with excitement during the fall, yet the roads in and out of Happy Valley have been known to test everyone’s patience long before kickoff and well after the game ends. Getting in and out of the parking lots has become a game unto itself.
Fans have tried backroads, different routes and lining up hours before the parking lots open. They theorize about how and when to exit while tens of thousands of other people have the same idea. Penn State has hired parking consultants, changed routes and launched a fan forum dedicated to the very topic, but the reality is moving that many people through an area where the population balloons on game day has long been a challenge.
Seemingly anyone who has been to a football game at Beaver Stadium has either had a moment when they’ve seething while sitting in traffic on North Atherton Street or looked up at the miles of taillights in front of them and contemplated just how arduous the journey might be. After night games, some have surrendered to the sea of brake lights by shutting off their cars and falling asleep in the parking lots.
Run Your Route, Nittany Nation!
One-way traffic procedures are now in effect.
Read here for more info ➡️ https://t.co/qUPdhQI08v#RunYourRoute pic.twitter.com/lltB3mWZeU
— Penn State Athletics (@GoPSUsports) August 31, 2019
Reporters have taken one look at the traffic jams outside their front door and raced to the stadium, traversing backroads on bicycles. They’ve draped dress shirts around their necks like capes and changed in Porta-Potties, all in the name of avoiding the standstill that can easily span two-plus hours to cover less than three miles.
While the bumper-to-bumper traffic has left everyone enraged at one time or another, it also makes for quite the story. Nobody remembers who led the team in tackles when Pitt came to town in 2017, but how can one forget when those marooned for three-plus hours in the car next to them started devouring chicken wings behind the wheel? At this point, it’s just part of the experience. It’s also why many opt for a second round of tailgating instead of trying to maneuver their way to the exits.
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With a new football season upon us, I wanted to hear about your stressful, angry and humorous moments trying to get in and out of the Beaver Stadium parking lots. We’ve all been there, and you all did not disappoint.
Editor’s note: Stories have been lightly edited and retold with permission.
Name: Christopher Robinson
Game: 2018 Ohio State
In a prime-time White Out game against No. 3 Ohio State, Penn State squandered a 12-point fourth-quarter lead and stalled late on a much-debated fourth-down run, sending a capacity crowd home unhappy.
Story: We were parked in a field behind the Arboretum. It was a pretty decent-sized field and there was an adjoining lot next to it. We went straight to the exits as soon as that fourth-down play happened — and apparently so did a lot of other people. The game ended around 11:30 p.m. The lot was packed. There was one cop letting one car out from our lot and one car out from the other lot. It looked like a Y with those two lots forming a single line. Just to get into line we had to wait. We said screw it. We shut the car off and actually went to sleep for a while.
By the time we woke up, it started moving a little bit better. It was about 5:30 a.m. when we pulled into Hollidaysburg (50 miles from State College). From the time we pulled into that lot about two and a half hours before the game until we got back, it was roughly the same time as driving from where I live in Indiana County (Pa.) to Iowa.
Robinson would know. He drove 12 hours to Iowa City to watch Penn State last season.
Name: Bill Hodgetts
Game: 2017 Pitt
The 2017 Pitt game wasn’t in prime time, but anticipation was high and State College was packed as the rival Panthers visited Penn State for the first time since 1999.
Story: My brother, my friend and I drove up from Pittsburgh for the day because it was a 3:30 p.m. start. We left at 7 a.m. and got to the Hoss’s on North Atherton around 9:30 a.m. Then, traffic was essentially stopped.
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My friend who was driving got out to use the restroom at Hoss’s. We put the car in park and then we didn’t move by the time he came back. It was probably the worst traffic I’ve ever been stuck in. I took the driver’s seat right there and drove the rest of the way to the Arboretum parking lot.
I spent more time in the driver’s seat going those next two miles than he did driving up from Pittsburgh (roughly 145 miles away). We parked in Lot 11 behind the Arboretum at 1 p.m. after leaving Pittsburgh at 7 a.m.
Very heavy traffic approaching beaver stadium. Big crowd expected for #PITTvsPSU pic.twitter.com/erCAbBvh0M
— Centre County Report (@CentreCountyRep) September 9, 2017
Name: Dale Spadafora
Game: 1994 Ohio State
The Nittany Lions were undefeated and in the national championship hunt when Ohio State arrived in late October. Penn State proceeded to dominate the Buckeyes, 63-14.
Story: Penn State was looking unstoppable and we were so stoked. We had a huge tailgate with a bunch of old friends. We rented an RV, which we had never done before. We barely knew how to drive it. On my way to State College from Pittsburgh, I got two speeding tickets. One around Tyrone and one on Atherton. I was like, this thing rides really smooth, I don’t feel like I’m even going the speed limit. So, we had a rudimentary idea of how this thing was to be operated.
When we rented the RV, the guy said if you’re going to Penn State for a tailgate, don’t use that restroom in the RV. If that gets too over-flooded, it’s going to flood the whole RV. So, my instructions were, ‘Guys, don’t use this thing.’ Of course, everybody’s drinking and nobody listened.
We went into the game, awesome game. Ki-Jana Carter ran for over 100, Bobby Engram went over 100. We just trounced Ohio State. It was awesome. We come back and you know how the lots are. It just takes hours and hours to get out of there. Traffic hadn’t moved, so we had been just kind of camping out there, guys started drinking again. We were gonna go downtown to the bars and park the RV downtown at my old fraternity house.
