Posts tagged ‘Joe Paterno’
A Heartfelt Goodbye
This public information photo shows some of the 12,000 attendees at Joe Paterno's memorial service at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Father Matthew Laffey of the Penn State Catholic Center set the tone—and provided a broad outline of Joe Paterno’s life—in his opening prayer. “Thank you for this man. … How fortunate this corner of your kingdom has been.”
The details came slowly over the next two hours Thursday afternoon, as speakers at A Memorial for Joe painted pictures of the man who helped to build—and became largely synonymous with—Penn State.
We met the competitive Joe. “The bigger the game, the quieter he was in practice,” said Todd Blackledge, quarterback of the 1982 national championship team. “But the gleam in his eyes told the story.”
The literary Joe, who never called Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, anything other than “Dean,” who donated millions of dollars to the library, and who clearly passed that love of literature on to his son. Here’s who Jay Paterno quoted in his closing eulogy: Sophocles, William Blatty, U2, John Adams, John Ruskin, Tennessee Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and Arthur Ashe.
The funny Joe, so quick with a one-liner, who told Jimmy Cefalo’s mother on a recruiting visit, “Your pasta is better than Mrs. Cappelletti’s.” (more…)
Guiding Joe Home—in Silence
College Avenue as the funeral procession made its way through the crowd, as seen by our art director, Carole Otypka.
So quiet. So sad. So respectful.
Usually when College Avenue is packed with thousands of people who are standing in the middle of the street with cell phones, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Not today.
Usually when people have to wait outside, in the cold, for well over an hour, tempers fray. Not today.
Like so many other Penn State fans, alumni, students, and employees, we the magazine staff went outside to pay our respects as Joe Paterno’s funeral procession wound through campus. We stood at the closest spot to our office, at Fraser Street and College Avenue, and waited so long that our fingers and toes froze. None of us would have missed it.
Graphic designer Jessie Knuth snapped this photo of the hearse.
The procession arrived a little before 5. First the hearse, carrying Joe’s coffin. Then the blue bus … with Sue Paterno sitting in the first seat, Joe’s seat for 46 years, one that this year’s team left empty after their coach was fired. His 17 grandchildren waved at the crowd. A few other cars and buses followed.
It was totally silent.
I was following along on Twitter—it’s worth checking out the hashtag #guidejoehome for real-time observations and emotions—so I knew that when the procession reached us, it would get quiet. It had everywhere else. But that didn’t dull the impact … wow.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Finally, A Penn State Win over Iowa Wrestling
Morgan McIntosh tangles with Iowa's Grant Gambrill in this Mark Selders photo.
Three bouts into the wrestling team’s dual meet with Iowa on Sunday afternoon, the Nittany Lions had lost all three bouts, one by pin, and were down 12-0. Surely some of the 6,796 fans—the largest crowd in Rec Hall since its reconfiguration—were having flashbacks to last year’s Iowa dual, in which Penn State lost the first three matches—one by pin—and never recovered from a 12-0 deficit.
So was coach Cael Sanderson worried?
“I know Cunningham was,” Sanderson said, using assistant coach Casey Cunningham as a comic foil, as he often does. “I was doin’ all right.”
Spoken like someone who had seven ranked wrestlers—including two guys at No. 1 and two guys at No. 2—coming up to the mat. But it was the guy ranked No. 12—197-pounder Morgan McIntosh, a true freshman—who clinched a 22-12 victory over the Hawkeyes.
McIntosh, facing Iowa junior Grant Gambrall, who finished third at NCAAs last season, got a takedown with 17 seconds remaining in the one-minute “sudden victory” overtime period for a 5-3 victory that gave Penn State insurmountable 19-12 lead with one bout to go.
The takedown also gave Sanderson his first dual-meet victory—as an Iowa State wrestler, Iowa State coach, or Penn State coach—over the Hawkeyes. And it gave McIntosh a loud, long standing ovation. “Coolest feeling I ever felt,” he said. “I’m not going to forget that for a long time.” (more…)
‘Joe Paterno was a Human Being Like the Rest of Us’
This photo by Annemarie Mountz ’84 of public information shows how many came to remember Joe Paterno on Sunday night.
