Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Penn State Axes Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’

Penn State University officials are removing Neil Diamond’s hit, “Sweet Caroline,” from their in-game rotation at sporting events, according to the New York Daily News. The song includes the popular lyrics, “Hands, touchin’ hands/Reachin’ out/touchin’ me/touchin’ you,” which could be viewed as inappropriate in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sandusky was an assistant football coach under Joe Paterno at Penn State for 31 seasons. Last June, Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts and will most likely receive a life sentence in prison.

However, Penn State officials said the lyrics were not the reason for the nix. Greg J. Myford, Penn State’s associate athletic director of business relations & communications, said in a statement, “‘Sweet Caroline’ has been brought up in recent years as to whether or not it should remain a part of the playlist. We hear from fans each year on whether or not we should continue it, given that it happens to be played in so many other professional and collegiate venues and has no real origination here at Penn State.”

For reasons not fully understood, during the last decade, Neil Diamond has become a playlist staple in stadiums across the United States. “Sweet Caroline,” which was released in 1969, is best known for its sing-along during the middle of the eighth inning at Boston Red Sox games, but there are also popular renditions sung at college football games across the country.

In 2007, Diamond said the song was inspired by Caroline Kennedy.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.