So, a bunch of people piled into the RV instead of walking downtown. It was packed. I’m ready to peel out and finally the traffic starts to move a little bit, so I’m like, this is great, let me get in there. As I do, someone screamed, ‘Stop! There’s s— flying all over the place back here!’ I was like, ‘Oh my god? Who did it?’ Like, blaming everyone. It was like, everybody only used it once, right? So, I’m like we gotta pull the chute and get this waste out of here. It’s dark out and a friend of mine with a flashlight went back and did it.
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We were parked next to a bunch of Ohio State guys and they were chirping at us, we were chirping at them all day. My friend pulls the chute and everything just starts flying out! Like, I don’t think he had it pulled all the way because it was shooting straight out. It was like a pressurized hose! It’s spraying against the RV and I’m like let’s get out of here! Finally the traffic started opening up and as we peel around the corner there were two or three Ohio State guys who were sitting in lawn chairs next to us and they just got destroyed. The refuse was still blowing out of the tank. Their gray pants were now a dark shade of brown. Everyone was crying we were laughing so hard. They started running after us and we’re peeling out and the RV is just bouncing up and down like we hit turbulence or something.
To this day we still laugh about it. The Ohio State people probably went back telling a different story.
Name: Charles Reynolds
Game: 2013 Michigan
In a prime-time game that seemed to never end, Penn State outlasted the Wolverines 43-40 after four overtimes.
Story: We were just in the wrong spot. There was like one of those gullies in front of us, so there was no way we could go forward. We had to wait for all the traffic to clear, and at that point we’re behind all the people — and the fact it was a four-overtime game, no one left early. It took at least two hours to get out.
Later that year, we came up for the Nebraska game and that was pretty close to sold out. I told my son, who was 23 at the time, as they were lining up for that field goal at the end of the game we were gonna get down to the entrance and watch it. He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because your mother and I were trapped here after the Michigan game for a couple of hours! We’re just gonna make a run for it.’ And we did.
Name: Don Locker
Game: 2014 Ohio State
Prime-time overtime games are a theme here. In 2014, Penn State surprisingly pushed the No. 13 Buckeyes to double overtime in a 31-24 loss at night.
Story: It’s crazy because there’s one exit (behind the Arboretum) and it feeds into another lot. We got in the car after the game, and you pull out of your slot and you get your angle so that you’re ready to go. And then nothing moved for two and a half hours! It was crazy.
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We turned off the car. Pulled out the chairs. Got out the beer. My one buddy and I we always look at the schedule for a Friday hockey game and a Saturday football game and then we go camping. So, we finally got out of the lot and we drove up to Bald Eagle State Park. That was another half hour. So, at 3:30 in the morning we’re setting up our tent. That was interesting.
Name: Ted Hornbein
Game: Numerous games in the early 1980s
Story: My dad had a production house in State College for many years. I don’t know how but he got hired by the NCAA to film the Penn State football games. This was when games were basically only on ABC and they had their college football weekly review show Saturday mornings. Starting when I was in the fourth grade, my dad hired me to key grip. So my job was when the film was all shot, he’d give me the magazine and I had this little changing bag. You couldn’t expose the film to light, obviously, so I’d put the magazine in the change bag in a new canister of unexposed film. Then, I’d swap out the exposed film into the can and take the unexposed film out and put it on the other side of the magazine and thread the magazine. You had to do all this while you couldn’t see! But here’s where the traffic comes in.
Most of the games were noon kickoffs then, so getting the exposed film to Pittsburgh for TV (via a courier) usually wasn’t that big of a deal. But if Penn State was ranked and it was an important game and it was a night game, I remember my dad would use some motorcycle guy. It was just some dude on a motorcycle. He did this because there’s no way you’re getting out of Beaver Stadium to get the film to where it needs to go because it had to be developed and then sent to ABC or wherever — especially if it was going to be on the 11 o’clock news.
So, the game would finish, we’d get out of the press box as soon as we possibly could, rush down, and there was a predetermined spot where this motorcycle guy showed up. I never saw his face. He had his helmet on, his glasses and some scarf thing right across the face. We’d give him the exposed film. He put it in his backpack and just like zoom! He zipped off through the cow patties because he had to beat the traffic to Pittsburgh. I do remember him peeling out and spraying mud as he raced out of town. The key was to beat all the traffic out of town so you were first in line to get to Pittsburgh. And then we’d spend hours in traffic trying to go back home to Lemont (just a few miles away).
Name: Ronnie Ryder
Game: 2021 Auburn
Penn State announced attendance of 109,958 for the first White Out after a fan-less 2020 season. Again, it went down to the wire late at night, with Penn State stopping Auburn on the final play for a 28-20 win.
Story: We were in Lot 12, which is pretty much the IM Fields. We snagged this great parking spot right near the exit. We were like, there’s no need to rush because as long as we get to our car, we will be one of the first 100 cars out. We totally were one of the first 100 cars in line. Theoretically, it would’ve taken about 10 minutes, but there was no attendant to let us out. We got maybe one car out of our lot for every 50 that passed. We ended up parking the car and reheating food. It was a disaster. We waited two and a half or three hours.
The last four or five games that we’ve gone to have resulted in basically us losing an entire night’s sleep. We have friends that actually repack their car in such a way that they can get out the grill again and just start making a late-night snack postgame. You gotta either plan to start to re-tailgate because you know you’re gonna sit there for three hours or you can try to fight the traffic and everyone gets frustrated. That’s just always a bad way to end a fun day.
But, I’ll take traffic problems if we have a good season — like, that’s just my consolation.
Traffic…. does not look good pic.twitter.com/RoiAS7poFx
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) September 8, 2019
What’s your best story from traffic heading to or from Beaver Stadium or another college football stadium? Join the conversation in the comments.
(Top photo: Gregory Fisher / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
