Penn State to Honor Wally Triplett With New Brand Academy

Triplett, a trailblazing football player at Penn State, inspires a venture benefiting athletes navigating the NIL landscape.

Detroit Free Press

Wally Triplett, the late Penn State football star who helped bring change to the NFL, soon will inspire the next generation of Nittany Lions athletes as they navigate NIL and entrepreneurship. Penn State has announced plans for the Brand Academy, a new venture designed to help athletes and other students develop personal brands, build businesses and pursue opportunities created by Name, Image and Likeness legislation.

Penn State is developing the academy through the Wally Triplett Brand Academy Endowment, a $5 million fund that includes an anonymous $2.5 million donation in Triplett's name. The academy marks Penn State's latest initiative to assist athletes in generating NIL opportunities. In a news release, Penn State said the academy will "educate students on how to navigate this new terrain, empowering them to make good decisions that will realize the potential of their personal brand."

“We are thrilled to provide our student-athletes with additional resources to assist them in navigating the name, image and likeness space through the Brand Academy," Penn State Athletic Director Patrick Kraft said in a statement. "We are so appreciative to the donor who made this academy possible. This will open so many doors to our student-athletes as they enter into the world of entrepreneurship. To have Wally Triplett’s name associated with this effort is fitting as Wally is synonymous with the true meaning of 'We Are … Penn State.'"

Triplett, who died in 2018 at 92, played tailback and linebacker at Penn State in the 1940s at a time when much of college football was segregated. In 1945, Triplett became the first Black football player to start for Penn State, and he and his teammates voted in 1946 and '47 to cancel Penn State games against Miami, whose roster then was segregated. During the 1947 season, Triplett and teammate Dennie Hoggard became the first Black players to participate in a game at Dallas' Cotton Bowl, where the Lions played SMU.

In 1948, Triplett became the first Black player drafted by, and to play for, an NFL team. The Detroit Lions selected Triplett in the draft's 19th round, and Triplett played four NFL seasons. His 1950 single-game average for kickoff returns (73.5 yards) remains an NFL record.

The Brand Academy is a joint venture of Penn State Athletics and Invent Penn State, a $30 million university-wide venture dedicated to entrepreneurship and innovation. Penn State said it devised the academy concept after NIL legislation in Pennsylvania gave athletes the opportunity to monetize their names, images and likenesses. According to a news release, the Brand Academy will help educate athletes about building their personal brands, activate endorsements and sponsorships and avoid negative deals.

"Penn State meant a lot to my granddad because it opened up doors to his success in important ways,” Triplett's granddaughter Ayanna McConnell, acting president and CEO of the University of Michigan Alumni Association, said in a statement. "He truly had an entrepreneurial spirit, so this endowment is a great alignment of his interests, and I think he would be proud to have his name connected with Penn State’s efforts to help student-athletes to be successful in this way."

Added James Delattre, associate vice president for research and director of Penn State's Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization, "A strong brand is essential for most businesses, and even more so for individuals where personal branding, reputation and business opportunities are interconnected,"Artists, athletes, musicians, journalists, or social media influencers, they can all benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset, business literacy, and effective marketing and digital communications. Not only will the Brand Academy enable participants to leverage their brand effectively now, but it will also serve them well in their careers long after they have left college."

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