Amazing fans, tailgates

I hope readers liked our Penn State fan and tailgate of the year contest as much as I did.

The idea came about when we were considering just how to again cover the off-the-field festivities of 100,000 or more people every home weekend. How do you do that justice?

We decided to feature one fan and one tailgate per week, and correspondent Gail Franklin oversaw it all. Franklin, new to Happy Valley from Buffalo and a contributing writer for a few months, enjoyed meeting people and learning about the Penn State football craze through her reporting.

She chose great fans and tailgates, with some help from readers. Several of our featured Penn Staters came from tips from readers, and of course online readers determined the winners in amazing voting that concluded Thursday.

In fact, we found top fan Linda Barlett after we received an e-mail about her from a friend or care giver. What a wonderful fan, we thought, and she was featured in week five.

I'm thrilled that Barlett won the online voting. She's truly special and it's great that Penn Staters got to meet her through this contest.

She loves Penn State football as much as any fan, yet can't go to the games. We're glad to salute her today and we salute her caregivers and friends too. You all are special.

The tailgate side of the contest too was interesting and I think we featured some pretty cool groups. All were different, and we salute Becky Grove and her friends.

All 14 of our featured fans and tailgates were winners, I think you'd agree. I look forward to doing this again next year and we'll invite your ideas as the season approaches.

Thanks for following it online and for voting. You made it happen.