Book #46: “Paterno” by Joe Posnanski

 

Paterno

Joe Posnanski

 Released: August 12th, 2012

My 16th book for 2024 was Joe Posnanski's "Paterno".

I found this book at Wonderbook a few years ago when I was back on the East Coast visiting my family.  It brought back some big memories that spanned from childhood all the way up to my college years.

My dad is a diehard Penn State fan.  He attended one of their branch campuses briefly.  My stepmom was born, raised, and graduated in Happy Valley.  My aunt, and sister graduated from there.  It is well known around the world as a first-rate institution.

Growing up, every Saturday afternoon in the fall, my dad would inevitably have the Penn State game on.  I always sought to challenge my dad, so I would root against Penn State.  I eventually settled on Michigan as my team.  My uncle was a graduate and big fan as well, so we shared that in common.  The funny thing is, it's not so much that I hated Penn State, I enjoyed the challenge of rooting against them.  My dad could talk a wild streak about how big strong and powerful they were.  Sometimes they would dominate.  Others they would fall flat.  I recall many times going places in the car and listening to it on AM radio in south-central Pennsylvania.  I remember listening to the Zack Mills-Era while my dad built a sunroom on the house I grew up in during my high school years.  Not the greatest time for them, but certainly something memorable as it pertains to my childhood.

Once in high school I believe, we all went to Happy Valley to see a game.  They took on Boston College.  Dad would not let me wear my Michigan shirt, so I hide it underneath a Penn State sweater.  When Boston College took a 21-0 lead with 7:50 left in the first quarter, I shed the sweater and proclaimed, "This is why I'm a Michigan fan."  Probably not my dad's favorite moment, but a humorous chuckle had occurred.  Penn State lost that game 27-14, but the experience was very cool.  It was thrilling to see Joe Paterno coach in person, see the size and scope of Beaver Stadium, and just see the clouds settle in the distance, almost as if in a painting.  I will never forget the images that day.

A few years later, I was dating a girl in college, and we decided to go up for a game.  This game turned out much differently.  Penn State blew out Temple 31-6.  I remember trying to explain the rules of the game to her, which worked and might have gone a bit overboard.  With less than a minute on the clock, Temple gained 6 yards, and she began yelling at the team.  I asked what was wrong, and she said, "They just gave up 6 yards!  How could they?"  I then tried to explain sportsmanship, but she wanted to see total domination.  The game ended shortly after, and everyone celebrated a strong victory.

Despite my early "rivalry" with anything Penn State, I respect Joe Paterno.  His legacy will most likely go unmatched.  He has played against everyone from Vince Lombardi to Bear Bryant, to Bill Walsh, Bobby Bowden, and even Tom Brady.  He has seemingly faced every major football player to some degree or another.  He has even faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  Such a distinct resume of notable opponents.

The one thing that has torn down everything Joe stood for was the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case that shook the university to the core.  Paterno was fired from his coaching job at Penn State for failing to do more to fix the situation.  I feel this book took many angles into account, without picking a side.  It is a very objective approach to a sensitive subject.

I will always remember that night.  I was staying over at the apartment of the girl I was dating at the time, and we watched it all unfold live on television.  The firing was announced, the shock and just surreal feeling around it had its own vibe.  My sister was attending college there, and she had been out in the crowds when it had happened.  I remember reaching out to her to see if she was ok, and what she was seeing.  To reread about it in this book took me back to that night over a decade ago.

I appreciate a lot of things about Posnanski's approach to this book.  It is very informative.  You learn a lot about Joe as a person, and it continuously questions what drove him.  He showed no desire for money, lived modestly, held firm morals and beliefs (which tends to push the defensive narrative around his role in the Sandusky ordeal).  He was a tough instructor but did his best to turn his players into men prepared for life and the real world.  There are many accounts of players who credit the success of their lives to Joe's insistence of attending class, getting good grades, valuing education over material things.  He truly cared about them and made an everlasting mark on many young men and women.

Something that shocked me was how Joe struggled for years or had things more unconventional than others.  He lived in an assistant coach's house until he was 35 years old.  His wife is 13 years his junior.  He turned down every offer to coach in the NFL (even after accepting a job to coach the New England Patriots).  He wanted to coach in Southern California in his younger years.  His time in Korea exposed him to the Western US.  He was a man of great conviction, and led a purposeful life that ultimately was overshadowed by how it ended.  

