SCARBROUGH'S TAKE

Penn State Football and a Side Trip to Shanksville

Lyn Scarbrough

September 21, 2021 at 11:40 am.

A year after the Civil War, Daniel Wagner built a general store in Buckstown. The small community in southwestern Pennsylvania needed a store and needed a post office. Wagner’s building served as both and he was the postmaster until calling it quits in 1907.

Today, Wagner’s general store is the Lincoln Café, known in the area as the premiere restaurant in Shanksville, Pa. It’s actually not in Shanksville. It’s about three miles away.

“Snida’s (the general mercantile on Shanksville’s main street) has three tables inside, but when people around here want a real restaurant, they go to the Lincoln Café,” the vicar at the Lutheran Church told me on Friday afternoon.

That morning I had gone to the Penn State athletic department to pick up press credentials and a parking pass for Beaver Stadium where I would cover the Penn State-Auburn football game for Lindy’s the next night.

That afternoon I went with our son to Shanksville, a borough in Somerset County in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 70 miles as the crow flies from State College.

Penn State football is a passion there, probably not to the degree that Southeastern Conference football is in small communities in the South, but it’s passionate nonetheless. People there are proud of the Nittany Lions and are happy to talk about it.

But folks in Shanksville and the several communities around that area are more passionate about pride and patriotism, history and heroics, defeating terrorists and displaying the flag.

It was a week removed from the 20th year remembrance of the September morning when life in the United States was forever changed. According to the 2000 census, 247 people lived in Shanksville that day. Nobody felt the change more than the residents of Shanksville.

Four Muslim terrorists, confronted mid-air by courageous Americans, crashed a commercial airliner, United Flight 93 traveling upside-down at 568 miles per hour, into a field in Stonycreek Township, a little less than two miles from Snida’s and the Lutheran Church.

After a quick ride down Shanksville’s main street, the Lincoln Café was our first stop. Along the way, U.S. flags were mounted on every public building and on what seemed like every home, business, flag pole and fence post.

Inside the building, Penn State fans were having lunch, some wearing blue and white, some having the day’s special – the pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich with slaw. It was fantastic.

Glass table-tops covered up newspaper pages that told Shanksville’s story.

“AMERICA UNDER SEIGE,” the headline almost screamed off the front page of the Sept. 12, 2001 edition of the Daily American, known as ‘Somerset County’s Newspaper.’ “Terror Touches Somerset County.”

Our server, Michelle, said that the flags had been flown during the commemoration week “every year since it happened, every year.” But she added that the flags were actually flown “most days of the year.”

“People are very patriotic around here,” she said.

The Flight 93 National Memorial is less than two miles up Highway 30, a five-minute drive from the restaurant. Completed in 2011, the center is built around the crash site, following the plane’s flight path, but set apart from the point of impact. Displays inside give the chronological sequence of 9/11 events, include recordings of calls from Flight 93 during the hijacking, and tell the story of the passengers who attacked the terrorists, keeping them from their target and bringing the plane to the ground.

Flight 93 and Penn State football – things that stir the passions of people in Somerset County. Few can understand that better than Don Miller.

Miller, a retired college educator, was born in Berlin, Pa., another small town about five miles from Shanksville. Now 86 years old, he graduated in 1958 from Penn State where he met his wife. They were married that same year.

“It was very peaceful growing up around here, very calm,” Miller remembered. “People here were always patriotic, but didn’t seem to keep up so much with what was happening in the world. That all changed after the crash.”

Miller is a founding member of the Flight 93 memorial, a contributor with one of the chimes at the tower on the grounds named in his honor.

“When I first heard about the crash, I thought, ‘My God, what have they done to my hometown,’” he said. “People here now are concerned that terrorism still exists, concerned about the fight against terrorism.”

Miller is proud of his home county, but also especially proud of his alma mater and its football team. On Saturday in State College, it was easy to see why.

Few places that I’ve visited have matched Penn State and its people. Off the field, Nittany Lions fans were hospitable, welcoming their Southeastern Conference visitors to their picturesque campus. But, on the field, not so much.

Penn State, a 7-point favorite defeated Auburn, 28-20, in a game that could have gone either way.

There was a lot to like about each team.

Veteran Nittany Lions quarterback Sean Clifford completed 87.5 percent of his passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns. All-American wide receiver Jahan Dotson had 10 receptions, including a touchdown catch. The Penn State defense stopped the Tigers on fourth-and-2 near the Nittany Lions goal in the fourth quarter, then batted away a pass at the goal line on the game’s last play to preserve the win.

Auburn running back Tank Bigsby, a freshman All-American a year ago, had his third consecutive 100-plus yard game and scored two touchdowns, while Bigsby and freshman Jarquez Hunter collectively averaged over five yards per carry. The Tiger defense held Penn State to 85 rushing yards and stuffed both of the Nittany Lions attempts to convert fourth downs.

It was pretty much an even game. Penn State led in total offense by 20 yards (387-367). Auburn led in first downs (24-22) and time of possession (31:42 – 28:18).

Probably the game’s biggest play was Penn State’s recovery of a fumble on Auburn’s first play of the second half, leading to a quick Nittany Lions touchdown and a 21-10 lead. Tiger fans weren’t pleased with the play call. They felt the same about the play call on Auburn’s fourth down pass from inside the Penn State 2-yard line late in the game. And, Auburn’s pass rush was non-existent.

With the win, Penn State is in position to be the primary challenger to Ohio State for the Big Ten division title. Games against No. 19 Michigan and at Iowa and Ohio State (No. 5 and No. 10 this week’s Associated Press poll) are still ahead, but the Nittany Lions are getting back to where they used to be and could win them all.

Auburn, despite the loss, is still ranked in this week’s Top 25, but can do Penn State even better regarding upcoming games. The Tigers remaining schedule is probably the most difficult in the country. Auburn still plays at undefeated Texas A&M and Arkansas (No. 5, No. 16 nationally) and host undefeated Alabama, Georgia and Ole Miss (No. 1, No. 2, No. 13 nationally). And, that doesn’t mention the game in Baton Rouge. Still, Auburn has the potential to beat anybody on its schedule.

For sure, no atmosphere will be tougher than Penn State’s “White Out” on Saturday night, one of the most impressive home field spectacles that I’ve seen in over 50 years covering college football.

Miller, who attended his first Penn State game in 1954 and started buying season tickets 52 years ago, realizes how special this season could be for the Nittany Lions and is excited about the possibilities.

“I really think that college football needs Penn State and teams like them to be good,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve played so many different teams from different conferences. I believe that teams realize that it’s significant if they can beat Penn State, especially if the game is up here. Based on how the team has done already this season and the quality of the recruiting classes, I think the team is back and could stay there for a while.”

Hopefully, Miller is right. Hope that Penn State is back as a contender again and that a lot more people have the opportunity to visit Happy Valley.

If you do, hope you’ll make time to go to Shanksville. Especially these days, Americans need to see and hear what happened there and never forget it.

And hope you can make time to stop by the Lincoln Café and have the pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich with slaw.

It was fantastic, as was the entire experience – Penn State football and the side trip to Shanksville.

 

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