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Joe Paterno dies at 85
Excerpts from Paterno’s final interview
Gingrich wins, prepares ‘knockout punch’
Photos: China rings in the new yearJoe Paterno, former Penn State football coach, dies at 85
View Photo Gallery — Former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was diagnosed with cancer days after getting ousted as head coach in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky.
Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Leonard Shapiro, Joe Paterno, the former Penn State football coach who was among the most admired figures in the annals of collegiate sports but whose reputation was shattered in the wake of a child abuse scandal involving one of his longtime assistants, died Sunday morning of complications from lung cancer. He was 85.
The death was announced by his family.
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Listen to previously unpublished excerpts from Joe Paterno's final interview with The Washington Post's Sally Jenkins. (Jan. 22)Graphic
A look at the victims and events in the case against Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, as reported by the grand jury that investigated.“It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today,” the family said in a statement. “His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled.
“He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community.”
Mr. Paterno’s ascent, followed by his sudden firing at age 84, formed one of the most tragic narratives in modern athletic history.
Affectionately known as “JoePa,” Mr. Paterno began his 46-season tenure as Penn State’s head coach in 1966 after having served as assistant coach for 16 years. His teams won a record 409 games over that span with five undefeated and untied seasons and two national championships. He was the all-time winningest coach in major college football history. Moreover, his players and his team had one of the highest graduation rates in the country among athletes.
Mr. Paterno was shaken to the core this past fall when a grand jury report alleged that his former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, had sexually assaulted underage boys.
Sandusky, Mr. Paterno’s longtime defensive coordinator and trusted lieutenant until he retired in 1999, was charged with assaulting eight boys over the course of 15 years, some of them while he was an assistant coach. Following the release of that report, other alleged victims also began to come forward. Sandusky had made contact with the boys through the Second Mile, a charity he founded to help troubled youngsters.
The Sandusky case was not the first off-the-field issue Mr. Paterno’s program had faced in recent years. According to an ESPN report in 2008, between 2002 and 2008, 46 Penn State players had been charged with a total of 163 crimes that ranged from public urination to murder. In March 2011, Sports Illustrated published arrest numbers for all the schools it listed in its preseason Top 25 teams in the country. Penn State tied for fourth, with 16 players on the 2010 roster who had been charged with a crime.
During the Sandusky investigation, Mr. Paterno testified to the grand jury that Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant coach, said he had witnessed an assault by Sandusky on a youngster in the Penn State locker room.
Mr. Paterno said he passed the information on to his supervisors but did not notify law enforcement authorities about the incident. Mr. Paterno was never charged with a crime but was fired Nov. 9, 2011, by the school’s board of trustees, which included five former Penn State football players. Athletic Director Tim Curley and school President Graham Spanier were also dismissed.
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