Yesterday legendary college football coach Joe Paterno passed away. While Educated Quest is not a college sports site, we have given more coverage to Penn State than any other school over the past three months. There was an obligation to report on what Coach Paterno meant to the university community.There are many people who will agree that his influence extended well beyond football.
Joe Paterno and his wife, Sue, raised over $14 million and donated $4 million on their own towards the expansion of what are now known as the Pattee-Paterno Libraries. The coach shares the library name with a fellow English major, Fred Lewis Pattee, the first professor of American Literature in the U.S. It’s hard not to admire a coach who wanted all of the students to study.
I do not agree with Jerry Sandusky, his former assistant coach, that “nobody did more for the academic reputation of Penn State than Joe Paterno.” This insults the legacies of many other proud alumni, including William Schreyer, a former CEO of Merrill Lynch, who gave millions more to establish the university’s honor’s college, as well as the members of the Penn State faculty who are truly responsible for the academic reputation of the school. Paterno lent them a helping hand, but he had no hand in selecting them or advancing their research.
Coach Sandusky’s comments aside, the Pattee-Paterno Libraries are Joe Paterno’s greatest legacy to Penn State. While the crowds that will attend the dedication that will follow the completion of ongoing renovations will not come close to rivaling those who come to Beaver Stadium on a Saturday afternoon, let’s hope that they will be larger than the crowds who came to his vigil.
And who knows, maybe his ghosts will roam the stacks when football is off season.