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Joe Paterno is practically synonymous with the football program at Penn State, but a new push to name the school’s football stadium after the head coach is probably ill-advised due to the scandal that led to his time with the Nittany Lions coming to a shocking end.
Penn State boasted a historically average college football program before Joe Paterno was hired to helm the Nittany Lions all the way back in 1966, and it didn’t take him very long to turn them into a national powerhouse.
When everything was said and done, Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 years while posting a record of 409–136–3, leading the school to two national championships, and winning 18 of the 37 bowl games the team appeared in during his tenure.
Of course, you obviously can’t talk about that tenure without discussing the circumstances that led to it coming to an end, as Paterno was fired in 2011 in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal that shook the program to its core.
The fallout led to the NCAA forcing Penn State to vacate 111 of the coach’s wins (although they were eventually restored), and the school removed a statue of Paterno that had been outside Beaver Stadium since 2001.
While he was never charged in connection to the Sandusky case, there is ample evidence that he was aware of the accusations, and while he did eventually report some of the claims to Penn State (but not the police), one victim claims he was ignored when he spoke with Paterno in 1976.
As things currently stand, Penn State has a fairly complicated relationship with the legendary head coach; the university continues to operate a fellowship endowed in his honor, and a library on campus is named after him and his wife.
According to Spotlight PA, a group of Penn State trustees are now attempting to increase Paterono’s footprint in State College, as the outlet reports two meetings were held in January to discuss renaming the school’s football stadium after him.
The names of the trustees were not released, although it seems likely they’re associated with the small but vocal group of Paterno loyalists who’ve attempted to use their position on the board to push for initiatives to honor the head coach while downplaying his links to the Sandusky scandal.
It seems very unlikely this proposal will actually be adopted when everything is said and done, but the fact that it was floated in the first place makes you wonder what reality the people behind the push are occupying.