Joe Paterno died at 9:25am today at the Mt. Nittany Medical Center where he’d been hospitalized since January 13 due to complications from the chemotherapy he was was undergoing for lung cancer. I’ve seen Coach Paterno often walking back and forth from his home to his office since coming to Penn State in 1972.
The Paterno family released this statement shortly after his passing:
It is with great sadness that we announce that Joe Paterno passed away earlier today. 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.
He has been many things in his life – a soldier, scholar, mentor, coach, friend and father. To my mother he was and is her soul mate, and the last several weeks have shown the strength of their love. To his children and grandchildren he is a shining example of how to live a good, decent and honest life, a standard to which we aspire.
When he decided to forego a career in law and make coaching his vocation, his father Angelo had but one command: Make an impact.
As the last 61 years have shown, Joe made an incredible impact. That impact has been felt and appreciated by our family in the form of thousands of letters and well wishes along with countless acts of kindness from people whose lives he touched. It is evident also in the thousands of successful student athletes who have gone on to multiply that impact as they spread out across the country.
And so he leaves us with a peaceful mind, comforted by his “living legacy” of five kids, 17 grandchildren, and hundreds of young men whose lives he changed in more ways than can begin to be counted.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, the family requests that donations be made to the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania or the Penn State-THON, The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon.
Ok…I have to say this. I am not saying anything ill about the man and I never met him. I played soccer at a branch campus. Getting money for the soccer program, while any sports program was not possible because everything went through JoePa’s office first.
The recent scandal should not have happened, but it did for one reason and one reason only. The money that Penn State football brings in. In any other sport at Penn State things would not have happened the way they did. Coaches would have been fired. People arrested much earlier then they were. But it’s Penn State Football.
I ended up transferring out of Penn State for reasons other than sport. I know I sound bitter, and maybe I am a little. My heart goes out to the Paterno family, but in the end it’s only football, it’s only a game and he was only a man.
For those of us who have been in and around Penn State for many years, the many large contributions Joe Paterno made to the University’s development are apparent. Whether or not one appreciates the realities of big-time college football and all the hoopla and moolah that accompanies it, Penn State is a very different place today than it was early in Joe Paterno’s career here.
Many of those changes resulted, or were accelerated, from the influence and achievements of that one remarkable man. Like all of us, he had his faults, but there is no question that he was a great man in terms of his accomplishments and leadership. We will not see his like again.
RIP Joe Paterno, and condolences to his family and many, many Penn State friends.
“Only football” was only a venue for a great man, who did more good for his fellow man than most of us. Makes no difference what the game was.