LOS ANGELES —
The words on the wall, once inspiring, are now just sad, even disturbing.
“They ask me what I’d like written about me when I’m gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach.”
The quote forms a backdrop for the bronze statue of Joe Paterno that towers outside the stadium where the coach built a storied football program.
“He was the face of the school, just as much as the Nittany Lion was,” said Joe McIntyre, a recent Penn State graduate who was football reporter for the campus newspaper. “The statue’s a rallying point.”
Now, the 7-foot statue has taken on a double meaning - a symbol of a legacy that spanned half a century, but also a reminder of the child sex abuse scandal that unfolded on his watch. Some football fans and former colleagues, most notably his old friend and former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden, say the statue must come down.
Like so much about the scandal, such a suggestion was once unthinkable.
Visitors to State College often have their photos snapped in two places: the Nittany Lion shrine - a statue of a crouching lion - and the bronze of Paterno.
On graduation morning, Penn State seniors don their gowns and strike the same pose by the JoePa statue: right arm in the air, index finger raised in victory. No. 1. We’re No. 1.
The future of the statue became a coast-to-coast debate overnight, with talk radio hosts, Internet forums and sports columnists weighing in.
“Penn State should keep the Joe Paterno statue,” Sports Illustrated’s Mike Rosenberg said in a column. “Just move it so he is looking the other way.”
“Let the statue of JoePa stand in Happy Valley forever,” The Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla wrote. “Erasing history can’t be done, no matter how many amps of anger are pumped into the project. Altering the future is difficult, but it’s energy far better spent.”
The statue stands less than a mile from the football training facilities where former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky molested at least one young boy in the locker room showers. Sandusky, once Paterno’s main defensive coordinator, was convicted last month of 45 counts related to sexually assaulting 10 young boys over a period of 15 years.
The scandal rocked the university, its football program and the coach who won more games than any other Division I college football coach. Paterno was fired in November. He died in January.
As the scandal unfolded, the trustees commissioned a report from former FBI director Louis Freeh. The report, delivered Thursday, called the actions of Paterno and other top officials “callous indifference.” Top officials knew of abuse allegations against Sandusky in 1998, Freeh said, but did nothing, fearing bad publicity.
The Penn State Board of Trustees has not decided whether Paterno’s statue will be removed. Trustees will discuss the issue with the Penn State community before coming to a decision, university spokesman David La Torre said.
Paterno’s son and former Penn State quarterback Jay Paterno told ESPN that the report is not a legal document but a collection of conjectures based on incomplete evidence. Wait to pass judgment, he said, until all the facts are in.
“The emotional response right now is maybe to go take the statue down,” Jay Paterno said. “That’s not going to heal victims. That’s not going to make any of this go away. We have to just continue to let this thing unfold.”
The statue outside Beaver Stadium was built a decade ago, when Paterno’s image was as untarnished as the statue’s raw bronze. Behind Paterno’s statue and set into the wall with his quote are the figures of four players, running onto the field behind their coach.
Building a statue before a coach retires or dies is an unusual move, sculptor Angelo Di Maria said, but Paterno’s lengthy record warranted it.
The outspoken on both sides of the statue debate struggle to separate that lengthy record of service and mentorship - including Paterno’s motto, “Success with Honor” - from the scandal that stained the coach’s reputation at the end of his life.
“It’s such a dichotomy, because the product that came out of Penn State, the quality of the athletes that came out of there, was excellent,” said sports agent Ralph Cindrich, who played football at rival University of Pittsburgh and isn’t shy about his longtime dislike of Paterno.
Cindrich says the statue should go. “He ran that campus,” Cindrich said. “That campus was his.”
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Debate rises over removing Joe Paterno statue
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