Former Navy SEAL and Penn State football player Rick “Hawk” Slater was hit with an emotional sneak attack Saturday, when a group of former Nittany Lions and longtime friends surprised him by revealing that a room in the university’s Student Veteran Center had been named in his honor.
Slater arrived at the event completely unaware that HE was the guest of honor, until close friend and former PSU football teammate Justin Kurpeikis blind-sided him with the news. Kurpeikis, a first-team All-Big Ten defensive end in 2001 who went on to enjoy a five-year NFL career, had to choke back tears while speaking to and about his buddy at the ceremony.
“That’s how much you mean to us,” Kurpeikis said (see the video above). “As we all put this together, the thing that we talked about the most was, for the rest of your life, and your son’s life … (he) will have a permanent place of honor. No one can ever take it away. It’ll be here forever.
