The Bryce Jordan Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The arena, which remains the third largest in Pennsylvania, has hosted many memorable sporting events and Grammy Award winning artists. One man has seen them all.
Bernie Punt has been the marketing manager at the BJC since it opened in 1996. His office is a living scrapbook.
“I don’t want this to go bad somewhere get put in a box and get thrown out. Some of it can be saved because there is a lot of history here,” said Punt.
Punt still has the very first basketball game program. The Penn State Men’s basketball team beat Minnesota to kick off a new era of sports at University Park.
It is a slow summer, so Punt is busy sorting through many old items to place into a time capsule later this year. They include game tickets, old promotional video and posters, and much more.
“Going through all of these items that I’ve collected and what other people have collected over the years putting them together just brings back a rush of memories. You just relive all the shows 28
The Bryce Jordan Center is home to Penn State hoops, but over the years it has been the legendary musicians that have provided some of the best moments. Punt shared one about Garth Brooks that took place back stage.
“Someone like Garth goes through our building and meets everybody. He looks them in the eye and shakes their hand and says thank you for helping out on the show. He even had lunch one time with our maintenance department. He said you guys doing such a great job I just want to hang with you. Their sandwich dropped out of their mouth, like are you kidding me,” laugh Punt.
Garth Brooks has played a number of sold out shows at the BJC. Punt said he is a great guy and is welcome back any time.