It all started with a $5,000 check given to each Big Ten women’s basketball team to help improve attendance.
Some teams used the money to buy T-shirts to bring fans in or simply handed tickets out for free. But former Penn State coach Rene Portland wanted to do more.
“(Portland) really wanted to use it as seed money to do something special,” Jennifer James, a former Lady Lions manager and current associate athletic director for events, said.
Through communication with Wisconsin’s women’s basketball coach, Portland decided on the idea of buying white uniforms with pink trim for Penn State and pink uniforms for Wisconsin in support of breast cancer.