Sticklers for detail will note that Penn’s toast-throwing tradition isn’t just about toast. Penn supporters throw all manner of baked goods—from bagels to muffins to pumpernickel—onto Franklin Field between the third and fourth quarter of every home football game. The cue to unleash the bread comes on the line, “Here’s a toast to dear old Penn” in a school fight song. Some say it was inspired by antics at screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Others contend that the ritual is an adaptation to the tradition of drinking an alcoholic toast to “dear old Penn.” When alcohol was banned from the stadium, the students decided to interpret “toast” more literally.
In a good season, says Franklin Field supervisor Tony Overend, 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of toast will be thrown per game. A “toast zamboni” picks up the debris at the end of the day.
Materials in the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives include thousands of TV scripts, the first issue of TV Guide, and interviews about the early days of HBO—which help to chronicle TV’s 100-year story.
Centering joy in AI development and implementation
PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton—of Annenberg and SP2—and collaborators introduce a joy-informed framework designed to initiate conversations among engineers, designers, and researchers.
Winter Storm Fern brought icy and snowy conditions to the Northeast and other parts of the country over the weekend. Penn Today asks physicist Robert Carpick about the unique properties of ice, the science of curling, and how close we are to ‘nonslip’ ice.
Organizations like Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships foster collaborations between Penn and public schools in the West Philadelphia community.
Penn receives national distinction for community engagement
The recognition by the American Council on Education and Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching acknowledges Penn’s long-standing commitment to community-engaged scholarship and partnerships in West Philadelphia and beyond.
