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Celeb News: Joe Paterno has died
ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/26/2001
Posts: 22,475
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Originally posted by CBS Sports
Joe Paterno, the man who for decades was synonymous with Penn State football and was known by the college football world as just "JoePa", has died. Paterno, 85, had been receiving chemotherapy as part of his treatment for lung cancer, and complications from that treatment claimed the longtime Penn State coach's life on Saturday.
Paterno was the head coach of Penn State for 46 seasons before being fired in November as his role in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal came under greater scrutiny. Combined with the time he spent as an assistant, Paterno spent a total of 61 years on the Penn State sidelines. He left behind a legacy that, on the field of play, was unparalleled in Division I football. Paterno holds the all-time Division I record for football coaching wins with a 409-136-3 record, and he won two national championships while going undefeated in five different seasons.
Under Paterno, Penn State was a perennial powerhouse, known for decades as "Linebacker U" for its propensity to develop All-American linebackers. Paterno coached such great linebackers as Dennis Onkotz, Jack Ham, Shane Conlan, LaVar Arrington, Paul Posluszny, Dan Connor, and Sean Lee, along with many others.
Additionally, running back John Cappalletti won the Heisman Trophy in 1973 under Paterno, and Cappalletti was one of seven Penn State players to win the Maxwell Award for most outstanding college football player. All in all, 68 players were named first-team All-American by at least one of the major news services under Paterno; 13 of those players were two-year winners.
Paterno's longtime defensive coordinator and the architect of the defensive schemes that came to typify Penn State football was Jerry Sandusky, who's now more well-known for the allegations of underaged sexual abuse against him made by men who were involved in Sandusky's charity, The Second Mile, as boys. Sandusky is still awaiting trial for those allegations, and he pled not guilty to the charges in December 2011.
In an interview with the Washington Post released just a week before Paterno's death, he expressed remorse for not having done more to stop Sandusky's alleged crimes, and he also said he was "just sick about" the situation. Investigators did not bring charges against Paterno, and instead mentioned that he had fulfilled his legal obligations by notifying his superiors about an alleged assault when he was first notified in 2002.
After Paterno was fired in 2011, Penn State named Tom Bradley -- who, coincidentally, was Sandusky's replacement at defensive coordinator -- interim head coach. Bradley went 1-3, including a loss to Houston in the TicketCity Bowl, and was not retained as a coach when Penn State hired Bill O'Brien in January.
Paterno was well known for encouraging his players to excel in the classroom and earn their undergraduate degrees at Penn State, and his name will live on at Penn State after his firing and death. Paterno and his wife Sue were major financial supporters of Penn State University, as they donated millions of dollars for the Paterno Library on campus, and Paterno helped establish the Paterno Liberal Arts Undergraduate Fellows Program.
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http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs....56338/34497800
Other sources are also confirming his death. Honestly, I wanted to be absolutely sure that he was dead before making this thread, because I really did think that Joe Pa would live forever. It's a shame that the greatest college football coach of our time (and perhaps of all time) is going to be remembered not for being such a great coach, but for being the ultimate scapegoat of the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky saga.
Be at peace.
EDIT: Huffington Post is also reporting that Paterno has passed away.
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Member Since: 3/3/2011
Posts: 2,975
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Banned
Member Since: 4/30/2011
Posts: 38,486
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That's sad. Rest in peace (  )
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Member Since: 5/14/2011
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Member Since: 6/22/2011
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/26/2001
Posts: 22,475
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Hmm...Paterno family spokesperson Dan McGinn has said that the reports of Paterno's death are "absolutely not true". Interesting. I will keep updating this thread with more information as I learn more about the situation.
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Member Since: 1/12/2012
Posts: 18,340
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 9/26/2001
Posts: 22,475
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Story has disappeared from the CBS Sports blog that this story originated from. I'm going to close this thread for now, as it's clear that it hasn't been officially announced that Paterno is dead.
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Member Since: 4/12/2011
Posts: 4,449
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Quote:
Sadly, the grim reports that dominated the college football news cycle beginning Saturday evening were a precursor to the inevitable but still numbing reality: a coaching legend has passed.
A family spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press that Joseph Vincent Paterno has died at a State College hospital at the age of 85, just over two months after being diagnosed with a form of lung cancer. A posting to Penn State’s official Facebook page read simply: “With great sadness we mourn the passing of Coach Joe Paterno …Few have done more.”
