Why does Penn State sing Sweet Caroline at football games?

Penn State fans. (Syndication: York Daily Record)
Penn State fans. (Syndication: York Daily Record) /
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Penn State’s Beaver Stadium knows how to create a spectacle with a White Out and the singing of “Sweet Caroline.” Why is that song a fixture?

On a college football bucket list, catching a game at Beaver Stadium during a White Out has got to be pretty high.

Kirk Herbstreit shared a taste of the atmosphere during a rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”

That video is awesome, but it prompts the question: Why “Sweet Caroline”?

Why does Penn State sing Sweet Caroline at football games?

There doesn’t seem to be a meaningful reason. Basically, it’s a fun song that people enjoy singing along to in crowds. It’s popular at Red Sox games and at other sporting events.

At some point, the song ended up on a stadium playlist at Beaver Stadium and it grabbed the crowd.

It’s so popular that fans complained when the school stopped featuring it during the 2012 season.

It was rumored that the lyrics about touching hit a little too close to home in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky molestation scandal and it was taken off the playlist as a result.

Whether or not that was the reason, the song made its way back in the rotation in 2013 to the delight of fans, who have been singing it ever since.

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