"Growing up, I always looked at two people as mentors; one being my father, the other, oddly enough, Joe Paterno," Tobias said.
And so, when it was announced that JoePa passed away this past Sunday, Blake went on Facebook and proposed the notion of naming the field inside Beaver Stadium after the legendary coach.
A friend then suggested he create an on-line petition.
"Yesterday around 2:30 I started it and just when you guys pulled up here, we have 5,400 signatures," Tobias said.
In fact, Blake says he has received on-line signatures from as far away as Hawaii and Japan from people who would love to see JoePa`s old stomping ground called Joe Paterno Field.
We found no shortage of support across Berks County as well.
"I'm for it 100%," supporter Chris Port said.
"If he did everything he was supposed to do, I think you should judge a man by his whole book, not just a page," supporter Laura Mitchell said.
But there were some who say you may want to wait until after the Jerry Sandusky trial is over before you rename anything.
"From what the media tells us I think he could have done a little more," Tracy Bond said.
Either way, Blake says he is going to keep this drive going until he receives 107,282 signatures, matching the seating capacity at Beaver Stadium.
"If we can get the signatures then I'd really like to present this to the Board of Trustees at Penn State and see if this can be done," Tobias said.
LINKS: http://www.change.org/petitions/make-paterno-field-at-beaver-stadium
http://www.facebook.com/groups/152891834824933/
