to move up and down
A year after his death, Paterno and a reputation tarnished in the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal involving retired assistant coach Jerry Sandusky remain sensitive topics for groups of alumni, former players, staffers and community residents.
The Hall of Fame coach died of lung cancer on Jan. 22, 2012, at age 85. On Tuesday — exactly a year after his passing — community residents have organized a vigil at a downtown mural that includes a depiction of Paterno.
A family spokesman has said the Paternos would not take part, and remain in privacy.
Their supporters, though, spoke up at a recent meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees.
Most critics are angered by how school leaders handled Paterno’s ouster as coach and the explosive findings of the internal investigation led by former FBI director Louis Freeh that put part of the blame on Paterno. (Photo: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The young man whose claims of abuse began the criminal investigation that put Jerry Sandusky in prison said he contemplated suicide because authorities took so long to prosecute the former Penn State assistant football coach.
Speaking out publicly by name for the first time, Aaron Fisher said in an interview airing Friday on ABC’s 20/20 that the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office had told him it needed more victims before Sandusky would be charged. He was known during the trial as “Victim 1.”
Fisher first reported the abuse in 2008. Sandusky was arrested last November. Fisher said the delay made him increasingly desperate.
“I thought maybe it would be easier to take myself out of the equation,” he told ABC. “Let somebody else deal with it.”
Jerry Sandusky blames victims in broadcast before sentencing
The ex-Penn State coach professed his innocence and vowed to continue fighting his child molestation conviction in a recorded statement broadcast on the eve of his sentencing Tuesday, a possible preview of remarks he was expected to make at the hearing.
In the three-minute monologue aired Monday night by Penn State Com Radio, Sandusky said he knows in his heart that he did not do what he called “these alleged disgusting acts” and described himself as the victim of Penn State, investigators, civil attorneys, the media and others.
“They can take away my life, they can make me out as a monster, they can treat me as a monster, but they can’t take away my heart,” he said. “In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged disgusting acts. My wife has been my only sex partner and that was after marriage.”
A thinner Sandusky, smiling and accompanied by sheriff’s deputies, showed up at the courthouse Tuesday wearing a red prison jumpsuit, white sneakers and holding a manila envelope.
Nearly three months after Penn State said it wanted to settle “privately, expeditiously and fairly” with the boys Jerry Sandusky sexually abused, lawyers for the victims from his criminal case and other potential claimants say the school has not followed up with concrete action.
The attorneys told The Associated Press in recent days that had very limited contact with the university and, if that continues, more lawsuits may follow the four now under way.
“I believe there has been a window of opportunity, which is closing, despite enormous patience by the lawyers who represent the victims,” said Philadelphia attorney Tom Kline, who represents a young man who testified during Sandusky’s criminal trial he was fondled in a school shower in 2001.
Kline and the other lawyers told the AP that they will not wait indefinitely for the university to propose a settlement process stemming from Sandusky’s conviction in June on 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys. The former assistant football coach awaits sentencing and will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno and other senior officials “concealed critical facts” about Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse because they were worried about bad publicity, according to an internal investigation into the scandal.
The 267-page report released Thursday is the result of an eight-month inquiry by former FBI director Louis Freeh, hired by university trustees weeks after Sandusky was arrested in November to look into what has become one of sports’ biggest scandals.
The report concluded that Paterno, president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz “failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade.”
Signs and flowers are seen at the statue of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, before the annual spring football scrimmage in State College, Pennsylvania April 21, 2012. Paterno died on January 22, 2012.
Photo: Pat Little/Reuters
Students leave notes on a cardboard cutout of former Penn State Football coach Joe Paterno in the Pattee and Paterno Libraries on the campus of Penn State on January 24, 2012 in State College, Pennsylvania. Paterno, who was 85, died due to complications from lung cancer on Jan. 22. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images
Paterno’s legacy is not so simple
Bruce Arthur: True to the final months of his life, Joe Paterno came to a complicated end. He was fighting lung cancer, everybody knew that. But the Penn State student news site OnwardState.com reported Saturday night that the iconic ex-football coach had died; the report multiplied on Twitter before being quickly quashed by a family spokesman. People in State College, Pa., had already been quietly speculating that he had died Saturday morning. As he did when he was a coach, staying in charge of Penn State until the age of 84, Joe Paterno made everybody wait.
And when he died Sunday morning Joe Paterno was 85, and his legacy was what was left, and it was no longer simple.
Joe Paterno loses battle with lung cancer
Happy Valley was perfect for Joe Paterno, a place where “JoePa” knew best, where he not only won more football games than any other major college coach, but won them the right way: with integrity and sportsmanship. A place where character came first, championships second.
Behind it all, however, was an ugly secret that ran counter to everything the revered coach stood for.
Paterno, a sainted figure at Penn State for almost half a century but scarred forever by the child sex abuse scandal that brought his career to a stunning end, died Sunday at age 85.
Photo: Scott Audette/Reuters
2011 in Sport: Bruce Arthur on Penn State
When the grand jury report on sexual abuse allegations against Jerry Sandusky became public, the outrage was whipped forward like a forest fire in a high wind. The testimony was horrifying, and catalogued eight separate victims in excruciating detail; it seemed to catalogue a cover-up by the leaders of a major university, too, who responded clumsily. Tim Curley and Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failing to report the incident.
But the power of football was on full display — even as pressure began to press down on Joe Paterno, even as the media descended on Happy Valley like a plague, the university attempted to limit the questions at his weekly news conference to those about the big game against Nebraska Saturday. The news conference was cancelled, instead.
Photo: Tim Shaffer/Reuters
