Draft:Penn State Gameday Buttons
History of a college sports ritual
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Penn State Gameday Buttons are a collegiate sport ritual in the form of a long-running series of pin-back promotional buttons distributed in Central Pennsylvania in connection with Penn State Nittany Lions football games. The program began in 1972 as a marketing initiative of Central Counties Bank and has since continued under successor institutions including Mellon Bank (1985--2001) and Citizens Bank (2001--present).[1][2] The buttons feature game-specific slogans selected by bank employees or through public contests and are traditionally distributed at local bank branches in the week preceding each home, away, and postseason game.[1] It is the oldest and longest running slogan button program for a college football team, rivaled only by programs at Missouri Boone County National Bank (1986-present[3]) and Auburn University Bookstore.
Submission declined on 10 March 2026 by Nighfidelity (talk).
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Submission declined on 13 December 2025 by WeirdNAnnoyed (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject meets Wikipedia's criteria for inclusion. The draft requires multiple published secondary sources that:
Declined by WeirdNAnnoyed 4 months ago.
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Comment: I'm having a hard time seeing how this topic is notable, although the submitters did a good job for what they had. But all sourcing is either trivial mentions, unreliable sources (e.g. blogs), or exclusively local (and usually trivial as well). The only comprehensive source is Ref. 1, which is long out of print and possibly self-published (I can't find any information about this book). Also, photos are not acceptable as sources, at least not without bibliographic info on where they can be found (a website or library collection...I'm talking about Ref. 19). I will decline instead of reject because better sources might turn up, but this is such a niche topic I think that's unlikely. WeirdNAnnoyed (talk) 14:07, 13 December 2025 (UTC)
History
Central Counties Bank era (1972-1983)
Central Counties Bank was created from the merger of Lock Haven Trust Company and First National Bank of State College in 1971. It teamed with marketing agency Barash Advertising Group, run by Sy and Mimi Barash, who created the button program. Barash Advertising Group compiled slogan submissions from bank employees or public contests, after which Mimi Barash met with Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno and representatives of the Penn State Athletic Department to determine the final slogan for each game.[4]
Central Counties Bank produced the first Penn State Gameday Buttons in 1972, beginning with a button for the 1972 Cotton Bowl,[5] paired with billboards featuring the same "Rattle the Cattle" slogan,[6][5][7] and continuing for the 1972 season with a run of approximately 500 buttons for the home opener against Army. The initial design featured light blue backgrounds with white text and lacked any bank identification. Due to unexpectedly high demand, the bank added its logo and increased production during the season, reaching as many as 15,000 buttons for late-season home games and approximately 10,000 for the 1973 Sugar Bowl.[4][8][9]
Mellon Bank era (1984-2001)
In 1984 Mellon Bank acquired Central Counties Bank and redesigned the buttons, introducing thinner metal construction, a larger back clasp, and a white stripe across a blue background. When Barash Group was again in charge in 1985, the buttons returned to their typical format. Beginning in 1986, Mellon Bank removed its logo from slogans demeaning the Pitt Panthers, as Mellon Bank corporate headquarters, and many of its branches, were in Pittsburgh,[10] but the logo returned in 1992.[1]
Citizens Bank era (2001-present)
In the Fall of 2001, Citizens Bank acquired Mellon Bank[11] and took over the button program, leaving it largely untouched to continue.[12] During the transition, Citizens Bank remade three of the Mellon Bank buttons, creating variants for those three games.[1] In 2014, the program was nearly cancelled when Learfield Sports began managing Penn State Sports Properties and entered into a deal with PNC Bank to become a corporate sponsor of Penn State Athletics.[5]
Design and production
Button variants
As Barash Group ordered more buttons in 1972, the design of the buttons changed slightly. The earliest buttons lacked bank identification and featured green backs, a design which exists for all six regular season home games Penn State played in 1972. The second set of buttons added the Central Counties Bank logo at the bottom center of the button, which exists for the final four home games of the season. The third variation had the logo and added metal backs for the final two games of the season.[1][13] With only two exceptions, buttons for Penn State bowl games reversed the design and featured white buttons with blue text. In 1974, a variant of the bowl game was manufactured as a blue button with white text.[1][13]
Errors and recalls
Citizens Bank recalled buttons on three occasions. First, in 2010 when it released buttons with the slogan "We Prefer Punxatawny Phil," a typographical error of the Pennsylvania town Punxsutawny, and re-released buttons with the correct spelling of "We Prefer Punxsutawny Phil." This was the first typographical error since the 1979 men's basketball button "Deck Dusquesne" which was not replaced.[14] In 2011, Citizens Bank recalled the final two buttons of the season following the Jerry Sandusky scandal, citing concerns that the slogans could be interpreted as minimizing the seriousness of the charges. In 2020, Citizens Bank recalled buttons that were printed using a white background instead of the traditional blue background.
