In the fall of either 1970 or 1971 (I can;t remember which) when1 when I was either a junior or senior senior at Newhouse, the Syracuse New-Times (I think that was the name of the alternative weekly at the time) paid me to do a piece on Paterno. I called the Penn State SID and much to my surprise he said I could have 15 minutes of the coach's time on the friday night before the game. I spent almost an hour with him. After a few minutes talking about football, for some reason he asked me what I was planning on doing with my life. I told him I was torn between journalism and going to law school. JoePa, who had turned down law school much to his parents' displeasure to enter coaching, spent about 45 minutes more with me talking about my future and life. The next day was the su-psu game in which we lost at the end after psu consistently outpunted its coverage and greg allen had a field day returning punts. I've always admired JoePa since. Eventually my sister-in-law became a top-level administrator at psu and got to know joe and sue quite well and confirmed everything I had thought about the man.
I am embarrassed as a former memebr of the news media, for how it treated him in the final months of his life. Having been a journalist for more than 30 years and gotten to know a large number of public officials, including one president pretty well, I can't think of many men I have admired mroe than Joe Paterno.
s oI canr than There are onoly
I am embarrassed as a former memebr of the news media, for how it treated him in the final months of his life. Having been a journalist for more than 30 years and gotten to know a large number of public officials, including one president pretty well, I can't think of many men I have admired mroe than Joe Paterno.
s oI canr than There are onoly
While JoPa might have had the best interests of students at heart earlier in his career, his decisions toward the end certainly call into question his judgement and character.
