My JoePa story

[cto]

I posted this story more than 10 years ago, but I am telling it again because it has some interesting aspects to it...

I belong to an organization of senior corporate communications and public affairs officers called (I know this will sound dumb) "The Wisemen." (At least one other poster here belongs to the same group).

Anyhow, the entire purpose of this organization is to hold seven dinner meetings a year with "interesting" speakers. Maybe 95 percent of the speakers (all of whom speak for free) are from the media or government/politics (e.g., NYC mayors, NYS governors, editors of NY Times and WSJ, former Presidents, prominent TV journalists, etc). About 10 years ago, our speaker was Joe Paterno (one of our members, who was a member of the PSU Board of Trustees and a big PSU supporter, invited him).


Even though we had had such speakers as Richard Nixon (in practically his first speaking event after he resigned), the biggest draw of all was JoePa. The dinner kept selling out, and it kept being moved to larger rooms until the Harvard Club ran out of "larger rooms." That showed me what a fascination JoePa had on the consciousness of people who were not PSU fans -- and not even necessarily college football fans.

Because I have a reputation as a college sports fan, the guy who arranged for JoePa's appearance asked me to be JoePa's dinner partner. Therefore, I sat next to him for two hours.

I don't remember the specifics of what he said in his public remarks and in the public Q&A, except it was mainly about the "PSU Way" (or whatever he called it) and why it was so successful at PSU. What I do remember, however, are parts of our private conversation.

He seemed enthralled with the fact that I was a woman who was a serious Syracuse sports fan and who knew something about why PSU was not a member of the Big East (or who at least knew enough to ask him about it). In essence, he was still very bitter about the way the Big East was set up without PSU. He had nothing but praise for Jake Crouthamel for supporting PSU, and nothing but disdain for the Big East politics that eventually prevailed.

I can clearly remember him saying ... "Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Boston College, etc ... What a great conference that would have been." Obviously I then asked him whether he would have stayed in such a conference had the Big 10 come calling. His response: "Those were our traditional rivals. I felt that was where we belonged."

Anyhow... It's a story that I hadn't thought of in many years. But just wanted to mention it today.

 

[kcsu]

Thank you for sharing. Imagine if PState had been a founding member of the Big East.

 

[OrangePA]

I posted this story more than 10 years ago, but I I am telling it again because it has some interesting aspects to it...

I belong to an organization of senior corporate communications and public affairs officers called (I know this will sound dumb) "The Wisemen." (At least one other poster here belongs to the same group).

Anyhow, the entire purpose of this organization is to hold seven dinner meetings a year with "interesting" speakers. Maybe 95 percent of the time, the speakers (all of whom speak for free) are from the media or government/politics (e.g., NYC mayors, NYS governors, editors of NY Times and WSJ, former Presidents, prominent TV journalists, etc). About 10 years ago, our speaker was Joe Paterno (one of our members, who was a member of the PSU Board of Trustees and a big PSU supporter, invited him).


Even though we had had such speakers as Richard Nixon (in practically his first speaking event after he resigned), the biggest draw of all was JoePa. The dinner kept selling out, and it kept be moved to larger rooms until the Harvard Club ran out of "larger rooms." That showed me what a fascination JoePa had on the consciousness of people who were not PSU fans -- and not even necessarily college football fans.

Because I have a reputation as a serious college sports fan, the guy who arranged for JoePa's appearance asked me to be JoePa's dinner partner. Therefore, I sat next to him for two hours.

I don't remember the specifics of what he said in his public remarks and in the public Q&A, except it was mainly about the "PSU Way" (or whatever he called it) and why it was so successful at PSU. What I do remember, however, are parts of our private conversation.

He seemed enthralled with the fact that I was a woman who was a serious Syracuse sports fan and who knew something about why PSU was not a member of the Big East (or who at least knew enough to ask him about it). In essence, he was still very bitter about the way the Big East was set up without PSU. He had nothing but praise for Jake Crouthamel for supporting PSU, and nothing but disdain for the Big East politics that eventually prevailed.

