Posted on 01/30/2012 5:00:54 AM PST by Kaslin
January 22nd was a sad day in America. A pitiful and depressing episode that confirms how a lawyer-controlled and weak-kneed society, ended with the tragic death of Joe Paterno. As sure as day turns into night, the actions taken last November by the Board of Trustees of Penn State University were responsible for the premature death of this great man.
I grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, next door to Paterno’s domain: Pennsylvania. My father graduated from Ohio State, and I was – and still am – a born-and-bred Buckeye fan. I clearly remember the emergence of Joe Pa at Penn State, which had not yet joined the Big Ten – that wouldn’t happen for another 25 years.
In that time we had the great Woody Hayes, but now we were butting heads with this scrawny- looking guy with goofy glasses who was somehow stealing a number of our recruits. Because he wasn’t in the Big Ten – and, of course, because Michigan was the center of everything evil in the world – I developed a mild liking for the guy. If the Buckeyes weren’t winning the national championship, then Penn State and Joe Pa seemed to be an acceptable alternative. It was certainly better than some others (like USC). Sure enough, it didn’t take him too long to produce undefeated seasons – reeling off three very quickly in 1968, 1969 and 1973 – but he had to wait until 1982 to win his first national championship.
Paterno went on to become a national icon. There have been many great college coaches with stellar, decades-long careers, but Joe Pa was beginning to set records. From the time he turned 70 – and then 80! – we all participated in the annual rite of speculation about whether he would or should retire.
Whenever I was asked about it, my answer was always the same: the Bear Bryant Syndrome. Joe knew very well that Bryant had passed away a little over a month after his retirement, and in fact had told sportscaster Brent Musburger that Bryant’s untimely death was one of the reasons he continued coaching. His team, school, and community – along with his wife of nearly 50 years – had become his life.
The Jerry Sandusky scandal shocked everyone; it always smacks your senses when someone is accused of such despicable acts. I read the transcript of the grand jury testimony with utter horror, and yet the fact that it engulfed the entire Penn State University made this sordid story even more appalling and disgraceful. Still, something seemed to be missing.
Mike McCreary, a young staffer for the football team, had walked into the locker room in the Penn State athletic complex while Sandusky, now a former employee, was sodomizing a young boy in the showers. McCreary claimed that he reported it to Paterno, who promptly informed his superiors, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice-President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. When Curley and Schultz testified that they had heard a different story than what McCreary related to the grand jury, the two men were indicted despite no further verification by the grand jury and then summarily fired by the Board of Trustees. Then McCreary changed his story, telling the press something different than he told the grand jury. The Trustees still fired Paterno.
The most iconic person in Penn State history, an employee for over 60 years, was fired via telephone call. He was not given the chance to explain his side of the story. A group of weaklings who were more concerned with protecting their jobs and fending off lawsuits just started canning people. Even someone who has been with the University for one year deserves to have their side heard. Someone with 60 years of exemplary service merits a little extra consideration.
The villain in this story, Jerry Sandusky, was now lost in the shuffle and the focus of the sports world was on Paterno and the Trustees. Every sanctimonious sportscaster started whimpering about how they would have done more and how everyone involved should have done more. They, of course, were only thinking of the children.
When Joe Pa finally broke his silence, it was accompanied by yet a third version of McCreary’s story. Apparently, he never really told Paterno what actually happened in the shower. He justifiably couldn’t bring himself to tell a 76-year-old legend the ugly details. The fact that an aging Paterno wasn’t really able to comprehend the whole matter will not convince some of his lack of blame. Some people will insist that he should have been able to understand such despicable behavior, and they will never accept that some among us come from an era where such repulsive activities were utterly inconceivable. So Coach Paterno reported what he had heard from McCreary, and that was all he knew.
Some say Joe died of a broken heart. I say he died from a knife in the back. Does it shock me that the man is now dead? No – there is, after all, the Bear Bryant Syndrome.