Paterno passed away at 9:25 a.m. ET Sunday, and the official cause of death was metastic small cell carcinoma of the lung.
The legendary former Penn State head coach was surrounded by family and friends, who had been summoned to the on-campus hospital when Paterno’s health took a turn for the worse recently.
“It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today,” a statement from the family read. ”His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled. He died as he lived. He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, his players and his community.”
A statement attributed to university president Rodney Erickson and the Board of Trustees was released shortly after Paterno’s death.
“We grieve for the loss of Joe Paterno, a great man who made us a greater university. His dedication to ensuring his players were successful both on the field and in life is legendary and his commitment to education is unmatched in college football. His life, work and generosity will be remembered always.
“The University plans to honor him for his many contributions and to remember his remarkable life and legacy. We are all deeply saddened.”
Paterno was born Dec. 21, 1926, in Brooklyn, NY, and, after his playing days at Brown University were complete, was hired as an assistant at Penn State in 1950. Shortly after the 1965 season had ended, Paterno was named head coach of the Nittany Lions; for the next 46 years, Paterno lorded over Happy Valley as the face of both a football program and a university.
During his nearly five decades as head coach, Paterno accumulated 409 wins, the most in Div. I history; a record 37 appearances in bowl games; and two national championships. As great of a coach as he was on the field, he was widely hailed as, at least until the events that have transpired since last November, an even greater man off of it, donating millions back to his beloved university and shaping the lives of untold numbers of players, coaches and other football support staff.
The legacy he had built in more than a half a century at the school, however, was threatened — or erased in the minds of some — by the Jerry Sandusky child-sex abuse scandal that’s rocked the football program specifically and the university in general. Mere days after his former assistant was indicted on more than 50 charges relating to the sexual molestation of underage boys, Paterno was fired by the school’s board of trustees, which declared in a statement that their “unanimous judgment was that Coach Paterno could not be expected to continue to effectively perform his duties and that it was in the best interests of the University to make an immediate change in his status.”
Nine weeks after his final game Nov. 5 — eerily and vaguely similar time-wise to the passing of Bear Bryant after he had coached his last game at Alabama — Coach Paterno is gone.
Our condolences go out to his family, friends and every single person touched by a helluva coach and a great-but-fallible human being who will ultimately be defined by the totality of his life, both the good and the bad.
RIP Coach Paterno.
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Member Since: 11/30/2008
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ATRL Senior Member
Member Since: 3/19/2008
Posts: 37,076
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Apparently, he really is dead now. RIP.
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Member Since: 10/31/2011
Posts: 16,937
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Quote:
Originally posted by JoaoP
I dont know him but RIP
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He's someone who covered up the raping of children.
Bye, Joe.
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ATRL Moderator
Member Since: 11/16/2004
Posts: 28,450
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Hopefully all the good he did for the game will be remembered, not his last few months 
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Member Since: 10/31/2011
Posts: 16,937
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Quote:
Originally posted by Lee!!
Hopefully all the good he did for the game will be remembered, not his last few months |
Erm why should people forget the last few months? They're of much greater importance than what he did for football.
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Member Since: 10/31/2011
Posts: 16,937
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Excuse me, I have a MAJOR problem with a "reminder" I got via PM not to be disrespectful of the dead. I am NOT going to respect somebody who covered up the RAPING OF CHILDREN. Death is never a cause for celebration and I did no such thing but to try and erase his wrongdoing is equally harmful.
If there are any posts which are "insensitive" in here, it is anybody who thinks that his morally reprehensible actions should be forgotten and that we should instead just focus on his contribution to a sport. It's thinking like that which prolonged the suffering for those kids because people preferred to keep Joe on his pedestal of greatness and didn't want to go through the bother of tainting his legacy by speaking out.
Sorry but what kind of ridiculous "reminder" is that? I feel pretty strongly about this and would love to talk about it more with whoever actually issued the reminder.
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Member Since: 3/13/2011
Posts: 3,953
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Member Since: 9/13/2011
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Watching the coverage on CNN.
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Member Since: 10/31/2011
Posts: 16,937
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Or just choose to ignore me instead! That's cool, too, I guess.
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