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As this season has progressed, we’ve taken a look a a variety of different coaches. Some have experienced great success in their careers, some have been less successful. Some have moved between head coaching positions with multiple schools, and some have just recently taken a head coaching position at their current school. Penn State’s Joe Paterno really needs no introduction, as anyone remotely familiar with college football and Penn State has heard of Paterno and can probably cite a few of the most notable details about his storied career.
The 83-year old coach of the Nittany Lions has been with the program since 1950, starting as an assistant coach and remaining in that role until 1965. As of last week, Paterno has amassed 400 wins as a head coach, the most all-time, and has led the team to multiple undefeated seasons. Before there are any comments about how anyone could amass that number of wins if given the same years at coach as Paterno, it should be noted that “JoePa” has achieved that mark by winning 75% of the games he has coached, and has a bowl game record of 24-11-1.
Born in Brooklyn, Paterno attended Brown University and immediately joined the Penn State staff after graduating. He has since become a legendary figure in the sports world, bringing a characteristic look to the sidelines and a lot of personality to the many interviews he’s done. A fact that may interest Buckeye fans is that Paterno turned down the head coaching job at Michigan in 1968, a decision that clearly would have altered our rivalry with the Wolverines had it gone the other way, especially when considering that Bo Schembechler ended up being hired in place of Paterno. Obviously Paterno has gotten to coach against Ohio State regularly despite turning down the Michigan job, as Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1990 in an expansion of the conference that Paterno has advocated for in the past and saw come to fruition with the addition of Nebraska being finalized this year.
The standard statistics about winning seasons and bowl games could be re-hashed here, or some information could be provided about Paterno’s philanthropy, or we could even search the web for off-beat factoids, such as Paterno’s preference for the Greeks over the Romans, but instead of these options I’d like to go with a more personal note, in hopes that it will be more interesting. Growing up, Penn State was the team that I knew, a direct result of my Dad going there for college, seeing Paterno on a regular basis walking across campus to practice. Saturday college football meant watching the Penn State game years before it meant watching the Buckeyes, and Ki-Jana Carter was far more notable than Eddie George, if you can believe that. My freshman year at Ohio State I clearly remember being in my dorm room hearing the roar of the fans as Ohio State squared off against Penn State in the stadium a mile away, knowing that shifting allegiances would be a challenge, although clearly it would happen. The reason I bring all this up is because Joe Paterno truly represents Penn State, and his work in building the program is what made Penn State a team that I wanted to feel a connection to growing up. At the end of that Big Ten commercial, when Paterno grits his teeth and says (or demands) “Come to Penn Staaate,” I find the passion not only funny, but also rather convincing.
When the time finally comes for Paterno to step down, Penn State will obviously honor him in numerous ways, and the TV networks will have pre-season, pre-game, halftime, and end-of-season features to an extent that will make you nauseous. If the school was really clever they would just lobby to have State College, PA renamed Joe, PA (do you get it?). Certainly Coach Tressel will be asked for his own thoughts, and he will share them in true Tressel fashion, as he has done before. It is clear that Tressel has a lot of respect for Paterno, which is wise considering that only minutes after win 400 Paterno exclaimed “Now that the celebration is over, let’s go beat Ohio State!” Indeed, the best way to give proper recognition to Paterno’s legacy and accomplishments is by seeing him for what he is – the head coach of a formidable opponent – and preparing for that opponent accordingly.
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