I can clearly remember him saying ... "Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Boston College, etc ... What a great conference that could have been." Obviously I then asked him whether he would have stayed in such a conference had the Big 10 come calling. His response: "Those were our traditional rivals. I felt that was where we belonged."

Anyhow... It's a story that I hadn't thought of in many years. But just wanted to mention it today.

Great story CTO!

Thank you!

 

[bevosu]

I would have been very happy to have seen that eastern football conference become a reality.

PSU was our main rival for much of the late 50's, 60's and 70's when I was a much younger fan. I still think that they're our only serious football rival, at least since I became a Syracuse sports fan. Others have replaced them temporarily and West Virginia and Pitt have hung in there, but PSU will always be the rivalry for me.

I admired JP. Thought he was one of those rare big time college coaches who had some integrity. Thought his loyalty to PSU was something. Especially when he turned down more lucrative pro coaching offers and stuck with his team. Hello Saban?

Too bad his reputation has taken the hit that it has. Sad to see him go out the way that he did.

Here's something from a Penn State blogger..posted the week of our game with PSU in 2009. Gives a taste of how intense that rivalry was. For those too young to have experienced it.

To a certain extent I include myself in this group of ignorant fans. As I said above, I never really lived during the glory days of this rivalry. So I started reading up on it earlier this week. Soon I realized this is a rivalry that has it all. A long history. Frustrating losses. Gut wrenching upsets. Demoralizing beatdowns. Epic battles for eastern supremacy. Biased officiating. Animosity between coaches. And even fist fights on the field. For younger fans like myself, this is a story that needs to be told and passed down through generations. ​

http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2008/9/11/611922/the-history-of-the-penn-st

 

[hungrychuck]

Nice story, Joyce.

I met him once, more briefly. It was in the locker room at the old Giants Stadium, 1979. His team had just laid a 35-7 beating on the Orangemen. I covered the game as a student journalist.

It wasn't a vintage PSU team. And it was an SU team that could put up points -- with Bill Hurley, Art Monk and Joe Morris leading the offense. But not on this day. Absolute beatdown. A few days later, members of the 1959 championship team would call a press conference and demand Frank Maloney's ouster as SU head coach.

The team played all its games on the road that year as the Dome was under construction. The Meadowlands meeting was one of our "home" games. Frank would survive the year and manage, just barely, to get SU to a bowl game, beating McNeese State in the Independence Bowl.

As for JoePa, I remember he was gracious, generous with his time and more complimentary than he needed to be of an Orange team his players had just dismantled. And this might sound strange, but he was Joe Paterno -- just as I expected him to be and just as he came across publicly in the many years since that moment. I got the feeling there was no pretense -- he was what he was.

The other lingering memory was of Matt Millen and Bruce Clark sitting shoulder-to-massive shoulder, shirtless, on a bench nearby. They looked like they did not require pads to play the game. How to get around those two? It seemed calling a taxi might have been advisable. It explained at least some of the 35-7.

 

[swish7]

I posted this story more than 10 years ago, but I am telling it again because it has some interesting aspects to it...

I belong to an organization of senior corporate communications and public affairs officers called (I know this will sound dumb) "The Wisemen." (At least one other poster here belongs to the same group).

Anyhow, the entire purpose of this organization is to hold seven dinner meetings a year with "interesting" speakers. Maybe 95 percent of the time, the speakers (all of whom speak for free) are from the media or government/politics (e.g., NYC mayors, NYS governors, editors of NY Times and WSJ, former Presidents, prominent TV journalists, etc). About 10 years ago, our speaker was Joe Paterno (one of our members, who was a member of the PSU Board of Trustees and a big PSU supporter, invited him).


