Charlie Kirk ‘Freedom’ T-shirt giveaway draws massive crowd at Oregon vs Penn State game

UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA: Conservative influencer Benny Johnson couldn’t believe his eyes Saturday, September 27, when a massive line of fans snaked around the parking lot at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium just to snag a Charlie Kirk “Freedom” T-shirt.

Johnson showed off the crowd wrapping around multiple sections of the lot. At one point, fans broke into a roaring “USA!” chant as Johnson bragged about the endless stream of people.

The giveaway, organized by Turning Point USA (TPUSA), promised 5,000 shirts to football fans ahead of the high-stakes Penn State vs Oregon matchup in University Park, Pennsylvania. Fittingly, Oregon just happened to be Kirk’s favorite team.

Symbolism of the 'Freedom' shirt

The shirts carry heavy symbolism. Kirk had been wearing one of them on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University, when a sniper fired a single shot from a nearby rooftop, killing the 31-year-old husband and father of two. His horrific death rattled the nation, but TPUSA vowed to carry his torch.

“In the vein, and in honor of Charlie Kirk, we are going to fight cultural battles, and we are going to win them in an arena that Charlie loved so very much — college football,” Johnson declared on Thursday on the 'Will Cain Country' podcast.

“Turning Point USA, at the game of the week, Penn State versus the Oregon Ducks, this is going to be a massive game. This was a game that Charlie Kirk was going to attend," the influencer continued. "Charlie Kirk loves Oregon, but he also has a bunch of fans at Penn State and has done huge events there. Turning Point USA is going to be handing out 5,000 Charlie Kirk freedom shirts at that game.”

Johnson even held up one of the shirts while reminding fans it was a “whiteout” game, a Penn State tradition where everyone wears white.

“So, it’s gonna look great in the stands,” he added while grinning. “We want the student section to be popping with Charlie Kirk freedom shirts for the whiteout at Penn State this weekend.”

Remembering Charlie Kirk on the gridiron

Since his shooting death earlier this month, Charlie Kirk has been honored at major football games across the country.

After the Turning Point USA founder's death, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning — who led his Ducks to a 34-14 victory over Northwestern earlier this month — offered condolences to his widow, Erika Kirk, and their two young children.

“The people in this world can learn a lot from [our locker room],” Lanning said, describing the unity among his players.

“You walk in that locker room, you’ve got guys of different races, guys of different backgrounds, different religions, and you’ve got a team that loves each other. Tons of differences. Where they come from, what they deal with, and, ultimately, you’ve got a team that loves each other, and I think we’re missing some of that in our country,” Lanning shared.

He added that he hadn’t realized Kirk was a diehard Oregon fan until after his death.

“I recently found out Charlie Kirk was an Oregon fan, right? I didn’t know that. I hurt for his wife, Erika, and their kids. That sort of evil should never exist in our country, and that’s what it is — evil. I remember having to explain that to my family, right? I remember sitting down with my kids and explaining what happened, and they’re talking about people talking about it at school. And it’s just sad, right?” the head coach recalled.

Lanning said the country’s violence problem weighs on him daily.

“But it’s just as sad every day, it seems like we deal with some sort of violence that’s going on in our country, whether it’s school kids in Colorado or kids in Minnesota at churches. I mean, life matters, and I think we’ve lost sight of that. But I just wish the world could learn a little bit of something from our locker room because we’ve got a bunch of people with differences, and what you’ve got in there is a bunch of people there,” he noted.