Super Bowl Team Training Camp Sites Make Wager on Game

LATROBE, Pa., Jan. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Saint Vincent College President Br. Norman W. Hipps, O.S.B., and Student Government Association Executive Board President Renold Sossong made a friendly wager with their counterparts at St. Norbert College via a Skype audio and video telecommunication  hookup today on the outcome of the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers Super Bowl XLV game in Dallas on Sunday, February 6.

St. Norbert College President Thomas Kunkel appeared alone since SGA President Zach Parmeter was scheduled to be in class.

Saint Vincent College has been the summer training camp of the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1966 and St. Norbert has hosted the Green Bay Packers since 1958, making the Catholic, liberal arts colleges the two oldest continuously operating training camps in the National Football League.

Saint Vincent is sponsored by monks of the Order of St. Benedict. St. Norbert is sponsored by the Norbertines. Both are proud of their long and productive relationships with National Football League professional football teams and their owners.

Saint Vincent provides housing to the Steelers players and staff in Rooney Hall, meals in the college dining hall, use of the meticulously groomed natural turf at Chuck Noll Field, indoor fitness equipment in the Carey Student Center and other campus facilities. Saint Vincent welcomes more than 100,000 fans each summer for afternoon practices daily. St. Norbert provides meals, housing and transportation to the Packers but on-field activities occur at the Packers own training facilities in Green Bay.

Both Br. Norman and Dr. Kunkel plan to attend the Super Bowl in Dallas.

If the Steelers win, St. Norbert offered to send Saint Vincent some of Wisconsin's finest cheese and sausage and a copy of a book about the Packers and St. Norbert in the Lombardi Years. The legendary Green Bay coach, after whom the Super Bowl trophy is named, spent nine years at St. Norbert while the Packers trained there.

If the Packers win, Saint Vincent will send St. Norbert a gift basket containing a bag of stone ground flour from its historic gristmill, a loaf of Saint Vincent bread, a bag of black and gold special blend coffee beans from its campus coffeehouse and a copy of Jim O'Brien's  book, Always a Steeler, that contains many stories about player experiences on campus. Saint Vincent students will buy a round of banana splits – the world famous treat that was created in Latrobe -- for the St. Norbert student senate.

SOURCE Saint Vincent College