Author Archive
A Glimpse At ‘The Joe We Know’
The premise was simple: Gather as many of Joe Paterno’s former lettermen as possible in a limited timeframe, get them in front of a camera to share their memories of playing for—and learning from—the legendary coach, and compile them in a film to be presented to Paterno on his 85th birthday.
The filmmakers’ only disappointment was that they didn’t finish it in time for Joe to see it.
Instead, The Joe We Know is a posthumous tribute, an hour-long collection of remembrances by former Nittany Lion football players. Presented last week as a birthday present for Sue Paterno, The Joe We Know was screened Saturday night in State College for an invitation-only audience, most of them former lettermen and their families. Those of us lucky enough to be in the State Theatre were treated to an hour of terrific, high-pitched Joe impersonations, anecdotes that ranged from hilarious to tear-jerking, and countless variations on a theme we’ve heard so often over the past month: former players who credit Joe Paterno’s role in helping them grow from boys to men.
Beyond this one-hour film, The Joe We Know is an ongoing project; the filmmakers hope to continue filming former player thought next spring, with additional footage compiled at thejoeweknow.org. The site is still a work in progress, but you can go there now to check out a handful of short clips. You can also sign up for email updates on the progress of the project, including when it might be made more widely available.
For those in or near Happy Valley, the film will be shown twice Sunday. As of late Saturday night, tickets were still available.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Nicely Done, Nate Stupar
Nate Stupar ’11 is no stranger to big moments at Beaver Stadium. On Monday, the Nittany Lion linebacker added a final highlight to the list when he proposed to his girlfriend, Marissa Lower ’11, on the Beaver Stadium turf. Looks like she said “yes.”
The moment was recorded by Stupar’s sister, Dyanna Joy, and you can see more photos at Dyanna’s website. Congrats, guys.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
For Billy Oliver, a Reluctant Goodbye
Billy Oliver’s best night as a Penn State basketball player came at the Jordan Center five weeks ago, when he scored a career-high 21 points in the Nittany Lions’ blowout win over Purdue. The game was memorable for being coach Patrick Chambers’ first Big Ten victory, but more so for Oliver’s stunning shooting display: all his points came on three-pointers, on which he shot 7 for 11 on the night.
Oliver won’t have any more big nights for Penn State. After the Lions’ 67-51 win Saturday over Nebraska, the redshirt junior forward announced his playing days were over. Still bothered by lingering effects from multiple concussions suffered during preseason workouts his freshman year, Oliver was emotional but certain Saturday when he told reporters he was retiring from basketball.
“It seems right for me, and more importantly, for the team,” Oliver said. “It’s selfish for me if I am not going to be able to go out there and give 100 percent with the history of my head, and I am worried about problems with that. I don’t want to do that to the team, because I know they give 100 percent. So, I am not continuing basketball.”
Oliver, who had one year of remaining eligibility, played just 58 games since arriving on campus in 2008 after a terrific high school career in Chatham, N.J. He redshirted as a freshman after twice suffering concussions in the preseason, and missed all but five games in 2009-10 while suffering from exercise-induced migraines. He played only sporadically over the past month while symptoms recurred, and after consulting with doctors and his family, made the call on his career.
The good news: Oliver will remain with the team next season on a medical scholarship, and he’s scheduled to graduate in May with a degree in finance—no surprise for a guy who earned a place on the Big Ten all-academic team. By all accounts, Oliver is a smart, personable young man who should do just fine without basketball. We’ll be rooting for him.
Beyond Oliver’s announcement, it was actually a pretty good weekend for the basketball program. There was that convincing win Saturday over Nebraska, and there was the news that Brandon Austin pledged to join the Nittany Lions next fall. Austin, a 6-foot-6 junior at Philadelphia’s Imhotep Charter High School, is rated by ESPN as the 12th-best small forward in the class of 2013.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Michael Mann Makes His Case
I approached the podium a few minutes before Michael Mann was scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon to ask him a simple question: Were all those police out front there because of him?
“Probably,” he smiled. “I think they’re probably superfluous, but it’s better to be safe.”
I’ve gone to probably a dozen Penn State Forum lunches in the past five years, and Thursday’s event at the Penn Stater Hotel was the first in which I’d seen a police presence. Three armed campus police officers—one from a K-9 unit—stood outside the packed conference room in which Mann spoke. I imagine they were there to stem any potential unrest after ads appeared on local radio this week urging people to boycott or protest Mann’s speech; I imagine those officers were aware as well that Mann has received death threats because of his work.