I learned a lot of great things.  The following list is overwhelming, but there are so many interesting facts, figures, speeches and other things that mesmerized me throughout the book.  I even shed a tear when I read about John Cappelletti's 1973 Heisman Trophy acceptance speech where he dedicated his victory to his dying brother Joey.  The emotion felt around the room is perfectly conveyed into this book, and you truly get a sense of what it meant for all involved.

Here is what I learned:

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• “We have difficulty as a nation — this is American, and it relates to our particular time — we have difficulty admiring people. We take such pride in our skepticism. But the natural antithesis of skepticism, the celebration and virtue of accomplishment, is wandering lost somewhere. It is the age of the antihero." - Bill James
• “What is a coach? We are teachers. Educators. We have the same obligations as all teachers, except we probably have more influence over young people than anybody but their families. And, in a lot of cases, more than their families. To teach an academic subject is certainly not easy, but compared to coaching, it is. We can say two plus two is four to every kid and be sure that we are right. But in coaching, we have to literally get to the soul of the people we are dealing with. We have to work with emotion, commitment, discipline, loyalty, pride. The things that make the difference in a person's life. They look to us for examples. A boy wants to be a man. But he doesn't know what a man is. They look to us for poise. Everybody doesn't get a fair shake in life. They look to us for values. You must relate athletic experiences to life. You are role models. They look to us for consistency. We have to realize a kid will love us one day and hate us the next. That cannot change who we are and what we are about. We are there to help them reach for excellence... and not just win games. We have to be understanding but tough. Firm. Real fumness is always helpful. Bill Clinton said, "I feel for you." Vince Lombardi said, "The pain is in your head." Tom Boswell of the Washington Post wrote about the difference beween excellence and success. He wrote: “Many people, particularly in sports, believe that success and excellence are the same. They are not. No distinction in the realm of games is more important. Success is tricky, perishable, and often outside our control. On the other hand, excellence is dependable, lasting, and largely within our control. Let me emphasize at once that nobody is all one way or another. The desire for success and love of excellence coexist in all of us. The question is: Where does the balance lie? In a pinch, what guides us?" I think we all have to ask ourselves that question. In a pinch, what guides us-success or excellence? Which will give us shelter when the storm clouds gather?” - Joe Paterno speech to high school coaches, February 5, 1993, Hershey, Pennsylvania.
• Nostalgia slows life’s advance.
• Paterno intentionally lived a sheltered life.
• The only TV the family watched was “The Wonderful World of Disney” on Sunday nights.
• Paterno knew Latin.
• While different family members sought different things, Paterno admired his kitchen table because he wanted the family that grows up around it.
• Donnie Abbey hated Paterno for years, and when he reflected, he realized they shared a lot in common.
• Abbey was a functioning alcoholic in college.
• Paterno disliked his statue.
• Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse of young boys.
• Mike McQueary and Joe Paterno reported an incident in 2001 that was not responded to by Athletic Director Tim Curley and University Vice President Gary Schultz.
• Curley and Schultz were later charged with perjury and failure to report.
• Joe coached at Penn State for 61 years.
• Guido D’Elia recalls a time in the mid-1970’s where Paterno sat in a Holiday Inn with some players and watched the debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter for President.
• He was always educating, challenging, questioning, and making his players think.
• The Paterno family has a story called “Shyster” where Mary Kay took a cucumber slice out of her sister Diana’s salad.  The salad was part of an “all you can eat” meal.  Joe criticized her for “stealing” by making her sister share the food.  It was “all you can eat” not “all you and your sister can eat”.  He was very strict on principle.
• “Every kid I knew there, the meek and the tough guys, the word to describe them when they came to mind was always the same: Innocent.” - William Peter Beatty
• Bill Blatty wrote “The Exorcist”.
• Paterno developed a bad cough in his last few months.  A complication of his lung cancer.
• Joelle grew up in a neighborhood called “Flatbush” in the heart of Brooklyn, during the Great Depression.
• He often spoke fondly of the time, the air smelled of freshly baked bread, and the sound was of the New York Metropolitan Opera tenor coming through the static the radio.
• Joe’s grandfather Vincent immigrated from Italy in 1885 to become a barber in Brooklyn.
