[Listen to the audio version here: Paterno Obit 1-12]
When an 85-year old man dies, you cannot call it a tragedy. Sad, yes, but tragic, no.
But Joe Paterno’s passing might be an exception. Born in Brooklyn in 1926, he enrolled at Brown University, where he played quarterback. He still holds a school record — for interceptions — with 14.
After graduating, Paterno was supposed to go to law school, but instead followed his coach, Rip Engle, to Penn State.
His father was beside himself. “For God’s sake, what did you go to college for?” That was 1950. 62 years later, that’s where Joe Paterno died.
In between, even his critics admit, Paterno did an amazing amount of good.
He led the Nittany Lions to five undefeated seasons, three Big Ten titles, two national crowns, and more wins, 409, than any coach in the history of football.
Even better, unlike many of his peers, Paterno did not make any deals with the devil for those victories. He embarked on something he called “The Grand Experiment,” in which he expected his players to be genuine “student-athletes.”
It wasn’t just a slogan to him. In the Big Ten, Penn State’s players rank second behind only Northwestern’s in graduation rate – and ahead of the average rate for all Penn State students. His African-American players – too often ignored in big time college programs — performed particularly well.
Along the way, Paterno turned down offers from three NFL teams and the University of Michigan, which had to settle for a man named Bo Schembechler.
Paterno and his wife Sue donated more than four million dollars to Penn State, and helped raise over 13 million for a library expansion, now called the Paterno Library. After he led Penn State to join the Big Ten, the school’s research income tripled. It’s hard to think of anyone who’s done more good for any university than Joe Paterno did for Penn State.
And yet.
Some of the very qualities that made him so effective, led to his demise – and that of others. He used his power for great change, yet became so powerful it seems no one had the courage to give him bad news.
In 2004, when former Penn State president Graham Spanier asked for Paterno’s resignation – not because of any scandal, mind you, but because his teams were losing too many games – Paterno told him, No, they’d be fine. And they were, finishing third in the nation. Spanier didn’t dare test him again.
With this kind of unquestioned authority, it’s not surprising no one wanted to alarm Paterno when the Jerry Sandusky scandal first surfaced. And not in 2011, but in 1998, when Penn State received its first police report about Sandusky’s questionable conduct.
It’s harder to understand why they didn’t take more serious action – or, really, any action at all – in 2002, after an assistant coach told Paterno that he saw Sandusky raping a young boy. (Sorry, but euphemism will not do here.) Paterno told his bosses – who promptly did nothing. Paterno himself never pursued it.
We still have more questions than answers, and some of our questions no doubt have gone to the grave with Paterno. Whenever I’m tempted to rush to judgment, I’m reminded of the Duke lacrosse case.
But some things we already know for sure.
A week before he died, Paterno said he should have done more. I’m willing to concede that a man of his generation would be uncertain what to do in such a sitaution. But being uncertain, and being indifferent, are not the same things.
The Paternos have 17 grandchildren, and it’s safe to assume that if any of them had been endangered by a man like Sandusky, Paterno would not be so passive.
The damage done is immeasurable. And not just to Paterno’s reputation or even Penn State’s – but most seriously, to the helpless boys in their care they failed to protect, who will never be the same.
How do you make a final judgment on someone who did so much good, and yet was blind to so much evil? The two simply cannot be reconciled.
And that is just one of the tragedies we are left with.
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May be your best. Thank you for helping me sort it out.
his true character is revealed when after turning down Don Canhans offer because he was going to a bowl and Canham said he could not wait, was to never mention it, at Canhams request, until years later when Canham did
Reconciled?
No, how many of us can reconcile the Jekyll and Hyde sides of our own character?
Judged?
“Judge not, lest ye not be judged.”
However, I think he must be judged, strongly, and negatively, and permanently.
I don’t care if he raised 100 billion dollars and cured cancer, the buck at Penn State stopped at his desk and he passed it, when the authority and gravitas and larger than life personality and power, that he created, made him THE guy with the responsibility to PROTECT THE INNOCENT.
What would Bo do?
Does anyone have to think about it?
What generation does not understand that there is NO acceptable reason for a naked 50 plus year old man to be in a shower naked with a 12 year old boy?
End of story.
Out, now, banned, referred to law enforcement, all his actions from birth on investigated, the parents of every minor you could find in your files on Sandusky contacted and informed.
Well, privacy and blah, blah, blah.
Informed that the SOB was naked in the shower with a naked kid, he did not even deny that, did he?
Even the above scenario is too slow; this should have been done at the first report.
This is the Catholic church scandal all over again. Cover up by the higher ups.
That is why Paterno should be made an example of, to deter the next legend, and everyone in a position of authority, that your reputation is RUINED forever for this kind of negligence.
That you, the boss, are responsible, and, accountable.
I am dead serious.
The name of the library should be changed, and the statue toppled.