Lions Legacy Club and Success With Honor Announce Merger to Become Happy Valley United
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (6/8/23) — Penn State Athletics announced today a transformative Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) move to benefit all 800-plus student-athletes. Fresh off successful fundraising campaigns and NIL engagement programming over the last year, Success With Honor, the NIL collective supporting all 31 sports, and Lions Legacy Club, the NIL collective for Penn State football are uniting to create Happy Valley United NIL collective.
In a move heralded by Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft, the uniting of these two successful organizations into one will create a clear direction for all Nittany Nation stakeholders to directly support the NIL efforts of the world-class student-athletes attending Penn State. Happy Valley United will be professionally run by a dedicated full-time team led by a new CEO to be named later. The board of Happy Valley United will include leaders of industry and great supporters of Penn State University and Penn State Athletics, including Ira Lubert, Anthony Misitano, Bob Poole, Larry Cusack, Mark Toniatti, B.J. Werzyn, and Matt DeSoto.
“Both groups have been great supporters of our NIL efforts to date, but this merger was an important step in our ever-changing collegiate athletics landscape,” said Kraft. “It was imperative for these two powerful collectives to join forces to provide a large breadth of NIL opportunities for student-athletes in all 31 of our sports programs to continue to push us forward.”
“I am very proud of the work that has been done over the past 18 months by our staff and excited about the future that brings these two groups together to keep Penn-State athletics competitive and maintain the respectable reputation that characterizes our program,” said Mark Toniatti, former CEO of Success With Honor, and current Board Member of Happy Valley United.
Happy Valley United will be powered by Blueprint Sports (BPS), the leader in powering full-service NIL collectives nationwide. Penn State alum Rob Sine leads BPS.
“Happy Valley United is a crystal-clear signal that the competition is not within Penn State, but our competition is around the country. A unified collective combined with dedicated resources, infrastructure, and an impressive team of professionals will deliver on bold, aggressive, and ambitious fundraising needs that will keep Penn State athletics at the pinnacle of college athletics on the gridiron, on the court, and anywhere else you cheer on the Nittany Lions,” said Sine.
Happy Valley United is strategically structured and will immediately establish advisory boards for football, basketball, and Olympic sports to provide fundraising support, event planning, strategic guidance, and financial commitment.
Starting immediately, donors, fans, and businesses can channel their passion for a particular sport by making a one-time tax-deductible contribution, signing up for a monthly or annual membership to a specific sport, or selecting to do a business engagement with a student-athlete or team.
Through Happy Valley United, supporters can also buy merchandise for the collective and celebrate key moments in PSU athletics’ history by owning special collectible drops and more. In addition, the collective adopted a rebranded look paying homage to the Nittany Lion, and a new website with a revamped membership platform and increased benefits that can be found at www.happyvalleyunited.com.