• There are many striking comparisons between Joe Paterno and Vince Lombardi.  Both are Italian Americans who grew up Catholic in Brooklyn.  They became football coaches against their parents’ will.  They faced each other in their youth.  Both were grandsons of barbers.
• “The will to win is important.  But the will to prepare is vital.”
• Joe often contemplated the differences between excellence and success.
• Angelo Paterno, Joe’s father, stood for quiet excellence.
• He studied late at night.  He felt no need to dominate, become rich and famous, nor blindingly successful in the eyes of the world.
• Florence, Joe’s mother, believed great things were accomplished only through hunger for achievement.
• Joe Paterno was left-handed but taught himself how to throw right-handed because he believed a good quarterback always threw with his right hand.
• He only started right-handed quarterbacks his first 35 years of coaching.
• Paterno’s 1944 senior year at Brooklyn Prep saw him call all the plays and only lose one game.  That one game came against St. Cecilia and Vince Lombardi.
• St. Cecilia at the time had not lost a game since 1942.
• Joe found physical pain embarrassing.  It was to be ignored and overcome.
• He enjoyed the story of Aeneas and worked with his teacher Thomas Bermingham to translate “Aeneid” word-for-word.
• “Arma virumque cano” - I sing of arms and a man.
• Paterno’s favorite movies growing up showcased Errol Flynn as swashbuckler fight for the honor of some fair maiden.
• The driving theme of Aeneid was destiny.
• “Fatum” - fate
• Aeneas’s fatum was to found Rome.
• He attempted to follow his fatum, but found that at times, his instincts lied, felt illogical at times, occasionally led to agony.  He wanted to stop and give up.
• He kept going, which was something Paterno admired and found fascinating.
• “Aeneas knew you cannot escape your destiny; you are out in this world to fulfill it.”
• Paterno was drafted at age 19.
• “Two great things Harry Truman did.  He saved Europe with the Marshall Plan, and he ended the war when he dropped the bomb.”
• He stayed an extra term at Brooklyn Prep to be able to play the 1944 season.
• Joe was offered a full ride scholarship to Brown University, but had to postponed it due to being drafted into the war.
• He was impressed by the Rocky Mountains, and the sheer vastness of the United States.
• He studied educational courses while in the army and could use them to apply for college credits.
• He was stationed in Korea.
• Leaders keep their burdens close.
• Everett Arnold was known as “Busy” since he wouldn’t shut up.
• Earl Graham was known as “Zev” after the Kentucky Derby winner in 1923.
• Charles Engle was known as “Rip” because he constantly ripped his jeans as a kid. (Blogger’s Note: My high school football field is named after him.  The Charles “Rip” Engle Sports Complex is named after his 10 years of coaching the Waynesboro High School football team from 1930-1940).
• Engle was known as the “King of Gloom”.
• A rival coach, Ben Schwartzwalder once said that “Rip Engle is not happy unless he’s sad.”
• Engle attended Blue Ridge College.
• In 1927, Temple beat Blue Ridge 110-0.
• Engle invented “Angleball”
• Paterno chose to attend Brown in order to play for Rip Engle.
• Engle played for Dick Harlow at Western Maryland.
• Harlow inspired Engle to become a coach.  Engle inspired Paterno to become a coach.  Because of this chain of events, 107,000 people gather in Happy Valley every Saturday.
• Paterno felt the sting of elitism when he went to a fraternity party wearing his nicest white sweater and walked into a room of people wearing blazers and sipping martinis.
• According to myth that has never been proven, Stanley Woodward once wrote, “Paterno, the Browns quarterback, can’t run. He can’t pass. All he can do is think - and win.”
• Paterno was tasked by Engle to train his successors as the Brown’s QB role.
• Rip Engle ran a complicated version of the Wing-T offense.
• When he took the head coaching job at Penn State, he was unable to secure people who knew his offense. So he asked that Joe Paterno be allowed to join his staff.
• Rip would always tell Joelle about how clean the barns were.  Paterno would respond “I’m a kid from Brooklyn, what the heck did I know or care about barns?”
• Angelo once told Joe “I never made a lot of money, but I tried to do the thing I loved.  If this is what you want to do, try it.”
• Florence was more skeptical.  She didn’t understand why Joe went to college for a degree to become a football coach.
• Angelo’s constant advice to Joe was “Make an Impact”.
• Angelo was a huge believer in FDR.  He even named a song Franklin Delano Paterno, however the child died at 18 months old.
• Angelo believed that if you give somebody a fair chance - whatever their color, whatever their religion - that they might be able to do great things.
• Angelo died of a heart attack on September 29th, 1955.  At his wake, a black man walked into a room of about 100 white people and promptly gave a eulogy.  Joe remembers him saying “I want everybody to listen. Every day, Mr. Paterno treated me with respect. Every day.”
