TITG: Joe Paterno Gone, 1926-2012

If you could use one person as the definition of college football it would have been Joe Paterno. Right or wrong, before recent tragic events Joe was the standard bearer for a sport that has grown into a billion dollar industry. A modern link to what good old boys call the “good old days,” Paterno landed in Happy Valley as a 23 year old assistant in 1950. Took the head coaching job in 1965, and built a monster in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Paterno passed away of complications from lung cancer Sunday morning, in a hospital surrounded by his family.

His greatest achievement as head coach, wasn’t his 2 national championships, or record 409 wins, it was the countless lives he touched as a mentor to thousands of players who came through Penn State under him. Unfortunately, a series of extremely bad decisions in the handling of ex-player, turned DC, Jerry Sandusky’s child molestation charges most likely tarnished that image forever. To see someone so revered, quickly become a pariah in a house he built just reinforces the fact that the choices you make (or choose not to make) define how you’ll be remembered.

On a personal note, as a youngster I was a huge Penn State fan. So much so that I almost cried on my birthday when Penn State lost a game at Notre Dame in the last second, via a Rick Mirer pass (the 1992 Snow Bowl). The terrible part of the whole situation being that the early 90′s were the height of Notre Dame fan fakery, compounded by the fact that House of Pain had every idiot kid within 5000 miles swearing Irish ancestry. Still, I rocked a Nittany Lion starter jacket and followed the PSU ship headed by the beloved JoePa. Pretty much up until the day I found myself as a student athlete at a university 18 hours southwest of Happy Valley. As hardcore as I thought I was, that’s all it took for me to basically forget about another place I had an imaginary relationship with for 17 years.

Not even remotely comparable to a guy like Joe. A man who’s loyalty for his school and the athletes he molded, eventually became his undoing. Sad to see this guy go out like that……….

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