 President of the United States and the Vice President. President Jordan and Coach Paterno, players of the Penn State football team, let me start by saying congratulations. You know, I was a sports announcer once and I, I, one of a broadcast I referred to the Nitin Alliance and you've got a widespread alumni. I got letters from all over because I was talking about the Columbia, or talking to the Columbia Lions. I found out who the Nitin Alliance really were. Well, the undefeated national champions of college football, it's a title that you all fought hard to win and the Fiesta Bowl was a fitting end to a proud season. You showed that you deserved to be national champions. In a hundred years since that November day when Penn State's first football team took the field and beat Bucknell 54 to nothing, I bet there haven't been many more exciting moments than those when with seconds to go, Miami was knocking and you didn't let them in. First came Tim Johnson's sack of a great athlete, Vinnie Testeverdi, who had a receiver wide open with a sure chance to score. And then came Pete Giftopoulos, goal line interception. Penn State players and fans will remember it as long as they live. Pete and Tim, you had the entire squad played cool, smart, hard hitting defense. You forced errors in the opposition and that's saying a lot because Miami is an outstanding team and they don't usually make mistakes. As for the offense, same story, smart and hard hitting. Down by seven minutes to go in the first half, that isn't seven minutes, I sort of sloughed that down by seven minutes to go in the first half. You drove 74 yards and then with everyone covered and no second chances, John Schaefer ran the last four yards himself and Penn State was on the board and on the way. And let me just say a word for someone who's often forgotten, the kicker. Every time John Bruno punted it meant their own 40 or 25 or most of the time even further back than that for Miami. I could go on and talk about what every one of you did. Trey Bauer said afterward, this is the greatest game in Penn State history and if anyone's going to take issue with that, it isn't going to be me. He's bigger than me and a little younger. But yes, you have, Penn State showed all the pundits and the odd makers who said, who'd said that at last you'd met your match, that they were just plain dead wrong. You know that so inspires me that the next time I go to see Congress I might just wear that knit and a lion's hat. Now before I finish, let me say a special congratulations to coach Joe Paterno. My money I think he's one of the greatest coaches ever in college sports. And I'm not thinking just of his two national championships, his four times as coach of the year, his six undefeated regular seasons, his 15 seasons in the top 10, his 80% winning record for his lifetime total of 199 victories. You know I say he's one of the best because while accumulating all those honors and records, he's never forgotten that first and foremost, he's a teacher who's preparing his students not just for the season, but for life. America is great because through our history we've had men and women with his kind of goodness, honor, and decency, his kind of dedication to his calling, yes, his kind of values. So coach Paterno and all of you welcome to the White House, congratulations and God bless you all. Mr. President, you've provided a very special day for Penn State University. On behalf of all Penn Staters everywhere, I want to thank you first of all for recognizing one of America's historic land grant universities, for honoring one of America's great football coaches and more important than that, a superb university man and a great human being, Joe Paterno, and finally for welcoming to the White House and congratulating a superb group of young men. We thank you for all of those things and now on behalf of all of us, I should like to present to you a statue of the Nittany Lion which is an exact replica of the larger Nittany Lion that was created in 1942 by Heinz Wernicke. This Nittany Lion is a symbol not only of great intercollegiate athletics, but also of everything that Penn State stands for, Mr. President, and now I'm pleased to present to you coach Joe Paterno. Thank you Dr. Jordan and Mr. President, I want to say as Dr. Jordan has said how pleased we are and how proud that you would invite us here to the White House and I want to present to you with something that I think maybe signifies what Penn State athletics are all about and this is a jersey that you can wear when you're out there chopping wood and I know I spoke a little bit, okay, and there's a couple of things about this jersey I want you to notice. Number one, well as we're concerned you're number one. Number two, there are no stripes on this jersey, we're not very flashy at Penn State, we don't put anybody's name on the back because we're team players, all right, and we're conservative and when some of the smile on us are out there picking away at us we hang tough. I'm really proud Mr. President to present this to you, it's a very personal honor for me to do it for you. Well thank you very much, I'm very proud to have this, very pleased to have both of these and this one I will treasure very much because where I played football in school we couldn't have a statue, or a nickname with the red devils. I thank you all very much and thank you for being here.