Mann, of course, is a climatologist, Penn State professor of meteorology and geosciences, and director of the University’s Earth Systems Science Center. If you know his name, it’s probably less because of his work—including his role in developing the iconic “hockey stick” model for measuring long-term global warming—than the reaction to it. U.S. Senators, state attorneys general, and TV pundits (among many others) have all gone after Mann in an attempt to discredit findings that show the reality and alarming rate of man-made global warming. If he’s not the favorite target of climate change deniers, he’s near the top of the list.
Mann’s speech Thursday was titled (more…)
Beverly McIver, Back in the Spotlight
It’s been a while since I met and interviewed Beverly McIver ’92g, the North Carolina-based artist and subject of the upcoming documentary Raising Renee. My profile of McIver ran in our Nov/Dec issue, timed (we thought) with the airing of Raising Renee on HBO late last year. But we never saw a firm date for the premier, and given the events of the past few months, I forgot to ever follow up.
The New York Times Style section offered an unexpected reminder Thursday with a profile of McIver, set at her Durham, N.C. home. It covers much of the same ground our story did—her path to artistic prominence, and the compelling family drama that inspired the documentary—but it offers something we didn’t: a firm date for Raising Renee. The doc is scheduled to air Wednesday, Feb. 22, on HBO. I’ve watched it a few times and highly recommend checking it out.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Rick Santorum, Surging Again
It was a perfect night for Rick Santorum.
The former Pennsylvania senator once again shook up the race for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, winning the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses and the Missouri primary in a single night. With presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney still struggling to convince social conservatives to get behind him, the sweep by Santorum ’80, ’86g further muddied what many had seen as a clear-cut GOP nominating contest.
What Santorum’s victories mean for the long haul remains up for debate. Results in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri are “non-binding,” so Santorum didn’t actually secure a single delegate. But those three wins give Santorum undeniable momentum for upcoming primaries, and also bode ill for Romney even if he ultimately secures the nomination.
For his part, Santorum insists he’s thinking bigger than his party’s nomination. “I don’t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney,” he said Tuesday night. “I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Looking Ahead
There have been a million reminders this week—on Thursday especially—about how Joe Paterno’s life was about so much more than football. And so it undeniably was. But football was the binding agent that brought Penn Staters together during Paterno’s tenure, and the medium by which his reach was able to extend so far. It mattered here, as it does in many places, and I have no doubt it still does.
I thought about this late Thursday when I came across this article on SI.com about Penn State’s 2012 recruiting class. On one level, there should be nothing further from our minds this week, but as an alum and season ticket holder, I know it won’t be long before I start focusing my attention on the program’s immediate future. And I know I’m hardly alone.
None of us can predict how Bill O’Brien and his staff will fare next season or in the seasons beyond, and none of us can know the impact the turmoil of the past few months will have on the program. Short-term, we know the scandal and coaching change cost Penn State some of its highly rated 2012 recruits. But most of those recruits appear ready to honor their commitment, which they’ll be able to make official on national signing day, Feb. 1.
Two of the Nittany Lions’ 2012 signees are highlighted in this piece. One, Eugene Lewis, a four-star recruit from Plymouth, Pa., is considered the best player in the Lions’ class. His father is quoted as saying that, despite interest from other schools, Lewis stayed focused on his first choice: “He loves the university. He loves the campus. It was bigger than Joe Paterno. It was Penn State that he loved.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Steven Bench, a three-star quarterback from rural Georgia who had previously committed to Rice but held out hope of playing at a big-time program. Again, you should read the whole story, but here’s a glimpse at how Bench responded when he stepped inside Beaver Stadium for the first time during his campus visit last weekend: “It just hit me,” he said. “You start looking around and realize how really big Beaver Stadium is. I’m not ashamed to say it. I started crying. I had made it.”
I don’t think Penn State fans will have much trouble getting behind guys like this. And I think Joe Paterno would be pleased. As Kenny Jackson ’96 said Thursday in his eulogy, Paterno “always deflected praise.” It was never about him. Fitting that his legacy lives on in the young men who played for him, but also in those who never got the chance.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Waiting Hours for Just a Moment, With No Complaints
I walked from my office to the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center a little after 1 p.m. Tuesday, thinking I might be early enough to beat the crowds. I wasn’t close.
Heading toward the tail end of a line that snaked back and forth through the Pasquerilla courtyard, Disneyland-style, stretched east on the sidewalk along Curtin Road, and at times extended north onto Shortlidge Road almost to Park Avenue, I got a sense of the crowd that already had turned out for Joe Paterno. This was in the first hour of a 10-hour viewing window on Tuesday, with four more hours scheduled Wednesday morning. This was no surprise.
I joined the crowd and spent two hours in line, all but the last 10 minutes of it outside, before the final stretch. We entered the spiritual center through a side door, shuffled down a hallway and entered the main lobby, where a few more turns of the line finally led us into the main auditorium. The clumps of people thinned into a slow but steadily moving single file, which continued down the aisle on the left side of the large, high-ceilinged room. At the front lay a casket, adorned with flowers.
