Joe Paterno, legendary football coach of Penn State University for 43 years, turned 82 yesterday. He certainly rang in his birthday with friends and family, possible some cake and ice cream, and hopefully, the rest of the usual fare.
But there was also the virtual ice cream party for JoePa, hosted on http://joepabirthday.blogspot.com/. Hosted by WOMMA member Sports Media Challenge, the virtual birthday party was a conglomeration of JoePa shoutouts and birthday wishes, video tributes, and a very entertaining list of the “Top 82 Reasons We Love JoePa.”
Once you’ve checked out JoePa’s online birthday party, we encourage you to check out the behind the scenes reasoning and logistics, the whys and hows of the operation: http://buzzmanager.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/youre-invited-joe-pa-virtual-birthday-party/. All in all, the Virtual Birthday Party was a test run by Sports Media Challenge, an exercise to see how they might bridge college football and social media. And, at that, we view it as a successfully bridged operation.

The full story at Buzz Manager Blog:
http://buzzmanager.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/youre-invited-joe-pa-virtual-birthday-party/