Penn State played a strong, grinding game against Wisconsin on Friday, September 16, 2022 for the 10th Annual Mack Brady Match. Kris Shakes stonewalled the Badgers to put up his first clean sheet of the season, a fitting tribute for a goalkeeper!
The winning goal came in the 85th minute as redshirt freshman Van Danielson slotted a header just inside the left post for his first goal in collegiate play. As The Daily Collegian reported, “Getting the first win in the Big Ten is always a big deal,” Danielson said. “The Mack Brady match means so much to us because we’re doing it for him.”
It means so much to us that so many people feel that way about Mack and this Match. Before the game, the SC Celtics put on a wonderful tailgate. They tell us that the Club now has more than 300 children participating! That is amazing, since it started with just four families, five boys, at a 3v3 tournament in Huntingdon. One parent was from Boston and suggested they wear green jerseys and that they register as the “Celtics.” We were pleased with that because we knew the Glasgow Celtics had a long and proud history. The rest is both tragic and wonderful history. We are so thankful that every player wears Mack’s name and number on their sleeve. I looked around and realized that not a single one of the current Celtics players would have known him and many, including those who took the pitch with the Penn State players, weren’t even born before Mack left this plane.
The Mack Brady Memorial Fund supports the Penn State Men’s Goalkeepers and now stands at more than $265,000. That is an amazing and astounding figure. We have been blessed with a few significant gifts to the Fund, but what makes it remarkable is that the vast majority of that large figure is made up of thousands of small, discrete gifts from over a thousand different people and families. There is no other fund quite like it in the country and it means so much to the Penn State Keepers. Thank you all for your enduring support.
Finally, B1G+ covered the game and were kind enough to interview us at the half. I did get the name of the broadcaster, but she and the crew were wonderful. The video is below.