We turned right, the casket on our left, the already indelible black-and-white image of Paterno, arms crossed and smiling, the only other adornment. On each side of the casket stood a large young man—former Nittany Lion quarterback Daryll Clark ’08 and a current player I didn’t recognize—part of the “honor guard” of lettermen who took turns aside their coach on the stage. The line had moved much more slowly in the early going, as some of those who’d come to pay their respects paused 15 or 20 seconds for prayer and reflection, a practice that must’ve been discouraged by funeral officials mindful of the tens of thousands still to come. By the time I got there, it seemed instinctive for each of us to stop for just a beat before moving on.
Jay Paterno ’91 stood for a time not far from the exit, shaking every hand presented him. I’m told his brother Scott ’97 did the same at other times during the 10-hour public viewing. I don’t know if their other siblings or Joe’s widow, Sue ’62, met the crowd, it seems safe to assume they did. The Paterno family has made no secret of their appreciation for the public support they’ve received over the past few months.
A friend who was an hour or so behind me in line texted me later to tell me that Tom Bradley ’78, Paterno’s former player, longtime assistant, and interim replacement, had made his way down the line on Curtin Road. As far as my friend could tell, Bradley shook the hand of every person in the line and offered the same words to each of them: “Thanks for coming out for Coach.”
Ryan Jones, senior editor
More Joe, From—and For—the Students
There’s a nice story this morning from the AP quoting Scott Paterno ’97, ’00 about his father’s thoughts and mood in the final days of his life. It likely won’t surprise Penn Staters to hear that Joe’s mind was sharp and his spirit strong even as his body failed him. “He was so positive and so confident at the end of his life that the things that were important about this place would endure,” Scott said. “And that’s why he was at peace. That, and (that) my mother was willing to put up with him all these years.”
Two stories today speak to Joe’s love for Penn State, and its students in particular. Mike Poorman ’82 writes at StateCollege.com about the countless interactions Paterno had with undergrads during his time in Happy Valley. Poorman, who taught “Joe Paterno, Communications & The Media” for four years in the College of Communications, took informal polls each semester and tallied the numbers:
“Out of nearly 250 kids in class from 2008-2011, 107 had a personal JoePa moment. We’re not talking football games or pep rallies or THON appearances, all awe-inspiring for tens of thousands of students. We’re talking students being invited into Joe’s house after singing carols, or sitting down at the Creamery with a Peachy Paterno ice cream cone while the treat’s namesake did the same.”
It’s a terrific piece.
There’s never been any doubt how students felt about Paterno. That admiration will be reflected Wednesday with a student-organized “Guide Joe Paterno Home” event encouraging all Penn Staters to line the route of the funeral procession Wednesday afternoon as it leaves the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center for the private burial service. Onward State has details here, and there’s a Facebook group set up as well.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Of Rooting Interests, Records, and a Rout
The Steeler fans in our office won’t agree with me, but for most Penn Staters, there’s still plenty of reason to pay attention to the NFL playoffs. Three of the four teams that will play this weekend for a Super Bowl berth boast contributions from former (and, in one case, brand-new) Nittany Lions.
All-pro linebacker NaVorro Bowman ’09 (pictured) was among the defensive stars for the San Francisco 49ers, who beat New Orleans on Saturday to set up a meeting with the New York Giants in the NFC championship game. Bowman recorded 10 tackles in San Francisco’s dramatic 36-32 win over the Saints. Among the Giants who will try to slow Bowman this weekend is Kareem McKenzie ’01, a Big Blue stalwart who has started nearly every game at offensive tackle for the past decade. Jimmy Kennedy ’02 is also on the Giants roster, as a reserve defensive lineman.
Over in the AFC, there aren’t any Penn Staters on the Baltimore Ravens’ roster, while Rich Ohrnberger ’08 holds down a spot on the New England Patriots’ injured reserve. Of course, the Pats have become a team of interest for Nittany Lion fans, as New England’s 45-10 drubbing of Denver showcased the offense run by new Penn State coach Bill O’Brien. Unless you’re a Broncos fan, that was fun to watch.
There’s plenty happening with current Penn State athletes, of course, and a typically busy winter sports weekend brought two highlights of note. The first came courtesy of the fleet feet of freshman Robby Creese, who set a U.S. collegiate and under-19 record in the 1,000 meters. He covered five laps at the Ashenfelter Indoor Track in 2:19.53. I got winded just typing that.
And the defending NCAA champion wrestling team recorded a first, blanking conference rival Wisconsin, 43-0, on the road for the program’s first ever Big Ten dual meet shutout.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
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