• Joe met Sue when she was a freshmen at Penn State, and he was an assistant coach.  They had an age difference of 13 years.
• He was a compulsive note-taker.
• Sue was dating a football player and Joe asked him to encourage him to study.
• The football played eventually failed out of Penn State.
• Engle had different terminology for positions.  The monster back was the “hero” back.  A player “cheating” to one side was “fudging” to one side.
• Engle wanted a better name for weak-side linebacker.  When nobody came up with a name, Paterno suggested ordering a Pizza from Fritz DeFluri who ran Home Delivery Pizza in town.  Thus the backer became known as the “Fritz” linebacker.
• Engle quoted something Paterno later used.  “It’s the players’ team, not ours.”
• After the 1956 season, Engle was offered the head coaching job at USC.  Paterno lobbied for him to take it and bring everyone to Southern California.  After a vote, Paterno was the only one who voted to go west.
• After the USC, vote, Paterno was asked to move out of the O’Hora household.
• Paterno had a passion for education, graduating 80-90% of his players.
• Paterno’s coaching style was simplicity and making sure the QB understood the full depth of each game.
• Similar to Lombardi, Paterno believed that you did not own games by tricking the other team, but with precise execution of play and making fewer mistakes than your opponent.
• “What Sue saw in Joe is a bit more complicated. She could have seen a middle-aged assistant coach who still lived in the basement of another family's home. (Jim O' Hora had had his "It's time to leave, Joe" chat in June of that year.) Instead she saw a brilliant, kind man with honest intentions and ambitions to do something great.”
• Joe and Sue Paterno were married in May 1962.
• Their two month honeymoon in Europe became 4 days in Virginia Beach.
• Paterno was named Penn State’s head coach at the start of the 1966 season.
• Joe turned down the opportunity to be offensive coordinator at USC under Al Davis because of Sue.
• Davis called Sue and told her she was holding Joe back.  He couldn’t have been more wrong.
• “I don’t belong anywhere where celebrity equals merit or money means talent or wealth proves achievement.”
• “I chuckle at people who blame the "system" for our problems, just as I laugh at those who claim that we should have blind faith in our government and institutions. What is this notorious "system"? In my game, people talk about offensive formations as the cure-all. After we lost to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl, many people asked: "Are you going to switch to the wishbone formation?" Believe me: It isn't the plays of the offensive system which get the job done. It is the quality of the players which makes the formation effective. And it is you who will make the organization work for you and you who will become victims of this system, if you fail to execute your responsibility to yourself and your fellow human beings. You have a part to play and if you loaf or quit, don't sit back and complain that our method is no good. The system, the organization, the method, the government IS you. If each of us is easily seduced by expediency, by selfishness, by ambition regardless of cost to our principles, then the spectacle of Watergate will surely mark the end of this grand experiment in Democracy. One of the tragedies of Watergate is to see so many bright young men, barely over thirty, who have so quickly prostituted their honor and decency in order to get ahead. To be admired. To stay on the “team." These same young men, within the short period of the last ten years, sat in on convocations such as this. They were ready to change the world. They didn't trust the over-thirty generation. I warn you: Don't underestimate the world. It can corrupt quickly and completely. And heed Walter Lippmann, who wrote several years ago: “It is a mistake to suppose that there is satisfaction and the joy of life in a self-indulgent generation, in one interested primarily in the pursuit of private wealth and private pleasure and private success. We are very rich but we are not having a good time — for our life, though it is full of things, is empty of the kind of purpose and effort that gives to life its flavor and meaning." What Lippmann wants us to realize is that money alone will not make you happy. Success without honor is an unseasoned dish. It will satisfy your hunger. But it won't taste good.” - Joe Paterno, Commencement address to Penn State's graduating seniors, June 16, 1973.
• The 1966 season was a disappointing one.
• Joe would spend the summer of 1967 so focused on work it stressed him and family out.  He would rarely leave his office.
• When he took over in 1966, he was offered $20,000 a year without a contract.
• When Bear Bryant learned that Paterno did not have a contract, he told him to get one that came with 200 tickets, saying it would get him a lot of favors.
• Paterno was not his normal self that first year.
• He changed the offense from a Wing-T to a more modern I-Formation.
• Paterno was never afraid to start over if something wasn’t working.
• “Alea iacta est” - The die is cast.