I’m not going to lie—it felt a little odd. Just over two months after I stood on the Old Main lawn along with thousands of students holding candles to remember the victims of child sexual abuse, there I was again Sunday night. Same place, literally, at the foot of the Old Main steps. Same songs by the Blue Band. Many of the same students, I’m sure.
But this vigil was in honor of Joe Paterno.
There were tears again, yes—football players Mike Wallace and Matt McGloin, in particular, choked up as they remembered their coach, who died Sunday morning of metastatic lung cancer. But there was some laughter, too. And a similar feeling of togetherness as the students linked arms and swayed as they sang the alma mater. I wasn’t surprised this time—as I was at the previous vigil—that all of the students know all of the words. That just wasn’t the case back in my day.
What stood out the most to me were the words of Stefen Wisniewski, a former All-America offensive lineman (and Academic All-America) from one of those storied Penn State families; his father and uncle played for Paterno, too. Now a lineman for the Oakland Raiders, Wisniewski was the vigil’s last speaker. This is what he said:
A lot has been talked about today about Joe Paterno’s legacy, and unfortunately, a lot has been said about how the recent events that have taken place over the last few months might affect that legacy. A lot of supporters of Joe Paterno say that he really didn’t do anything wrong and that it shouldn’t have any effect on his legacy. Others say that all the good he has done and his time at Penn State should overshadow what he may have done wrong.
In my opinion, what happened in the recent events and the firing of Joe Paterno is that this figure who we looked up to as this super-human figure, this super legend, that he was kind of reduced to the level of a human being, like the rest of us. And that’s why we hated to see it. But the reality is, Joe Paterno was a human being like the rest of us. He did make wrong decisions. He did maybe fail to make right decisions. Like the rest of us do. Like the rest of us do, he’s done things in his life that require forgiveness, and he’s done things in his life that require redemption.
But when I think back over Joe Paterno’s legacy, the events that have happened over the last three months won’t even cross my mind. When I think back on Joe Paterno’s legacy, I’m gonna remember sitting at his kitchen table as he recruited me five years ago, eating cookies made by SuePa. And I remember leaving that meeting both excited about the prospect of playing at Penn State for Joe Paterno and simultaneously terrified at what he might do to me if I didn’t go there, the same place where my father and uncle both played.
I’m also going to remember …. Whew, so many memories. I’m also going to remember when Coach, at age 82, got down in an offensive lineman stance and showed me how to snap a football. Because I was terrible at it. I’m better now.
I also remember, as a Penn State student, walking through Paterno Library, a library that exists only because Joe Paterno loved the university enough to donate millions of dollars for it to be created. Because he was committed, not just to Penn State football, but to Penn State as a university. He was committed to education. He loved his place, and all of us who are part of Penn State are better as a result.
I also remember as a player, two years ago, playing against Northwestern, being down three touchdowns, coming back to win JoePa’s 400th victory. Watching players carry him off and seeing that No. 400 up on the screen. A number that is never gonna be touched by any coach ever again because no one has the commitment that Joe Paterno does.
I also remember that Joe Paterno taught us about success with honor and that it wasn’t enough for him just to win football games. He wanted to do it the right way. He wanted to do it with players who were going to graduate and players who would go on to be leaders in their communities and great husbands, great fathers. And he really did care as much about his players’ character as he did about what kind of football players they were going to be. Because he knew that our football careers were very short, but that we’re going to be husbands and fathers and leaders the rest of our lives.
And finally, when I think of Joe Paterno, I’ll remember that after every game he ever coached, whether it be a great loss or a great victory, that Joe Paterno knelt down with his players after the game and prayed the Our Father with us. We love you, Joe. And it’s my prayer that that father God you prayed to after each and every game will grant you rest and let his eternal light shine upon you.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
A High-Profile Introduction for Bill O’Brien
What a difference 46 years makes.
