The quarterback for Joe Paterno’s last official victory at Penn State? Mike McQueary.
As part of the NCAA punishments handed down yesterday, all of Paterno’s wins going back to the 1998 season were vacated, making the coach’s final win a 35-10 victory over Wisconsin on Nov. 22, 1997, when McQueary — a pivotal figure in the Jerry Sandusky investigation — started under center for the Nittany Lions.
In 2001, while working as a graduate assistant for the football program, McQueary witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in the locker room showers. McQueary then reported the incident to Paterno, who relayed it to higher powers who buried the information, initiating the coverup that has shaken college sports.
In another bit of irony, the game program from Paterno’s final win in 1997 had the headline “End of the Line.”