• He was usually relaxed on Fridays in later seasons as Alea iacta est, and could not be changed.
• Once, to spark school spirit that season, Sue and some other coaches’ wives splashed orange paint on the Nittany Lion before the Syracuse game.  The next day a news report came out announcing it and saying the identity of the criminals were known.
• Joe was livid, as he always had the strongest sense of right and wrong.
• Some Syracuse fans took the prank and went further, painting the entire Lion Orange.  They later spent the night in jail.
• The Lions went 5-5 that first year.  Paterno reflected that he tried too hard to be like the greats, and he had forgotten Engle’s lesson that it was the player’s team.
• After the 1966 season, Paterno became obsessed with building a defense the world had not seen before.
• Paterno once tried to recruit Jim Kelly to play linebacker.
• Paterno invented his “4-4-3 defense”.
• “Go to the ball” became one of Joe’s biggest phrases.
• After a strong defensive victory in Miami, Paterno caught 2 players drinking a beer at the Miami airport.  He threw one off the team as this was his second rule violation, and suspended the other for 2 games.  The players protested, and Joe addressed the team.
• “I told the team that all their life they would have to live by rules, whether they agreed with them or not. They might not see the wisdom in a speed limit or in getting taxes in by midnight on tax day. I told them that the rule was there to protect them, but it didn't matter if they agreed with me. There are consequences for breaking rules. And by breaking those rules you are accepting those consequences. If you can’t live with it, go.”  Every player stayed.
• Penn State lost the next week to No. 3 ranked UCLA 17-15 in a game their opponent barely squeaked out.
• Penn State did not lose again for nearly 3 years.
• In the late-60’s, there were only 9 bowl games.  So receiving an invitation to one meant something.
• In the bowl game, Paterno went for it on fourth down in a now legendary play.
• “You can't be afraid to lose!" he shouted with a jolt of force, and he pointed at me. "You will not win all the time in life. Sometimes the other team's gonna lick ya. But you have to believe you will win. You know who wins in this world? I don't care if it's football or politics or business. The bold people win. The audacious people. People who are afraid to lose, they beat themselves. They lose before they ever get started. They have their excuses before the game is even played."
• The gamble failed.  Florida State went on to tie the game and it ended that way.
• The critics were fierce after the call decrying Paterno for a very poor decision.
• Paterno built up an alternate take on the story.
• “Most of you are too young to remember this, but I was once the dumbest coach in America. Some people would say I'm still the dumbest, but believe me, I'm smarter than I used to be. My second year as coach, we went to the Gator Bowl. That was my first bowl game as a head coach, and I really wanted to win it. We went up 17-0, and I was feeling pretty good about myself. I was thinking, "Hey, we must be pretty good." Then we had fourth down and one from our own 15-yard line. And the players were saying, "Go for it!" Well, players always want to go for it. Every time they come off the field, we could be fourth and 100, the quarterback will tell me, "Coach, we can get it." But this time, I was feeling pretty good. And I thought, “Yeah, we can make that. It's less than a yard." So I say, "What the heck! Go for it!" I wanted to be unconventional. Of course, we don't make it. I'll never forget that. We don't make it, and Florida State comes all the way back and ties us 17-17. Now I feel terrible. I cost my team the game. Most of the guys said, "That's okay?" But they're really thinking, "Paterno, you blew it." I'm sitting in the back of the plane, feeling sorry for myself. I'm sitting there with Sue, and then Jack Curry comes back. Jack was the team clown. He was a great guy and a great receiver. So he comes back, and he said, "Don't feel bad about it. There's good in everything." I look up at him. And he says: "Before the game started, nobody knew who coached Penn State. But after you went for it, everybody in the country shouted: Who in the hell coaches Penn State?'”
• According to Curry, Joe sent the punter on to the field, but the players sent him back off and made the call on their own.  He feels Joe took the blame for it.
• At the start of the 1968 season, Paterno was virtually unknown.  In five years, he would become one of the most famous and admired coaches in America.
• “Paterno's overriding philosophy was simple and boring, and through the years fans often complained about it: Your best chance at winning is not losing. You prevail in football and in life by making fewer mistakes than your opponent. You triumph not with grand heroics and individual brilliance and the sorcery of strategy. No, football teams win, he told his players again and again, because of the small details you get right and the other guys get wrong. You trust your teammate a little bit more than the other guy trusts his. You sacrifice a little bit more for the good of the team. You hold on to the football, and you don't take unnecessary chances, and you don't jump offside in the big moment.”
