Joe Paterno (AP)
Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno (AP)
(
)
One of the hardest calls Joseph Vincent Paterno ever had to place was made in 1949, shortly after he graduated from Brown University with a degree in English literature.
Paterno’s father, Angelo, had dreams of his son becoming an attorney, of getting out of Brooklyn and making a good life for himself.
But Paterno felt the tug of coaching. So he called home.
“For God’s sake, what did you go to college for?” Angelo asked his son.
He went to see if could coach elite college football with sound academics. He called it his “Grand Experiment,” and it worked.
Paterno became major college football winningest coach earlier this season. He had reached height of his professional career.
Which is why the hardest call of his life came yesterday. A tearful Paterno told his players he would retire at the end of the season.
But the university’s board of trustees didn’t give him the end of the season or even the last home game. Paterno, along with Penn State president Graham Spanier, were fired last night for failing to take stronger action when notified about an alleged horrific act of child sexual abuse by former longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Sandusky brought Paterno’s tenure to a shocking end and left his legacy in limbo in the court of public opinion. He is charged with 40 counts of sex crimes. Paterno has not been charged.
“Joe Paterno is brilliant,’’ one of his many former assistant coaches told The Post. “He has brilliant vision, which we all used to joke about because he wears those thick glasses because his eyesight is so bad.’’
“The last few years we were all hoping he’d get out soon before anything bad happened,’’ continued the coach. “We were afraid he’d get hurt, which he did a couple of times recently, or a kid might do something stupid. But no one ever imagined something like this. It’s a sad day.’’
If yesterday was sad for some, it’s impossible to imagine the emotion that will surge through Beaver Stadium on Saturday when the Nittany Lions play host to Nebraska in the last home game of the season.
Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, who replaced Sandusky in 1999, will serve as interim head coach. Paterno will not be at the stadium.
“Obviously this is an emotional time, one where you lose a legend of the game, someone that taught you so much, somebody who stands for something so great, something that’s bigger than ourselves,’’ defensive tackle Chima Okoli said on a conference call yesterday afternoon. “So it was definitely a very emotional meeting.’’
There has been great outcry that Paterno, who went to university officials rather than law enforcement after learning of the heinous allegations, didn’t do enough.
It was then Penn State graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary who stumbled upon Sandusky allegedly raping a 10-year-old boy in 2002 in the football building. Just as Paterno once called his father, McQueary called his dad, who told him to tell Paterno.
Paterno told athletic director Tim Curley, but he never called the police. That fail to act will haunt him.
“This is a tragedy,’’ Paterno said in a statement. “It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.’’
The irony in that statement is that no college football coach has done more for his university than Paterno. The 409 wins and two national championships are mere numbers.
Paterno, a self-described egghead who attended weekly brown-bag lunches with faculty members when he first got to Penn State, is the man most responsible for transformation this sleepy agricultural college into a national university, one with a 106,572-seat stadium. Beaver Stadium held 46,284 when it was built in 1960.
Paterno and his wife, Sue, helped raise more than $13 million for a new library that bears their name. They donated some $4 million to support construction of an all-sports museum and the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center.
But just as former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes always will be remembered for punching a Clemson player Charlie Bauman in the 1978 Gator Bowl, which led to his firing, Paterno will always have his name attached to these horrific allegations.
Sandusky served as his defensive coordinator from 1977-99, during which time Penn State won national titles in 1982 and 1986. At one point Sandusky was considered Paterno’s heir apparent. Now he will be known as Paterno’s pariah, the monster of Happy Valley.
Those close to Paterno fear the worst. He has stayed in coaching because in addition to his love of the game, he has no hobbies, no diversions, other than family.
It was the same with former Alabama coach Bear Bryant, a friend of Paterno. Bryant retired in 1983. He died one month later. That rattled Paterno to the core, the grim reaper up on the coaching tower.
All of this almost never came to pass. Within of few weeks of arriving in State College in 1950, Paterno told head coach Rip Engle he would stay for the season but this quiet outpost in a valley was not for him — too many trees and not enough concrete beneath his feet.
Engle told him to stick it out. He did. After 16 years as an assistant, Paterno succeeded Engle in 1966. By the end of the 1969 season, Penn State had consecutive 11-0 seasons.
By the early-’90s, Penn State was one of the nation’s elite programs.
His teams were as solid as their jerseys — navy and white with no names on the back, no logos on the front and black high top cleats. It became known as Linebacker U.
Now, that too, is stained. Sandusky coached the linebackers from 1970-76.
Sources told The Post that Paterno, at the behest of his wife, had decided before the season started that his 46th year as a head coach and his 62nd in State College would be his last.
Now there is no choice. The man who once said he could not stop coaching because, ”It would leave college football in the hands of the Jackie Sherrills and Barry Switzers,” took the fall because he failed to stand up.
When asked what Paterno meant to him, Okoli said, “I came here a boy and I’m going to leave a man. And that’s all due to Joe Paterno.”
The irony stings. Sandusky, a man who robbed boys of their innocence, helped rob Paterno of his legacy, and the final three games of his last season.
Who’s next?
Penn State will be looking for a new head football coach soon. Just exactly who will conduct that search is not clear. But here are four coaches who are sure to be discussed as successors to Joe Paterno:
Urban Meyer, 47,
ESPN analyst
Meyer led Utah to an undefeated season in 2004 and then took the Florida job and won two national titles. Meyer, an Ohio native, has been rumored for the Ohio State job as well, if he opts to return to coaching. Meyer resigned after the 2010 season because of health reasons. He suffers from esophageal spasms, a painful condition that is exacerbated by stress.
Greg Schiano, 45,
head coach, Rutgers
Schiano got his first grad assistant job at Rutgers in 1989 on Paterno’s recommendation and his first assistant coaching job was at Penn State from 1991-95. His record at Rutgers is 65-66 overall (4-1 in bowls), but he runs a squeaky clean program and his teams have consistently posted Top 5 graduation rates.
Tom Bradley, 55,
defENSIVE coordinator, Penn State
No candidate is more Penn State than Bradley, who will finish out the season as the interim head coach. Bradley played for Paterno from 1975-79 and has been on the staff since 1980. He is considered one of the sharpest defensive minds in college football.
Al Golden, 42, head coach, Miami
Golden played tight end at Penn State from 1987-91 and was the linebackers coach in 2000. He turned Temple from a laughing stock into a legitimate college football program and became caught up in the Miami scandal that was none of his doing. He has a squeaky clean reputation, which has always been key at Penn State.