As a result, the NCAA vacated all of the school’s wins from a 13-year period, effectively stripping Paterno of his title as winningest coach in college football history.
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Penn State announced Wednesday that it will commemorate the 50 anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as head coach, which coincides with the football team’s September 17 game against Temple at Beaver Stadium.
Some partially blame the coach for the scandal. Penn State, however, has decided it is now safe to celebrate the career of the former football coaching phenomenon. Sandusky was indicted on November 4, 2011 on 40 counts of sex crimes against young boys. Paterno died just two months following his dismissal. And Penn State, we know that a certain segment of your community is populated by self-deluded apologists, but even so, this should not be that fucking hard.
Court documents unsealed in July implicated Paterno in an earlier case of child sexual abuse – indicating that he had ignored the complaint of a 14-year-old boy who told him in 1976 of having been sexually assaulted by Sandusky.
That all 91 percent care more about Paterno’s 409 wins than they do about Sandusky’s victims.
In addition, back in May, Nancy Armour of USA Today wrote that the only way to honor Paterno was in the record books, while an overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania residents support the return of his statue outside Beaver Stadium.
But you can pretty much set your watch on critics blasting Penn State for being “tone deaf” anytime anyone associated with the university says something positive about Paterno.
‘Depending on their position people may look at him differently, but it doesn’t change that he created that here.
Paterno’s name is still on the campus library, which was built in part by his donations.
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The Penn State Alumni Association surveyed its members about Paterno and – according to PennLive.com – found that 91 percent “felt that Penn State should publicly recognize Joe Paterno for his service to Penn State”.