• “Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves.”
• Paterno believed fiercely in the college football system.
• “College football worked, he believed, only if the trade was even. At Penn State, a player would give his heart and body to the team, and along the way help make millions of dollars for the school and spark joy and passion in hundreds of thousands of Penn State fans. Paterno understood that was a large sacrifice for a player. In return, the player deserved a matching reward, the biggest any school could offer: his players would leave Penn State prepared to live a full life. What could mean more? That was the only way the trade was fair. Yes, he expected players to get their degrees— between 80 and 90 percent of Penn State football players graduated over the years —but that was only part of the deal. More, much more, he wanted players to be prepared for all that followed, to learn how to be successful, to be good husbands, good fathers, to know how to fight through the hard times and overcome mistakes and achieve more than they thought possible. This was Paterno's deal, and if colleges failed those students, the deal was broken. Paterno looked at those schools who gave players money and grades and easy ways out, and it disgusted him.”
• In the early days, there were five main programs that were considered elite; Bear Bryant at Alabama, Woody Hayes at Ohio State, Darrell Royal at Texas, John McKay at Southern California, and Ara Parseghian at Notre Dame.
• Paterno would travel to various places outside State College and talk very differently than most coaches.  He would discuss Greek Mythology, the writing style of Fitzgerald, and the politics of Nixon.
• In the last fifteen years of his life, Paterno waged a Cold War against the media.
• Paterno helped Mike Reid pursue his love and passion of music.
• After the 1968 season, Paterno was offered a huge contract to become the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The job ended up going to the legendary Chuck Noll, who was a relatively unknown Baltimore Colts assistant coach at the time.
• President Richard Nixon once considered Vince Lombardi as a vice president.  Turns out, Lombardi was a JFK Democrat.
• In 1969, Ohio State was ranked number 1.  They were bowl ineligible due to a Big Ten stipulation.  Penn State elected to go to the Orange Bowl.  Ohio State lost to Michigan and rearranged the top standings.  President Nixon got involved and after the Cotton Bowl, declared Texas number 1.  This was something that Paterno held a grudge against the rest of his life.
• In 1970, Mike Cooper became Penn State’s first ever starting black quarterback.
• In 1962, Penn State played the Gator Bowl in Florida.  Dave Robinson was not allowed to sit with his teammates because he was black.  The entire team left.  Paterno took him out to a coffee shop.
• Cooper struggled, and Paterno was forced to bench him in favor of sophomore John Hufnagel.
• They won their last 5 games, but Paterno was called racist for benching Cooper when his play was clearly the issue.
• Kenny Jackson said “I loved Joe Paterno.  He did not see color. He saw a young man he could help and mold.  That’s it.  He would not treat you different for being black, but he would not treat you special either.  It was honest.  Joe was honest.  Think how much better the world would be if everybody was like that.”
• George Paterno was a miracle child.
• The Paternos had 4 children in 5 years.  Sue then suffered 3 miscarriages.
• The family grew up around the kitchen table.  When a child would express an idea, Joe would always take the opposite view.  
• David Paterno says “By doing so, he taught us to defend, explain, and convince not just ourselves but everyone at the table why we thought our idea was the right one.  It taught us to think deeper about what we believed, and it taught us to challenge him too.”
• Joe as a father, hated foul language.
• Paterno was not as present in the household as he wished he could have been.  Fame and the game took precedent.
• Once during a trip to Hershey Park, Joelle was bombarded by fans, so he sat in the car designing plays as the family enjoyed rides.
• When meeting with John Cappelletti to commit him to Penn State, Joe noticed his younger brother Joey in the living room.  He found out the little boy had leukemia.  Joe spent the rest of the evening talking and giving full attention to the little man, leaving George Welsh to work with John.
• Joe was offered $1.4 million ($9.9 million in 2024 dollars) to take over as head coach and general manager of the New England Patriots for the 1973 season.
• Joe accepted the offer, but after speaking with his young son David and seeing Sue cry, he decided against it.  He was seen as a hero for sticking to ideals vs money.
• Paterno considers it his greatest temptation.  After that, he knew exactly what he was to do with his life.
• Paterno was a Republican.
• Cappelletti won the Heisman Trophy for the 1973 season in a runaway victory.
