| The autographed Joe Paterno motorcycle. (click for larger view) |
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; December 15, 2006 ?C This Penn State Chopper along with a genuine Penn State Football helmet donated by Fran Ganter, Brad Caldwell and Dan Leri will be raffled off February 18, 2007 at Penn State Dance Marathon to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund.
The Penn State Chopper is currently on display in the lobby of the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. Raffle tickets can be ordered online, along with additional information about the motorcycle, photographs and the official poster by clicking on www.StateCollege.tv.
When Bryon Deysher '77 learned that he would be hosting Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno at his Concord, MA home for an alumni dinner in June of this year, he didn't want just ordinary party decorations.
At a convention in Florida, Deysher, the CEO of Methods Machine Tool in Sudbury, Mass., struck up a conversation about the alumni dinner with his friend Dave Barton, the co-founder of a technology company started at the Penn State incubator called BlueSwarf.
Barton, in turn, contacted Gene Kirila, who recently founded a custom motorcycle company, Hardbikes. The idea of a Penn State Chopper was born.
With BlueSwarf sponsoring the project, Kirila and Hardbikes partner Bob McCollum, both former college football players, designed and built the one-of-a-kind, Penn State Football-themed chopper in less then 30 days.
Barton loaded the bike in a rented van and drove the 600 miles from the Hardbikes plant in Hermitage to Concord, arriving with just hours to spare. At the dinner, Coach Paterno sat on the bike, posed for photographs and autographed the gas tank.