After Rip Engle retired as Penn State’s football coach, Joe Paterno was introduced at his successor at a news conference on Saturday morning, Feb. 19, 1966. On the front page of the next issue of The Daily Collegian, this was the top headline: “Model U.N. Whips USSR Bloc.”
Underneath, there were stories about whether changing the rules on female students living in apartments would lead to moral ruin (one student testified that at other schools with similar rules, “they have no trouble with pregnancies”), about the Collegian’s new editor and business manager, and about the concert that kicked off Greek Week 1966: Simon and Garfunkel in Recreation Building.
Paterno was mentioned on page 6. At the bottom. In a story headlined “Paterno Retains Staff.”
To be fair, the Collegian published Tuesday through Saturday in those days, so the news was a couple of days old. But it’s still remarkable to contrast the introduction of Paterno with that of his successor, Bill O’Brien, who was introduced Saturday morning at the Nittany Lion Inn in a ballroom full of media members, donors, university officials, alumni, and what seemed like some fans who wandered in. O’Brien’s news conference was televised and streamed live by the Big Ten Network (if you missed it, you can watch it here), and dozens of media tweeted his every word to an eager Penn State fan base and a national audience.
And, of course, the composition of O’Brien’s staff, while important, wasn’t the big story. It was how and why he was chosen to lead Penn State after the Sandusky scandal.
O’Brien’s Friday evening flight from Boston to State College was tracked online by media, and shortly after the plane landed at University Park Airport, photos started to show up on Twitter. The photos, taken in the dark, weren’t great—Jim Seip of the York Daily Record tweeted that he’d seen better definition in photos of Sasquatch.
Photographers got better shots Saturday before the new coach actually met the media; O’Brien’s 5-year-old son, Michael, (more…)
A Note About an ‘Unknown’ Coach
Let me start by saying that I have no idea whether Bill O’Brien will turn out to be the right coach for Penn State, and I’m certainly one of the people who knew him only as Guy Who Yelled at Tom Brady until recently. But while I was flipping through decades of old issues to gather nuggets for our 100th anniversary issue, I came across these paragraphs in the “Old Main Columns” department in the April 1966 issue:
The announcement of Rip Engle’s voluntary retirement was expressed through the radio and press on Friday morning, February 18. On that evening Rip was scheduled for an appearance at a dinner meeting of the Bucks County Penn State Club. Alumni in attendance were conscious of having been privileged to be with the popular Engle on a very special occasion and at a significant time in the coach’s life. The public was not to know officially of Joe Paterno’s appointment until Monday.
Rip was in a very light-hearted mood and willingly answered most of the questions put to him following his formal talk. However, he hesitated when some alumnus asked him about next season’s team. “I don’t think I should talk about that,” he replied, slowly. “You’ll be having Joe down here one of these days …” Realizing what he had said, Rip quickly continued, “Any more questions?” “Yes,” someone replied from the back of the room. “Who’s Joe?”
Lori Shontz, senior editor
How Can We Support Sex Abuse Victims? A SOC 119 Perspective
Early in the second class he devoted to the Sandusky scandal and its aftermath, Sam Richards asked his SOC 119 students to react to this statement: I am feeling exhausted talking about this issue.
This was Nov. 15, only 12 days after the grand jury presentation was released. Less than a week after Joe Paterno had been fired and Graham Spanier had resigned, and nine days since the national media began to arrive on campus. Almost all of the 700 students, voting anonymously with clickers, chose “strongly agree” or “agree.” Imagine what the percentage would be now, with the TV trucks no longer parked on College Avenue and the football team’s regular season over.
Richards then asked students to pair off and kick around solutions to this question: What would it mean to support the victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse? The most common answers: donating money to organizations that support victims, and listening to anyone who wanted to talk about a similar experience.
And then Richards tied the two questions together: “What would it mean to support the victims? No. 1, it would probably not mean being tired of talking about it. After nine days. What is that? We have done a whole semester on race, and we’re not really tired of talking about race, but we’re tired talking about this issue after nine days.”
