UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State All-Sports Museum continues virtual programming for July 2020 via zoom and social media platforms.
On Friday, July 10, 2020, at 12:15 p.m. the Museum will be joined by Fran McDermid ('93 W Swimming) and Rohan Murphy ('06 Wrestling). Link to register: https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_RY22y4pqQgiDirSj7y0Ypg
Fran McDermid was a freestyle swimmer for the Penn State women's swimming and diving team. She lettered all four years of her collegiate career, was a nine- time All-American, a two-time team captain, and four-time Big Ten Champion swimmer, the first individual Big Ten Champion from Penn State. McDermid was also a member of the 1993 World University Games swim team.
She graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Politics. Upon graduation, McDermid went on to be an assistant swim coach at Villanova and Penn State before pursuing her Master of Education Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling in 2002. After obtaining her master's, she went on to work for Skills of Central Pennsylvania and currently works for Strawberry Fields, Inc. in mental health programming. At Strawberry Fields, McDermid oversees Good Day Café, a coffee shop staffed with adults with intellectual disabilities, and Scraps & Skeins, a creative re-use store that rescues and re-sells sewing, knitting, and quilting materials which offers employment and job development for men and women facing mental health challenges.
Rohan Murphy, who lost his legs at birth, was a Penn State wrestling walk-on under coach Troy Sunderland. In addition to earning his three varsity letters with the wrestling team, Murphy began participating in Paralympic weightlifting. In 2006 he won a Bronze medal in the 56 kg Junior Division of the 2006 IPC World Powerlifting Championships in Busan, South Korea, lifting 281.1 pounds, breaking the previous U.S. Paralympic record of 270lbs (which he set earlier that year at the Southeast Regional). That accomplishment caught the attention of Nike, and lead Murphy to be featured in Nike's "No Excuses" campaign. Today, Murphy travels the country as a motivational speaker to young people on overcoming adversity, learning dedication, and living a life with purpose.
As the museum continues to remain closed, the only thing we miss more than our visitors is our volunteers! Join us on Friday, July 24, 2020, at 12:15 p.m. to catch up with a couple of the Penn State All-Sports Museum Docent volunteers.
Our Docent volunteers undergo extensive training in preparation to guide visitors through the museum and Beaver Stadium. Our volunteers are retired principles, teachers, architects, University professors, government employees, athlete advisors and even retired Penn State coaches. While we often look to them to tell us the history of Penn State Athletics, we are going to turn the tables and have them tell us a bit about themselves, why they volunteer, and what some of their best memories in the museum have been. The zoom link for this talk can be found here: https://psu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TTgGQ23MRqeMRjtHvagMxg
The museum continues to add virtual programming throughout the summer. Follow our social media pages to keep up to date on our offerings.