There will always be those who maintain that Paterno should have done more. There are those who claim that if they were in the same situation, they would have done more. But the only thing anyone should really say is if they are ever in the shoes of the Trustees, that they would give everyone the decency and fairness of an honest hearing, that they wouldn’t jump to conclusions, and that they would never, ever try to cover their own butts by ruining the lives of others.
Terrible article. It mixed someone’s sports fame with the rape of children as though they could in any way be related or that sports fame in any way should influence stopping the rape of a child.
ANYONE with knowledge about the rape of a child and does nothing is guilty. ANYONE that uses their public position, or any position of authority or influence, that prevents the prosecution for those that rape children is guilty.
You are incorrect.
Paterno reported an account of the events as told to him by McQueary to both athletic director Tim Curley (Paterno’s boss) and Gary Schultz, THE HEAD OF THE CAMPUS POLICE.
i will not make excuses for jopa’s failure to follow through. football obviously was more important than children. i’d have to question the humanity of anybody with those priorities.
If you insist on believing that I am some kind of closet supporter of Paterno or a denier of the truth, then so be it. I cannot make you change your mind.
The charge that is pending is PERJURY
Get YOUR facts straight. And if reporting the the HEAD of the campus police is not the same, then we have a problem with sematics.
You are incorrect.
Facts - the University has its’ own police force. An act committed on University property cannot be investigated by the State College police(I know this because I have a daughter up there being harrassed by an ex-boyfriend, which ended, thankfully).
Reporting this incident to Schultz was reporting to the man in charge of the campus police. He and Curley informed McQueary they would complete an investigation, which McQueary reported back to Paterno when Paternon followed up with him.
Shultz is not on the hook for not reporting to the police but for perjury to the grand jury.
THOSE ARE THE FACTS.
Sometimes things need to be redneck rapped.
sounds like an awfully lame-@$$ “investigation” happened, at best.
I retract what I said about the semantics problem. A reasonable person would reasonably assume that reporting to the head of an organiation is, in effect, reporting to the organization.
Really, are you so filled with anti-Penn State/Paterno animosity that at this point, when all the facts are not even close to being aired, you can’t allow for reasonable doubt?
You’d make a great trustee.
Schultz was in charge of Campus Police. If you had a huge issue such as this, and you were a power on campus, you would direct the investigation to him, bypassing the layers it would take to reach him.
Paterno placed his credibility to McQueary’s story by setting up the meeting with these men.
At issue with the GJ is what was said by McQueary to these two. The stories do not match.
I asked the question months ago: how did the head of the campus police end up being VP for business & finance? Sounded then and still sounds fishy to me. Sounds like a reward for . . . who knows what.
I bet Joe knew /s/
I bet Spanier really does know - no sarcasm intended.
Nevertheless, I refer you back you Maryland Man.
No kidding. He made it all about himself at PSU, hanging on far past his usefulness as a coach. PSU hasn't been relevant nationally for 15 years, but he still hung on. Well, when you make it all about yourself, you get the bad along with the good.
Negligent indifference to horrible crimes against children is not "doing what you're supposed to do." He had his name all over that program, but when it mattered, when innocent children's lives, essentially, were on the line, he shut his eyes and passed the buck. Maybe the 65 year-old Joe Paterno wouldd have been more diligent in tracking down the truth of the terrible rumors, who knows?
And I don't think Penn State people know how creepy their idol worship of JoePa looks to the rest of us. I know they don't take their college football any more seriously than we do at UGA, but we don't worship our coaches. Heck, if they don't win the SEC every year, half the people want him fired.
Jo Paterno's case is a sad fable on the sin of pride.
Agreed.
There seems to be some discrepancy on what McQueary told to whom and hopefully that will be 100% determined in the trials going forward.
Too many people are making assumptions based in incomplete information or false information. Let the trials go on and then pass judgement.
Of course, we all know that's not the case.
I think we are going to find that the campus police played a huge role in the cover-up....did they do it on their own, or did somebody order them to do it?
This whole thing stinks from top to bottom.
Despite McQueary possibly have had told two different versions, wasn’t it still clear enough to all that a boy had been buggered in his sight or close to it?
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