Citizens Bank did not recall a button in 2022 that incorrectly used a slogan about the Indiana State Sycamores, "You'll Get Sycamore Losses" when Penn State was instead playing the Indiana Hoosiers. Citizens Bank also did not recall two buttons in 2024 that featured greengrocers' apostrophes in the opponents' mascot names, namely "Buckeye's" and "Bronco's." Mellon Bank also had a button feature the greengrocer's apostrophe in 1999 with "Feather's In Joe's Cap."
Citizens Bank ended the program's 41 year streak of making buttons for every game in which Penn State played when it did not produce a button for the 2014 Pinstripe Bowl against Boston College, as the program was nearly cancelled because PNC Bank became a corporate sponsor of Penn State Athletics.[5] In response, collectors produced an unofficial "Feather the Eagles" button, and a local State College business, Harper's, created a button reading "Bean Boston."[15][13]
Citizens Bank did not create buttons for the 2016 and 2024 Big Ten Championship Games or the extra game added on to the end of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, citing the difficulty creating buttons for games with only six days notice.
Non-football and special-edition buttons
Winter sports buttons
From the 1978-1979 to 1982-1983 seasons, Central Counties Bank made buttons for Penn State men's basketball home games. From the 1979-1980 to 1980-1981 seasons, they also made buttons for Penn State women's basketball home games. In 1981 and 1982, it made two buttons per year for women's basketball. In 1983, it made just one button for each men's and women's basketball. In 1980, the Bank made buttons for Penn State hockey and wrestling which likely continued yearly until 1983, but collectors have never identified wrestling buttons for 1981 and 1982.[13] The Bank also made a single fencing button.
Mellon Bank and Citizens Bank both largely continued the tradition of making a single button for each Penn State Winter Sports team, however it is unclear if they made a women's basketball button in 1984. Mellon Bank added women's volleyball to the list of sports in 1997.[13] However after the Sandusky scandal, Citizens Bank ended the Winter Sports program with 2011 being the final year.
Other Buttons
In 1973, a booster club named "Back The Lions" was created to increase fan support for Nittany Lions sports teams and the organization sought the support of Mimi Barash.[16] That summer, Central Counties Bank created buttons that were handed out to new members of the organization[17] and the buttons were again handed out in the winter after Penn State went undefeated in 1973. [1] Later, a variant of the Back The Lions button appeared without the Bank logo and Back The Lions, the organization, has made buttons unaffiliated with any banks.[13] In 1978, Central Counties Bank made two special buttons, one large button commemorating the expansion of Beaver Stadium and a second an oblong button commemorating the Nittany Lions' first A.P. poll number one ranking.[1] In 1980, the Bank made a button celebrating Penn State's 125th anniversary.[1] In 1983, after the 1982 season, it created a button commemorating Penn State's first national championship.[1] In 1983, the Bank created Penn State and University of Pittsburgh buttons to advertise for the annual blood drive competition between the two schools.[13] Central Counties Bank also made buttons for Lehigh University and Bucknell University football, basketball, and wrestling games and seasons.[9]
Mellon Bank made two special buttons, both in 1993, commemorating Penn State's first game in the Big Ten Conference on September 4th against Minnesota and Penn State's 1,000th football game on October 16th against Michigan.[1] Mellon Bank made buttons for the Penn State Dance Marathon in 1995 and 1996, to commemorate the opening of the Palmer Museum of Art, and possibly for various Homecoming weekends.[13]
Citizens Bank made buttons for the Penn State Dance Marathon from at least 2002 to 2004. In 2022, Citizens Bank commemorated the 50th anniversary of the button program by releasing black buttons with pink text, a nod to Penn State's original colors. In 2024, Citizens Bank began a new tradition of recognizing the Penn State White Out game with a white button with blue outlined white text.[13]
Collecting and impact
Media coverage spanning more than half a century has described the weekly release of buttons as an integral ritual of Penn State football weekends.[4][18][19][20][21] Institutional recognition of the buttons includes official displays at Penn State–affiliated locations such as Penn State’s Mont Alto campus and at the Nittany Lion Inn.[22]
Penn State Gameday Buttons have developed a sustained secondary interest among collectors and alumni due to their game-specific slogans, limited production runs, and design variations.[23] Variants resulting from production changes, errors, or recalls have become of particular interest to collectors.[1] One collector, "The Button Man," wears a coat made from the buttons on a float at Penn State's Homecoming Parade to raise awareness for the program[2] and its charitable support for the State College Food Bank.[24][5]
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