Jim Knowles looks back at childhood memories of Penn State

Happy Valley and Philadelphia may not be right next door to one another, but Penn State is still popular throughout the state. Because of that, for Philadelphia native Jim Knowles, coming to Penn State as a defensive coordinator is a sort of homecoming.

At his introductory press conference, Knowles was asked about his relationship with Penn State growing up. He admitted that he had little direct connection to the program, but that the influence and allure of the program always existed growing up.

“I had zero relationship,” Jim Knowles said. “I tell my kids all the time I was a guttersnipe running around the streets of Philly. No, so any relationship I had was just all in my mind, kind of a dream.”

Knowles grew up during the Joe Paterno era at Penn State and was playing his own college football at Cornell in 1986 when the Nittany Lions won their last national championship. Of course, even before that, the Penn State program was among the top in the sport and would often be on his mind growing up.

“I said it earlier and I don’t want to repeat myself, but it’s the truth. I’m old enough where we had three channels. Anybody remember that? Where you didn’t have a remote, you had to get up and change the television yourself. You didn’t even get to see — I never even dreamt of going to a game. We didn’t have that kinda money or there weren’t those kinds of resources. State College could have been California for all — when you’re in Philly, it’s all out there,” Knowles said.

“But yeah. I would watch those Sunday morning programs with Coach Paterno’s brother I think it was. He used to do those Sunday morning programs. ‘Due to time constraints, we move to further action in the third quarter.'”

Jim Knowles was far from the only one in Philadelphia to care about Penn State too. The program’s influence was felt by everyone and that’s largely what turned the program into a kind of dream.

“I had these coaches who loved Penn State,” Knowles said. “They would come right from work. So, what would they do? They’d roll their pants up — the way Coach Paterno — they’d roll their pants up and come right from work. So, I knew the term ‘Linebacker U’ because of them. It was always more of just a dream than it was anything I could have a real relationship with.”

Now, Jim Knowles is able to live that dream and have a direct relationship with the program as he looks to bring a national championship to Happy Valley.