United and divided, fans flock to Manhattan

The families’ loyalties were so divided, the fathers had to exchange hats at the wedding ceremony.

So it seemed like a given they had to make the family trip to Madison Square Garden – even if they were flying all the way from Minneapolis.

The Big Ten’s Super Saturday was a big draw in Manhattan, the unique doubleheader of basketball and hockey for a couple of traditional football schools.

Plenty of Michigan and Penn State football jerseys were donned by fans as they wandered the concourses and cheered in the seats, but the day was all about the other sports.

Madison Square Garden was definitely a house divided, with strong rooting sections for both schools.

Penn State had the advantage with a student section of nearly 600 loading onto busses around 6:30 a.m. for the trip up Interstate 80, but with sizable alumni bases for both schools in the New York area, the building was nearly full for both games.

Then there was the family sitting near the top of section 117.

Leah Foreman-Keiser graduated in 1999 after swimming for the Nittany Lions. When she went on a recruiting visit in 1994, she knew right away she had found her school – much to the chagrin of her father, a 1965 Michigan grad who took her on numerous father-daughter trips to Ann Arbor.

“I didn’t know any better,” she said of those excursions.

But she proudly called State College home, where she also met her husband Jeff Keiser, a 1998 graduate – and the son of a 1977 Master’s graduate. Bob Keiser lives in Connecticut, but he has season tickets for football and hockey.

Given those somewhat divided loyalties, and that Michigan man Bart Foreman’s birthday is Sunday, a trip to New York was in order, with plenty of trash talk exchanged before the first game even tipped off.

“It leans much more heavily on the good side,” Leah Foreman-Keiser said. “The force is on our side.”

Still, she and Jeff made their fathers exchange hats for their respective schools at their wedding, and they all gathered for the merged family weekend in New York, bunking with Bob Keiser in Connecticut.

They knew where they had to be when the festivities were announced nearly a year ago.

“We have to do this,” Leah Foreman-Keiser said. “Why not?”

She was in a gray Penn State sweatshirt, getting a hug before the game from dad in his blue Michigan sweatshirt.

In the hallways were moms and dads with their sons and daughters, some pretty small, all decked out in their respective school colors. Both schools brought bands, and the student section had the “S” in place.

Taking a seat among them was John Arndt, a senior from Reading, who went a little obscure with his support – a No. 37 Casey Bailey Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. Bailey was last season’s top scorer who became the first Nittany Lion alumnus to play in the NHL.

Arndt made the trip to Madison Square Garden last season when the hockey team played Cornell, and it was a must to come back.

“It’s the first event like this ever,” Arndt said. “It helps that it’s two storied programs – hockey and basketball, rivals across the board. It helps that it’s in a place like Madison Square Garden. You can’t beat it.”

Once the basketball game, a 79-72 Wolverine win, was over, it was time for the next good show with the transition of the arena – which unfortunately was out of view for the fans. In a matter of minutes rows of seats were gone and the court was pulled apart. Less than two hours after the final horn sounded for basketball, the hockey boards were up, the glass was almost in place and the ice was being revealed under the covers. Once 2 1 / 2 hours elapsed and the Zamboni was cleaning the ice.

Meanwhile, fans from both sides gathered at establishments – nearly a half-dozen spots had designated Penn State parties – in the area either to celebrate or commiserate.

And when the hockey game got really rolling in the second period, with two Lion goals and one for the Wolverines in the first five minutes, the electricity was elevated. Michigan had scored seconds into the period, but Andrew Sturtz tied it about a minute later. In one section in the upper reaches of the arena, a handful of Michigan fans were surrounded by a sea of Penn Staters who all stood, cheered and pointed at the Maize-and-Blue fans while chanting in celebration.

Enjoying the view from high up was State College’s Herb Combs, who made the trip with his wife Christina and 7-year-old son Trey for both games. Trey got high-fives from others around him when Sturtz scored, and the youth league hockey player was enjoying the festivities.

“It’s been awesome,” said Herb Combs, who tends to the turf at Beaver Stadium. “It’s a nice little retreat from State College to see both hoops and hockey at the famous Madison Square Garden. What more could you ask for?”

This story was originally published January 30, 2016 at 10:39 PM with the headline "United and divided, fans flock to Manhattan."