• Paterno decided to channel out the national polls in 1973.  After winning the Orange Bowl against LSU, Paterno self-declared his team number 1, and bought them all championship rings.
• At his Heisman ceremony, Cappelletti brought everyone to tears by dedicating his Heisman Trophy to his dying brother Joey in one of the most memorable ceremonies in sports history.
• Paterno admired Bear Bryant, but never beat him.
• Bryant was the 8th of 9 children born on a farm in Arkansas.
• At age 13, Bryant wrestled a bear for $1.
• When Penn State and Alabama played in State College in 1981, Bryant called Paterno and asked him to tell the governor he needed a police escort to the game.  The governor laughed off the request.
• Paterno and Bryant faced off for the National Championship in 1979.
• Paterno would often compare a 12-game football season to Hercules’ 12 labors.
• Paterno lost the National Championship due to Penn State’s punt team having 12 men on the field.
• One of Paterno’s favorite movies was Patton.
• “Memento Mori” - Remember, you are mortal.
• Matt Millen was one of the most difficult players Paterno ever coached due to lack of discipline.
• Paterno used to do Friday night off the record sessions with the media until they broke the rules and published one of his comments.  He distrusted the media thereafter.
• After the 1979 season, Paterno went home to Brooklyn to think about his life.
• “Anyone who watched him when he was in one of his moods would see a man walking at a brisk and steady pace, his head up, eyes locked on a target far ahead.”
• In 1977, David went into a coma after a trampoline accident.  He almost did not survive. Joe stayed by his side the entire time.  It was one moment he did not care about football.
• Paterno did not like calm.  He thrived on tension.
• Joe was Penn State’s Athletic Director for 2 years.  He disliked the job, however it gave him a greater appreciation for women’s sports.
• Paterno’s teams spent less time on the practice field than any major football program.  But those practices were challenging from start to finish.
• Players experienced “stages” of Paterno.  During recruitment, they were indifferent but respectful.  During college, players despised him.  After graduation they respected him but glad the ordeal was over.  In later years, they thought of him often, and grew to love him and the men he built them into.
• Similar feelings many sons have towards their fathers.
• Penn State won their first national championship in 1982.
• Less than a month later, Bear Bryant died of a massive heart attack.
• Joe believe his 1968, 1969, and 1973 teams were his first championship teams, even if they weren’t crowned.
• Paterno and Jerry Sandusky did not like each other.
• When Miami arrived at the 1987 Fiesta Bowl, they deplaned in army fatigues.
• Joe never cared about the score of the game.  He simply played to win, no matter what it took.
• Despite looking very tough, Miami had 7 turnovers in the game.
• Penn State went 5-6 in 1988.  The first losing record ever under Joe as head coach.
• Penn State officially joined the Big Ten Conference in 1990, and began playing football in 1993.
• The 1994 Penn State offense was arguably the best all-time.
• Sandusky ran a charity called “The Second Mile”.
• Scott Paterno, the youngest son, did not get along well with Joelle growing up.
• At age 16, he was sent to boarding school.  Joe left him with the words “One of us is moving out, and the mortgage is in my name.”
• Joe would obsessively clip things he read and liked.
• Paterno coached well into his 80’s, and each time it seemed he would retire, he kept setting new goals.
• “I remembered Ernest once telling me, "The worst death for anyone is to lose the center of his being, the thing he really is. Retirement is the filthiest word in the language. Whether by choice or by fate, to retire from what you do - and what you do makes you what you are — is to back up into the grave."
• The author speculates that Paterno was concerned that the end of his coaching career would mean the end of his life.  Bear Bryant passed a month after retiring.
• Paterno and Jerry Sandusky never got along from day 1.
• Their personalities were complete opposites.
• They got into several near fights on the sideline.
• Joe felt that Sandusky became far too lax after the 1987 victory over Miami.
• Sandusky had so many foster children that he was always seen around them.
• In 2011, Sandusky was charged with 50 counts of sexual abuse of children.  In 2012, he was convicted of 45 of them.
• Joe considered 1999 his worst coaching job.
• Ashton part of his retirement package, Sandusky received professor emeritus status, access to athletic facilities, an office near the football building, a parking pass, and access to Penn State email.
• The 2000 season was the worst of Paterno’s career.
• In 2000, Paterno played freshmen Adam Taliaferro.  When going in for a tackle against Ohio State, Adam’s helmet hit running back Jerry Westbrooks’ knee.  He was instantly paralyzed and had no feeling from the neck down.
