Joe Paterno

It must not be easy for just anyone to coach 34 winning out of 38 total seasons of college football. Then again, Coach Joe Paterno, Penn State University’s head coach for the past 38 years, is not your “average Joe”. Who else could coach such an amazing team of athletes as the Nittany Lions and pool a 1.2 million in-seat fan turn-out, breaking the NCAA record for season attendance in 2002? Why, JoePa, of course! Could his success be linked in any way to the fact that he has always listened to opera music while writing his winning plays? Joe Paterno is a greatly admired man who is no stranger to the game or the hearts of the fans.

Joseph Vincent Paterno was born on December 21, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Joe attended St. Edmond’s Grammar School, then Brooklyn Prep High School where he was not only a great athlete but also a very strong student. Beyond high school, he went into the United States Army for the last year of World War II, after which he was offered and accepted an athletic scholarship to Brown University. Brown, located in Providence, Rhode Island, afforded Paterno many crucial opportunities that proved to shape his career path.

At Brown, Joe played on the basketball team for two seasons, but most importantly he played the position of quarterback on the college’s football team, the Bears. He still holds the career interception record (14) at his alma mater. Joe majored in English Literature, but wished to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. He had already been accepted to the law school at Boston University when Rip Engle, his football coach at Brown, offered him the chance to work part-time with the Bears’ quarterbacks after his senior season had ended and before graduation, in 1950. Because of his outstanding job, Rip asked Joe to join him on his move to head coach of Penn State to become an assistant coach. Joe was just 23 years old.

For the next sixteen years, Paterno continued as an assistant coach under Rip Engle. Finally, Rip announced his retirement and Joe was appointed to head coach. To date, JoePa has been on the coaching staff of Penn State for more than half of the football games played by the Nittany Lions since to football program was introduced to the school in 1887. Paterno has become the only coach to win four New Year’s Day games (Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange), and has won more bowl games (20) than any other coach in history. Joe is credited for leading 339 total wins, five undefeated seasons, 31 bowl appearances, two national championships, and 20 top-ten national finishes. Well over 200 of his players have gone on to be drafted by the NFL. Joe is the only coach in Division 1-A football with more than 300 wins at the same school, and is second over all in the number of years at one school, behind Amos Alonzo Stagg, at 41 years at Chicago. Joe Paterno is one of the greatest coaches of all time.

What makes Joe Paterno a hero is the fact that coaching is not the foremost item on his agenda. Above all, education is stressed to the players. According to Joe, “the players who have been most important to the success of Penn State teams have just naturally kept their priorities straight: football a high second, but academics an undisputed first.” Not surprisingly, students coached by Joe Paterno have achieved the highest graduation rate among public institutions having Division 1-A football. Joe also runs his own website, known as Coach Illustrated (www.coachpaterno.com) for the benefit of “coaches, athletes, and fans alike” which features sections for not only football, but track, hockey, boxing, and baseball, as well. It is obvious in everything that he does that Joe loves his players, the school, and the game.

Excluding Joe, the Paterno family, from wife Suzanne through all 5 Paterno children, are all Penn State graduates. Joe’s children, now all adults, are as follows: Diana, Mary Kathryn, David, Jay and George Scott. Between the five children, Joe and Suzanne have three grandchildren named Brian Andrew, Olivia, and Matthew Thomas, born in 1995, 1996, and 1997, respectively. Despite recent criticism by the discouraged public over recent seasons, Joe doesn’t sound interested in retiring just yet, “I thoroughly enjoy coaching. As long as I stay healthy and my enthusiasm for the game continues, I am probably going to coach. I am in no hurry to get out of it. I don’t want to stay around too long but I still feel there are things left to accomplish. I don’t play golf, or fish, or have any other compelling hobbies. There’s nothing I enjoy more than football.”