R.I.P. Joe Paterno

[methodwriter85]

R.I.P. Joe Paterno. You accomplished a whole hell of a lot in your 85 years on Earth.My condolences to Joe Paterno's family and the Happy Valley community.

[Bill W]

I concur. It's a shame he went out on such a low note.

[option]

R.I.P. Joe Paterno. You accomplished a whole hell of a lot in your 85 years on Earth.My condolences to Joe Paterno's family and the Happy Valley community.

 

(im not american, & im not really into sports)

 

 

what did he actually achieve?

did he do anything that had a benefit to the world, like developing safety gear for sports players?

[TetRefine]

(im not american, & im not really into sports)

 

 

what did he actually achieve?

did he do anything that had a benefit to the world, like developing safety gear for sports players?

 

He embodied everything that was Pennsylvania State University. In fact, many would say he was Penn State. He was a very successful coach in college football, and you have to know the college football culture here in America to understand why he meant so much. He was a legend in every sense of the word. A legend that made a horrible mistake in not reporting child abuse to the authorities when he knew his bosses were doing nothing about it.

[Andrew Q Gordon]

(im not american, & im not really into sports)

 

 

what did he actually achieve?

did he do anything that had a benefit to the world, like developing safety gear for sports players?

 

To add to what Matt said, Paterno wasn't just interested in winning for winning's sake. He never earned a million dollar salary, in an age where other coaches who never achieved much were getting multimillion dollar contracts. He was the winningest coach in major college football and could easily have left for more money or threatened to leave if he didn't get more money. He didn't do either.

 

In addition, he and his wife donated millions to the school for things like the Library. The only building I'm aware of named after him is a Library. He also made sure his players graduated. Penn State football had the highest graduation rate in Major College Football ahead of #2 Standford. He would bench players for skipping classes and had teachers let him know when it happened.

 

So in an age when winning was the yard stick coaches were measured by, he chose to be measured by his players getting an education. It didn't hurt that he won more games than any other coach, so it proved you could do both if you were committed to education and not just winning football games.