About the Penn State Football Lettermen's Club
Built by
lettermen,
for lettermen
“The purpose of the Football Letterman’s Club is to perpetuate the Penn State Football tradition and promote brotherhood and unity between the university and former players, coaches and managers for their mutual benefit.”
The Lettermen's Club exists because the transition out of football is the hardest game a player will ever play. Our members — former players, alumni, and friends of the program — shorten that transition with mentorship, introductions, internships, and honest career advice.
Membership is not a donor list. It is a working roster of people who answer the phone when a Penn State athlete calls, and who treat that call as a responsibility rather than a favor.
It started with a Winnebago
From a 1980 stadium parking lot to a 6,000 square-foot lounge inside Beaver Stadium — one goal never changed: give lettermen a room of their own.
A Winnebago in the parking lot
Buddy Tesner '75, then in medical school, drove up to State College in his uncle's Winnebago with his wife, Candy, for one of the few games he'd been able to see since graduation. He arranged to tailgate with former teammate Tom Donchez. All afternoon they ran into old teammates in the stands and gave them directions to the van.
The midnight drive
Buddy Tesner, Tom Donchez, Buddy Ellis, Tommy Hull, Jim Rosecrans, Greg Murphy and others congregated in the lot, then decided to go find their coaches. They drove straight to JT White's house — he and his wife climbed in — and from there to the homes of Sever Toretti, Frank Patrick, and Jim O'Hora, laughing and telling stories the whole way.
Coach White's suggestion
Coach White, who had played on national championship teams at both Ohio State and Michigan, told the group about letterman organizations. At those schools, a Football Letterman's Club organized reunions and social gatherings — which made it easy to find old teammates whenever he came back. The guys realized Penn State needed the same thing.
Joe and Sue Paterno's house
The delegation drove to Coach Paterno's home, where Joe and Sue were entertaining a group that included New Year's Day bowl representatives. The group burst in and made their case in friendly fashion. It was Sue Paterno who picked the idea up most keenly — she made it clear a letterman's club was not only appropriate but necessary, and helped Buddy and his teammates take the first steps. Buddy wrote the bylaws himself.
The first gatherings
The first event drew roughly 800 people to the HUB, complete with skits. From there came a mailing list, a roster, and yearly and lifetime dues. The second gathering, a year later in the old ice rink, honored ex-coach Rip Engel — roasted by his old rival Ben Schwartzwalder of Syracuse. Rip passed away within the year, making it a final chance for his players to hear him speak. Those two nights were the genesis of everything that followed.
Early on the club held yearly events under large tents around the spring game, which became its annual gathering. But the focus was always a permanent home attached to the stadium where former players could meet.
Former player and architect Chris Weber '64 drew up an elaborate rendering of a clubhouse that would sit atop the stadium, where lettermen could watch the game and socialize. It never came to be — but the idea kept burning.
The next plan was to put the Letterman's Club inside the new All-Sports Museum, slated to be built between the stadium and the Bryce Jordan Center. It came very close. It never happened.
The Letterman's Club Lounge finally opened on the second level of the Southeast corner of the newly renovated stadium, with a grand view of Mount Nittany. The dream-come-true clubhouse: when you come to a game, you know where to go.
The Lounge Today
The 6,000 sq. ft. facility is a gathering place for former players and their families before, during, and after games — halftime buffet, complimentary snacks, and generations of lettermen finding each other again.
Michaelene Franzetta served as the club's first secretary, and Frank Rocco was instrumental in the early years, with steady support from Penn State's administrators and athletic directors.
The Football Letterman's Club and the Club Lounge are cherries on top of the sundae.
Plain uniforms.
Uncommon people.
No names on the jerseys. No stripes to chase. Penn State has always asked its players to be measured by what they do rather than what they wear.
That standard doesn't retire when the pads come off. The Lettermen's Club is how the program keeps its word to the men who wore the blue and white — long after the last snap.
What it looks
like day to day
Rooms they belong in
Boardrooms, internships, first contracts — our members open the door and stay in the room.
Presence they build
How you carry yourself off the field becomes the résumé nobody can print.
Brotherhood that follows
The locker room ends. The roster of people who answer your call does not.
Football is four years.
The rest is the real season.
The Lettermen's Club
Investing in the
Next Generation
In support of its mission, the Penn State Football Letterman’s Club has endowed three scholarships supporting the next generation of Penn State Football Letterman.
Supporting Causes That
Matter to Our Brotherhood
The Football Lettermen Foundations represent the ongoing commitment of our alumni to give back, lift up, and leave Penn State better than they found it.
Click HereTradition is only worth something
if it's still working
Our members gather all year — in State College and in cities across the country. Come see the club at work.
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