Longtime Lions fan from Reedsville to be recognized today
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UNIVERSITY PARK -- John "Jack" Heckert has seen a lot happen at Penn State's iconic Beaver Stadium since he bought his first season tickets in 1955.
The 94-year-old Reedsville man has seen plenty over the years, but having his face appear on the big screen today as the "Season Ticket Holder of the Game" will be a first. The Nittany Lions face Buffalo at noon. Family members said Penn State will recognize Heckert midway through the first quarter.
After serving with the United States Army’s First Cavalry Division, Heckert walked into Rec Hall -- where the Penn State ticket office was located at the time -- with $42. He walked out with three football season tickets for the 1955 campaign. He and his aunts, the late Mary McMangile and Louise Miller, were avid football fans.
“They were always at a football game, including high school games,” Heckert recalled. “I followed Penn State since I was younger. They played schools like Bucknell and Lafayette, and I’d try to get it on the radio. There wasn’t very good reception. I just liked to follow Penn State sports.”
More than 70 years later, Heckert still has the same three football season tickets, with his family renewing them every year without fail since his original 1955 request. They will be moving seat locations next year because of the stadium revitalization project.
In 1955, when he became a season-ticket holder, the Nittany Lions called New Beaver Field home. New Beaver Field was built northeast of Rec Hall on the present sites of the Nittany Lion Inn and the Nittany parking deck and held 30,000 people at its peak.
“Just being in the atmosphere of the game,” he said when asked what he enjoyed most. “I made a lot of friends with the people who sat all around me. The same people would be in those seats year after year after year, so you got to know them very well.”
The tickets haven’t come cheap. The cost of those season tickets has certainly increased from the initial $14 apiece he paid.
Heckert stopped going to games in 2005. The tickets are now in his daughter Nicole’s name, and she has two of her own season tickets. His son Brian has also been a season-ticket holder for 20 years.
The elder Heckert doesn’t miss a game, watching from the friendly confines of his living room to Happy Valley today.
“All I can say is, ‘Go Penn State!'” Heckert said.