Matt Campbell credits 'heroic effort'

Penn State beat Washington on Saturday in a Big Ten showdown, but a scary moment before the game for the Nittany Lions held the focus of the team and its supporters alike.

Jack Ham, who was a legend at Penn State before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers as a linebacker and contributor to the “Steel Curtain” defense, and has long served as a radio analyst for the Nittany Lions, suffered a medical emergency before kickoff.

“Penn State Sports Network analyst Jack Ham experienced a medical emergency earlier today and was transported to the University of Washington Medical Center, where he is being treated,” said Penn State Athletics in a statement. “We do not have further information at this time.”

Penn State jumped out to a 28–6 lead at halftime over the Huskies, and was able to hold on for a nail-biter of a 28–25 win. After the game, coach Matt Campbell offered an update on Ham, and went out of his way to acknowledge play-by-play man Steve Jones, and the “heroic effort” he put forth through the scene.

“I want to start off, and obviously I think as news continues to break, everybody knows that man, this was a gut-wrenching day for Penn State football,” Campbell said. “With Jack Ham, obviously a really tough situation as we got off the busses here. First of all, I think we should all know Steve Jones and the heroic effort that he did for one of his, man, somebody he loves dearly. If it’s not for Steve, for what he did, I don’t know if we have as good of news as we do right now. I also want to thank the University of Washington, their athletic director, their emergency team. They were incredible. They were outstanding.”

Campbell reiterated that Ham was in stable condition, and credited his players for honoring him with their performance on the field.

“Hopefully, as all of you know, Jack is in stable condition right now. The emotion of that, what I was really proud of our football team, we talked about it a little bit before we went out for the game. Just the courage of our kids to play with what Jack Ham means to Penn State football. How that guy played the game. How that guy still to this day serves our football program. Also to be able to go win the football game for him and his family.”

A further update from Jones, who made it back to Philadelphia to call Penn State’s basketball game against Pittsburgh at The Palestra on Sunday, made clear that Ham’s recovery was still going smoothly.

Unsurprisingly, details on what exactly happened are still pretty thin, but clearly Jones was there for his colleague in a critical moment.

The post Matt Campbell credits ‘heroic effort’ from Penn State play-by-play announcer appeared first on Awful Announcing.