The way Richards sees it, (more…)
Joe Paterno Has Lung Cancer
As if the events of the past two weeks haven’t been upsetting enough on many levels, now it’s being reported that Joe Paterno has been diagnosed with “a treatable form of lung cancer,” according to a statement released by one of Paterno’s sons, Scott.
According to this story from The Patriot-News, the 84-year-old coach was diagnosed after being hospitalized during the Nebraska game last Saturday. The Citizens Voice newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., published a report earlier Friday saying that Paterno had been treated Wednesday night at an on-campus “infirmary” and at a local hospital.
Here’s the text of Scott Paterno’s statement, which was provided to The Associated Press:
“Last weekend my father was diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness. He is currently undergoing treatment and his doctors are optimistic that he will make a full recovery. As everyone can appreciate, this is a deeply personal matter for my parents, and we simply ask that his privacy be respected as he proceeds with treatment.”
This news is just the most shocking of what turned out to be an eventful day.
The Faculty Senate passed a resolution asking for an independent investigation into the situation, conducted by a committee with no ties to Penn State. The NCAA announced it will investigate Penn State for, essentially, a lack of institutional control. (Clicking on this link from Penn State Live will take you to a PDF of the NCAA’s letter from President Mark Emmert.) And The New York Times reported that The Second Mile, Jerry Sandusky’s charity, is going to fold.
All of this happened within about three hours this afternoon. The Paterno and Second Mile stories broke within an hour of each other. I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling overwhelmed.
Lori Shontz, senior editor
David Joyner’s First News Conference
Dave Joyner began his first news conference as Penn State’s acting athletic director with an opening statement that sounded more like a mission statement:
“My mission here has begun,” said Joyner ’72, ’76g. “I’m gonna align our core values in intercollegiate athletics with the rest of the academic units. We have a noble purpose here at the University, and it doesn’t just stop in the classroom. It continues onto the athletic fields, which in my opinion are just another classroom where young people learn to be successful.
“Given that, I consider myself the dean of the ‘College of Intercollegiate Athletics.’”
At that point, he said he’d take questions, which was about the only moment of the morning that was typical.
The news conference was held in cavernous Schwab Auditorium, with ushers checking ID at the door and smooth jazz playing at a high volume before and after Joyner spoke. Field hockey coach Char Morett ’79 H&HD introduced Joyner ’72, ’76g reading his bio and ending by noting that she had known him for 25 years, through their Penn State and Olympic connections. (Joyner, an orthopedic surgeon, has been active in the United States Olympic Committee.) Only a handful of the regulars who cover Penn State football and athletics attended; the rest were on their way to Columbus for Saturday’s football game. (And there was no telephone hookup, so they could not call in to ask questions.)
So most of the questions were asked by national media, many of them investigative reporters. They were not (more…)
A Classroom Discussion on the Week’s Events
Class started with a moment of silence. Someone dimmed the lights, and the standing-room only crowd—700-plus strong—in 100 Thomas Building for Sam Richards’ SOC 119 class paid tribute to victims of sexual abuse. And not only the alleged victims of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“We want to honor what they’ve been through and how they are a part of this and how they have been forgotten,” said sociologist Laurie Mulvey ’94g, Richards’ wife, who teaches the class with him. “And we also want to recognize the people in this room who are victims. There are plenty of you in here.”
So began another afternoon in the classroom of one of Penn State’s more outspoken faculty members. The title of the course is Race and Ethnic Relations, but that’s just a jumping off point sometimes. Richards had tweeted the day before that he couldn’t see sticking to the syllabus during such a momentous week on campus.
“We really thought a lot about whether we were going to do this class,” Richards said Thursday afternoon, introducing the discussion. “We decided the value of speaking today was greater than the value of staying silent.”
Added Mulvey, “We want to let you know from the outset that we are definitely not here to give answers. At best, we’re here to give you guidance about how to walk through this difficult moment and think through this difficult moment. “
Richards started by asking the students to complete this sentence: “I feel …”
Here’s a list of the answers:
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