STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Saturday evening, as many in the Northeast braced for one of the largest snowstorms in years, Herb Combs ran through the Beaver Stadium snow removal plan once again.
Combs, Penn State’s associate athletic director for facilities management and operations, has worked in and observed Beaver Stadium for more than two decades. He knows the pain points of the venue and has a front-row seat for the multi-year renovation that’s on schedule for completion by August 2027.
Dealing with snow removal is one thing, but trying to maintain an outdoor ice hockey rink on top of a foot of fresh snow is a new challenge. Penn State was using snow blowers to clear the rink all day Sunday. It was actually so cold on Saturday — too cold — that Penn State had run the boiler to warmup the glycol to maintain the ice, just like they would for an indoor rink.
“Everyone is kind of keyed up and ready for a call, but with a storm of the magnitude we’re talking about, we’re not going to be able to actually do anything impactful until Tuesday,” said Combs. “It’s an outdoor hockey game in the end of January in Central PA — our goal is to do the best that we can and make it safe for everybody that’s coming to see this outstanding opportunity here in the venue.”
Beaver Stadium will host a pair of outdoor ice hockey games this week with the No. 4 Penn State women playing Robert Morris on Friday at 1 p.m. and the No. 8 Penn State men playing No. 2 Michigan State on Saturday at 1 p.m. Penn State sold more than 67,000 tickets for the men’s game and will host several community events and open skates around it. With wrestling in the Bryce Jordan Center on Friday night, it’s one of 15 winter sporting events taking place in a three-day span as Penn State tries to bring fans to campus during an otherwise slow time of year.
“It’s a weekend kind of like we’ve never seen here before in the winter,” said Vinnie James, Penn State’s deputy athletic director for internal operations.
Penn State is putting on outdoor hockey without the help of the NHL, which often plays a role in these types of events. When Guy Gadowsky’s team played Notre Dame at Wrigley Field in January of 2025, it did so just days after the NHL’s Winter Classic took place on the same ice. Penn State is using the same ice rink vendor that’s done the NHL Winter Classic as well as an outdoor hockey game at The Big House.
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