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If you haven’t heard the news yet – Joe Paterno died recently at the age of 85 due to serious complications from lung cancer treatment. His family announced this Sunday morning on January 22nd, 2012.
The sad part of how Joe Paterno died was how he was recently convicted of a sex scandal, leaving him with a broken heart. This scandal, involving him allegedly covering his assistant, over a child sexual abuse was the cause of him being fired in November of 2011. Allegedly over the past 15 years, his 67 year old assistant Sandusky was sexually abusing 10 boys.
In light of these incidents, we all can realize there was definitely some pressure put on Joe Paterno that revolved around these incidents, and the fact he wasn’t involved in it himself goes to give a bad name toward the Board that fired him unceremoniously. A 1982 graduate named Dana Gordon sat throbbing at the feet of the statue of Joe Paterno after his death blaming the Board of Trustees for hastening his death and leaving him with a broken heart.
How and why Joe Paterno died is a tragic tale itself and his accomplishments and dedication he had far outweigh these recent skirmishes. Joe Paterno grew up in Brooklyn, New York born in the year 1926. His family was primarily Italian ancestry. Later on, he attended the now defunct Brooklyn Preparatory School and graduated in 1944. After graduating, he served in the Army for 1 year and attended Brown University where it was paid for by Busy Arnold.
After graduating from Brown University in 1950, he decided he wanted to be a head football coach. Despite how his father said, “for god’s sake, what did you go to college for?” in response to his decision, he became assistant coach to Engle until he retired in the year 1965 before becoming his successor.
So starting in the year 1966, Joe Paterno was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions for 46 years up until 2011. He is the 1st coach to ever reach 400 victories as an FBS Football coach with his total being 409. Over his years, he had the opportunity to coach 5 different undefeated teams that won major bowl games, and in 2007, he was inducted into the college hall of fame for football coaches.
Joe Paterno will always be remembered and be a legacy and inspiration to not only his fans, but even people like myself who aren't of Penn State origins.
Final Thoughts
If you have any thoughts about how Joe Paterno died, all comments are appreciated.
Seth, Joe Paterno did in fact lead a long successful life. As mentioned in other Street talk posts Joe was not convicted of anything. However, he will unfortunately be associated with the sex abuse allegations of Jerry Sandusky. Joe may not have done everything he could have or should have but it is documented he reported it to a higher authority than himself. My opinion is that the investigating authorities, University administrators and Penn State Board of Trustees who purposefully attempted to hide the allegations are more at fault than "Joe Pa"
I agree. The board that dishonorably fired him should all be fired for doing what they did, or at least the people that made it happen. That was a really dumb situation to occur shortly before his death in light of all his lifetime accomplishments he should have been appreciated for in advance of his health problems...
Just so you all know, there was a massive memorial speech in honor of Joe Paterno. A lot of the speakers indirectly backed up his situation and talking about all his accomplishments and programs he has made to better Penn State college. You can read about this on the internet or probably watch Youtube vids. I'm sure you can find it on the news too.
i don't really know the guy 'cause i'm not American. but i think its a shame it had to end like this. We need to learn from this to always do the 'right thing' and not put anything 'under the carpet' for ANY reason whatsoever. Nobody, especially kids should suffer these terrible things.
Yea, you're right. Nobody should have to go through whatever it is those college students went through. To be honest with you though, it sounds like some guy wanted to be cool by letting everybody know about something very small that was going on. The reason why Joe Paterno was so successful was because he worked with his colleagues and team for the better, and that's why he's the only coach in history to make over 400 victories in College Football.
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