Even though we had had such speakers as Richard Nixon (in practically his first speaking event after he resigned), the biggest draw of all was JoePa. The dinner kept selling out, and it kept being moved to larger rooms until the Harvard Club ran out of "larger rooms." That showed me what a fascination JoePa had on the consciousness of people who were not PSU fans -- and not even necessarily college football fans.

Because I have a reputation as a serious college sports fan, the guy who arranged for JoePa's appearance asked me to be JoePa's dinner partner. Therefore, I sat next to him for two hours.

I don't remember the specifics of what he said in his public remarks and in the public Q&A, except it was mainly about the "PSU Way" (or whatever he called it) and why it was so successful at PSU. What I do remember, however, are parts of our private conversation.

He seemed enthralled with the fact that I was a woman who was a serious Syracuse sports fan and who knew something about why PSU was not a member of the Big East (or who at least knew enough to ask him about it). In essence, he was still very bitter about the way the Big East was set up without PSU. He had nothing but praise for Jake Crouthamel for supporting PSU, and nothing but disdain for the Big East politics that eventually prevailed.

I can clearly remember him saying ... "Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Boston College, etc ... What a great conference that could have been." Obviously I then asked him whether he would have stayed in such a conference had the Big 10 come calling. His response: "Those were our traditional rivals. I felt that was where we belonged."

Anyhow... It's a story that I hadn't thought of in many years. But just wanted to mention it today.

Great story Joyce.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I posted this story more than 10 years ago, but I am telling it again because it has some interesting aspects to it...

I belong to an organization of senior corporate communications and public affairs officers called (I know this will sound dumb) "The Wisemen." (At least one other poster here belongs to the same group).

Anyhow, the entire purpose of this organization is to hold seven dinner meetings a year with "interesting" speakers. Maybe 95 percent of the time, the speakers (all of whom speak for free) are from the media or government/politics (e.g., NYC mayors, NYS governors, editors of NY Times and WSJ, former Presidents, prominent TV journalists, etc). About 10 years ago, our speaker was Joe Paterno (one of our members, who was a member of the PSU Board of Trustees and a big PSU supporter, invited him).


Even though we had had such speakers as Richard Nixon (in practically his first speaking event after he resigned), the biggest draw of all was JoePa. The dinner kept selling out, and it kept being moved to larger rooms until the Harvard Club ran out of "larger rooms." That showed me what a fascination JoePa had on the consciousness of people who were not PSU fans -- and not even necessarily college football fans.

Because I have a reputation as a serious college sports fan, the guy who arranged for JoePa's appearance asked me to be JoePa's dinner partner. Therefore, I sat next to him for two hours.

I don't remember the specifics of what he said in his public remarks and in the public Q&A, except it was mainly about the "PSU Way" (or whatever he called it) and why it was so successful at PSU. What I do remember, however, are parts of our private conversation.

He seemed enthralled with the fact that I was a woman who was a serious Syracuse sports fan and who knew something about why PSU was not a member of the Big East (or who at least knew enough to ask him about it). In essence, he was still very bitter about the way the Big East was set up without PSU. He had nothing but praise for Jake Crouthamel for supporting PSU, and nothing but disdain for the Big East politics that eventually prevailed.

I can clearly remember him saying ... "Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Boston College, etc ... What a great conference that would have been." Obviously I then asked him whether he would have stayed in such a conference had the Big 10 come calling. His response: "Those were our traditional rivals. I felt that was where we belonged."

Anyhow... It's a story that I hadn't thought of in many years. But just wanted to mention it today.

Great story. Thanks for sharing. I have never cared for the guy, personally, but he is an icon, and it could have been a great league if they all had been able to put it together. But the basketball schools got the jump on the whole idea, and the Providence people really did feel like they "owned" the conference. Such a shame. It's doubtful for financial and academic reasons, but wouldn't it be wonderful if somehow Penn State and Notre Dame eventually were able to join the ACC for all sports. Although WVU would be missing, it would be a hell of a conference, and the logical successor to what an Eastern Football League could have looked like.