Well the story starts off for this guy, who became the PSU GnomeMan as one that I have, like most others, coming out of the ashes of something bad. Days before Christmas my cousin Sarah Bachert and then boyfriend thought and sought out to find me a Penn State Christmas present, one for the ages. One that I didn't have before. They succeeded in getting me a team forever collectibles Penn State garden Gnome.
 

The gnomes first Penn State adventure ever was to the Penn State blue white game, subsequently which was Coach O'Brien's debut. Jokingly I was asked by my cousin if I could get a picture of the PSU Gnome inside the stadium. A challenge that I accepted. It was there in my challenge that I noticed after my immediate arrival, a child looked up and smiled and said look mom the Gnome man. And they asked if I could take a picture of the child with the gnome. I much obliged being a US Marine, it's always important that we take care of our own. I always lead with the mentality that showed up later on T-shirts- One Team. That mono became our slogan for that year and then on my word the challenge to take it to the first game, again challenge accepted by this Marine. With that said we won that game and their winning streak went on for a while, where there were several overtime games, where we pulled out the win, all but Nebraska.

 

Then OBriens second season came with some exciting wins at home right from the beginning. So as I entered the stadium and the Lion King theme song came on, I held the Gnome up to NF section and the fans stood up and cheered on, as everybody high fived the gnome before the kickoff of the most electrifying football was turned on. Last second and overtime wins continued on, and then the white out Michigan game for O'Brien proved to be paramount in why being One Team and the good luck of PSU game day gnome lived on. Penn States white out game against Michigan became a stigma for O Brien and proved Penn State could be tough again with O Briens tenacity proving we could be strong again as a team.

 

That epic game began to put Penn State back on the map, and ranks up there with this years Ohio State White Out game. Which proves testament to Penn States toughness and the crowds impact including the gnome zone on another team. Every game I see the gnome is with me, even the Pin Stripe bowl, I carried him into Yankee Stadium and he was out in left field with me, where they always said i was from. He was with me, even with his own pinstripe jersey. Taken pictures with over 100 families by now the crucial moments of the game came down to a kick. And as fans in left field looked on with mystery, i yelled to them all, If your Nittany, and you bleed blue and white with me, yell We Are with me! We yelled We Are and it was like a hand from the heavens made the kick go wide right and all of us that yelled We Are began to believe in miracles that night again. The game winning kick from Sam Ficken let us come home from New York with a Pin Stripe Bowl victory and a bowl win again. The next chance was taking the trip to Ireland that eluded me, but we still cheered on from home and a win we brought home from the luckiest place on earth next-door to Happy Valley.

 

I then noticed that in the NF section of the north end zone other gnomes started to arise, and others started to dress up as me, The Gnome Guy, for the Halloween game. The gnomes brought there were because of this guy. Subsequently, Franklin's wins started to accrue and the support for Coach Franklin grew. With all being said and now life was easing in our troubled heads one win at a time, one day of respect earned at a time, support growing all the time, were now becoming Penn State University the Unrivaled, which brings me again to this years Ohio State game and how the gnome changed from the Psu Gameday gnome and GnomeMan to the Nittany Nation PsuGnomeZone. 

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We all know the story of David and Goliath, well this year's white out 2016 brought the same symbology, and this year it was Penn States dream to knock off the number one team, allegedly, in the Big Ten. Coach Franklin stepped up to the plate and our team to the challenge said our pleasure, why not us? We Are is our chant, and in that stadium we are one team.

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We all know now and have no doubt what Penn State football represented to all of us and what we are all about. That game, I made a sign for the gnome zone and in the stadium from NA to NK there must've been over 100 gnomes. I held up a sign Gnome Zone in the end zone and the white house errupted. Hence the inception of gnome zone.

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We won, and we won from there on out and there is my place in the Michigan State game, the Gnome now has a new bigger banner being sponsored by Penn State Schuylkill University Campus. And from my name being Caine Brobst PSU Game Day Gnome Man and I have a whole group of Gnomies that are the closest blue and white family all in which We Are a Nittany Nation family!

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Nittany nation family then traveled to Indy after the gnome was broken at Michigan State by a child who is the biggest phenom fan, his parents say, created by me. He is so young and bleeds Nittany. He accidentally knocked him out of my hands on me after a 3rd quarter touchdown by McSourley. I promised to glue the gnome back together before the game in Indy. A Marine always keeps his word to a child, are you with me?

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So I was gluing the PSUGameDay Gnome together in the week before and up until the last seconds before the Big 10 championship game. And lastly with Dave Mas and Tim leeper looking at me like I was crazy, but they belived with me and I finally got the gnome together. I ran to the game to be with them and shout We Are as ONETEAM again. We brought home a win from Indy back to PA as we got back to Happy Valley and we all went on our ways. Because of that trip, we all knew that we bled Nittany white and blue, and are a Nittany Nation family forever from that day forward. We watched the team play from the start with all of their hearts and give everything to God as we yelled from the bottom of our hearts, every last syllable of our voice, back to them, Our Team and another win once again we rejoiced in the hotel with the team until 4 AM. I promised myself I would never forget that feeling ever again and keep my life positively free of negativity.

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The question now was since Indy and Christmas were going to hamper me being at the Rose Bowl, all good deeds came back to me, truth be told. It was a fellow gnome zone Gnomie, the white out gnome, a dear friend that treated me like a little brother and got the tickets and away we went. Stopping by some old marine stomping grounds MCAS Miramar, third marine air wing and got to visit my old helicopter from Afghanistan, it was a somber feeling for this man. For there were some people who didn't make it home with me. And were lost in the desert sands of Afghanistan because of fighting for the land of the free and protecting places like happy valley. Driving in a Mustang in Pasadena, it was a great feeling to be at the Rose Bowl with Friends and a loved one. Although we didn't bring home the win, Gnome zone represented within everything it had, outnumbered in people we still led in cheering and We Are was meant to be heard, and they know our voices were heard. Even sneaking the gnome zone sign in. Tom and I made it on on the big Tron over and over again although some friends didn't see it on TV, I knew they got to see Gnome Man on TV, with WNEP trying to find me. Ryan Henglar represented for me and now the second gnome of mine was on TV. Penn live has been using a picture of me and the gnome zone family because we are one Nittany Nation family. I learned two things out in Pasadena, one is that Lloyd Carr's clock works even out there, that even teams who know theyre outmatched have to play with despair with minutes to spare, and two that we could take over that valley and make it happy too. For how many Gnomies were even in Pasadena Rose Bowl Stadium, was amazing to me once again. Gnome Zone was forever on the map. And I'd like to thank all my friends Who made this gnome zone come to fruition. It was just the gnome that make kids smile and it was just a marine trying to put happy back in the Happy valley. The PSUgnomezone.com and the PSU gnome zone charity that is soon to come, making kids dreams come true is our soon to be charities mission. It all started with the Gnome Man making the kids smile, five years later how many families took their pictures with that Gnome, how many kids smiled at the game with a win and went home. This, the happiness of children, leading by example to put happiness back into our football home was the only reason why I carried the gnome.

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