The son of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno told 10,000 mourners on Thursday his father died “with a clear conscience,” and former players shared why they worshiped the man in a final goodbye to the legendary “JoePa.”
The memorial at the campus basketball arena in State College, Pennsylvania, concluded five days of public mourning for Paterno, 85, who died on Sunday of lung cancer two months after his towering reputation was shaken by a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant coach.
The hero’s sendoff after Paterno’s death contrasted sharply with the sudden and unceremonious end of his career in November last year, when the university’s board of trustees fired him following revelations about defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, accused of molesting at least 10 boys over 15 years.
Photo: Reuters
Paterno won a major college record 409 games and two national championships in his 46 years as Penn State head coach, creating a football powerhouse that generated US$53 million in profit in 2010, according to Forbes magazine.
His son, Jay Paterno, shared deathbed moments with the crowd, saying: “Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience.”
Shortly before his father died, Jay Paterno said he whispered into his father’s ear: “Dad, you won. You did all you could do. We all love you. You can go home.”
Interest in “A Memorial to Joe” built for days. The 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes earlier this week. At least one ticket holder tried to profit by selling a ticket for US$66,000 on Ebay, but the online site immediately banned the sale.
The week of mourning has drawn back to campus stars from past football teams, members of last season’s squad, Penn State alumni who have no memory of any other football coach, undergraduates and residents who remember the most successful coach in major college football history.
“No one individual did more for a university than what Joe Paterno did for this school,” said Todd Blackledge, a quarterback in the 1980s who played for seven years in the NFL.
“He was as fierce a competitor as anyone I have ever seen,” Blackledge said. “Coach Paterno was at his best under pressure. He taught us how to compete.”
Charlie Pittman, a running back from the 1960s, praised Paterno for building a long-lasting institution that prided itself on the motto “Success with Honor.”
“Though his body eventually failed, his spirit never did. Rest in peace, coach. We’ll take it from here,” Pittman said to a standing ovation.
Paterno came under fire in November when it was revealed he was told by a purported witness that Sandusky molested a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002. Paterno informed university officials, but not police.
Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed Sandusky, who maintains his innocence, under house arrest.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB