Lions football team shows moves at THON

Participants in MTV's America's Best Dance Crew would have been proud.

In Hour 28 of Penn State's 46-hour dance marathon known as THON, members of the Nittany Lions football team showed off their best moves as part of Saturday night's pep rally.

Competing against the Penn State gymnastics teams, men's and women's fencing, ice hockey, softball, and others, the football team performed a dance routine to help motivate the hundreds of THON dancers exhausting their legs and emotions to raise money to benefit the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital.

The total amount raised this year was a record $10,686,924.83, all going to the families of children with cancer to offset the cost of treatment that insurance does not cover. It also funds pediatric cancer research.

The players had been practicing after study hall for more than two weeks, redshirt sophomore Mike Wallace said, preparing for their routine in front of thousands at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Wearing white gloves, blue pants, and their blue game-day jerseys, the group of mostly freshmen took the stage to the familiar chants and cheers heard Saturdays in Beaver Stadium. At the front of the diamond-shaped stage were freshmen wide receiver/Wildcat quarterback Bill Belton, a Winslow Township High graduate; cornerback Adrian Amos; and tackle Donovan Smith as the music of Kanye West, Usher, and Chumbawamba blared from the loudspeaker.

"You can see THON on TV, you can see it online, but until you get there, you're never going to know what it's really like," Wallace said. "It means a lot to us. We're not necessarily dancing for 46 hours like everybody else, but I can say that we put a good 24 hours into this."

With fellow Lions such as wide receiver Justin Brown, defensive tackle Jordan Hill, and running back Silas Redd cheering from the crowd, freshman defensive end Deion Barnes performed solo with some wild leg kicks. Amos and freshman wide receiver Allen Robinson tried their best to teach the crowd how to Dougie. Freshman running back Deron Thompson grabbed freshman linebacker Ben Kline and somersaulted over him.

Dancing to Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping," Wallace, as Steve Urkel of Family Matters, wore a necktie, glasses, and rolled up pants. He drew the loudest cheers.

Though they fell in the final voting via the hardly reliable "cheer meter" to the men's gymnastics team, who used backflips and handstands to claim the victory, the football team had contributed to an event that since 1973 has raised more than $88 million to fight childhood cancer.