Joe Paterno is history.
The winningest coach in college football will be sacked by a child-sex scandal involving a former Penn State assistant that has rocked one of the nation’s most storied college football franchises and tarnished the legacy of one of its biggest names.
Brooklyn-born Paterno, 84, who has been Penn State’s head coach since the Lyndon Johnson administration, will leave his post by the end of the season, and could clean out his locker before then, sources said yesterday.
Although he is likely to coach the team’s last home game of the season Saturday, against Nebraska, there is apparently no guarantee he’ll guide the storied Nittany Lions again after that.
“Paterno’s in a state of shock,” said a source close to the coach. “He can’t believe the vortex of hell that’s around him.
“He can’t believe how this happened on his watch,” the source added.
“He’s fluctuating between disbelief and trying to do what he’s done for the last 60 years — coach his team.’’
VACCARO: SAD FLICKER FROM BEACON OF INTEGRITY
The clock began running down on Paterno’s career amid a series of new developments:
* Hundreds of fans rallied at Paterno’s house last night in a show of support for the legendary coach. Paterno, affectionately known as “JoePa,” told the crowd, “I’ve lived for this place. I’ve lived for people like you guys and girls. It’s hard for me to say how much this means.”
He then said, “As you know, the kids that were the victims, I think we ought to say a prayer for them.”
* Paterno was scheduled to hold his weekly news conference yesterday, but the university canceled it less than an hour before it was scheduled to start.
* Six of the eight alleged victims have been identified by investigators, but their names have not been made public. Since Monday, more victims have come forward, raising the total to almost 20, myFOXphilly.com reported last night.
* A new report contradicted Paterno’s claim that he wasn’t told the details of an alleged sexual assault committed by Jerry Sandusky, his former defensive coordinator. A source told The New York Times that the graduate assistant who witnessed the alleged assault provided “explicit details” during a face-to-face meeting the following day with Paterno.
* The college’s Board of Trustees held an emergency meeting last night and announced they will form a special committee to “determine what failures occurred.”
The backlash against Paterno has been mounting like an aggressive pass rush ever since child sex-abuse charges were leveled last week against Sandusky.
Paterno handled the crisis yesterday as he has handled every storm that has blown through State College, Pa., during his lengthy reign.
He went to football practice.
“I know you guys have a lot of questions,” Paterno told reporters as he left his home near the campus. “I was hoping I was going to be able to answer them today. But we’ll try to do it as soon as we can. We can’t do it today.”
As a scrum of reporters clamored for a word from the embattled coach, students chanted his name as if he had just won the Rose Bowl.
Paterno’s son Scott told the same reporters that his father has had no talks with Penn State officials or trustees about stepping down. He said his dad plans not only to coach the Nebraska game, but to be around for the long haul.
But for now, it’s the short haul.
Penn State’s trustees decided that Paterno has to go, sources said, and may reach the same conclusion about the university’s president, Graham Spanier.
Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz have already been arrested and charged with perjury. They have stepped down from the school.
Officials said the administrators failed to notify authorities about the allegations against Sandusky, 67, who has been charged with 21 felony counts for allegedly abusing eight victims over a period of 15 years.
According to the indictment against Sandusky, Paterno notified Curley in 2002 after the graduate assistant on his coaching staff reported that he witnessed Sandusky having sexual intercourse with a young boy in the Penn State locker-room shower.
Sandusky was no longer a coach at the university at the time, but had access to the locker room as part of a nonprofit organization he ran for at-risk children.
Paterno’s legal requirement was that he notify his superior, but on Monday, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan suggested there was a “moral responsibility” for the coach to make sure police were contacted.
Paterno, in an earlier statement, maintained that he did what he “was supposed to do” under the law.
Sandusky played for Paterno from 1963 to 1965, returning to Penn State as a coach in 1969. He was defensive coordinator from 1977 to 1999, and was long viewed as a possible successor to Paterno.