• Jay Paterno said that he only ever saw his father cry twice in his life.  Once was in 1989 when his mother Florence passed away, and the other was when he saw Adam paralyzed on the football field.
• Joe felt that sportswriters had moved out of the business of writing about sports and into the business of controversy. He thought that the twenty-four-hour appetite of the Internet and talk radio made reporters sloppier and more interested in being first than being right. 
• “I feel bad saying this, but I just don't trust reporters.”
• Joe is a member of the Pittsburgh Sports Hall of Fame despite the legendary rivalry with Pitt.
• According to most sources, the date Paterno was informed by Mike McQueary of the Sandusky incident was February 10th, 2001.
• Joe thought McQueary was calling about the job vacancy left by Kenny Jackson when he left for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• McQueary was visibly shaken.
• He was dropping off sneakers at his locker in the Lasch Football Building on a February night, and he heard a shower running which seemed odd.  He heard slapping noises that sounded sexual in nature.  He then saw Jerry Sandusky and a young boy naked in the shower together.
• When Joe was interviewed about what had happened, he said that Mike came to him emotionally disturbed and shaken.  He was not clear about what he saw, but knows it was very wrong.  Jerry no longer worked for Joe, and they had no contact anymore.  Joe reviewed university policies to see what he needed to do for this situation.  He contacted Tim Curley.  He made it clear that Mike had seen something horrific and they needed to get to the bottom of it.  Tim gave him his word and that was it.  Paterno never followed up because he trusted Curley to do the right thing.
• Joe’s younger brother was the radio color commentator for Penn State.
• Paterno suffered bad seasons in 2003 and 2004.  His earnings about other Big Ten schools catching up were true.
• At one point, Penn State suffered 6 straight losses.
• Graham Spanier was the President of Penn State University.
• He was born in South Africa, and his family relocated to Chicago when he was just a boy.
• His father escaped to South Africa from Nazi Germany in 1936.
• Vicky Triponey became the Vice President of Student Affairs.
• Paterno and her sparred because she decided to make final decisions on punishments for misconduct.
• Paterno believed he should be the one to discipline his players.
• Paterno’s last year was the worst of his life.
• Paterno was slammed into by a receiver, cracked his pelvis and hurt his arm.
• He had to be driven around in a golf cart.
• Despite calls for his retirement, the team went 8-1.
• When Paterno defeated Illinois on October 29th, 2011, it was Joe’s 409th victory.  It would be the final game he ever coached.
• When the Grand Jury report was released, Joe was unaware of what “sodomy” was.
• Joe Surma was the person who officially informed Joe Paterno that he was fired.
• Sue called him back and said “After 61 years, he deserved better.” Before hanging up.
• Paterno was fired not for doing his job wrong, but because the university felt he had a moral obligation to go to the police.
• Joe was diagnosed with lung cancer days later.  He spent his remaining weeks undergoing chemotherapy and reminiscing on his life, and generally stayed positive.
• After a final interview, he was taken to the hospital.  He never came home.
• Sunday, January 22, 2012, Joe Paterno passed away.
• Posnanski goes through several individuals who have had a lifelong impact from Paterno.  
• Paterno had a great memory, but was horrible at remembering names.
• Don Abbey once had the Marine Corps instructors come watch a Penn State practice.  Afterwards, they said, “You know, Don, if we did half of the stuff that Joe just did to you, we'd be court-martialed.”
• “Joe had this thing that someone invented that was this long steel pipe that had kind of a tripod on the end. And you would stand right under the tripod, and they would take this metal perpendicular pipe and put a punching bag on it. And they had a spring connected to it, stretch it, and they would hit a button and this thing would come down and you had to block it. They first had two springs on it, and it knocked out the first two guys, so they had to take one of the springs off. Who comes up with this? The Marquis de Sade?”
• “Take care of the little things, and the big things will take care of themselves. Always run to the ball. Hope for your opponent to play well. If you want to be a good person, hang out with good people. Winning is a habit, but losing is also a habit. On your way down, think about getting up. You have to believe you're destined to do great things. Publicity is like poison: it can only hurt you if you swallow it. The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital. You cannot be afraid to lose. A man's reach should exceed his grasp. If you're not early, you're not on time. You have to find a way to make big plays. You either get better or you get worse, but you never stay the same. If you keep hustling something good will happen. Don't do anything that would embarrass yourself, your family, or your team. The team that makes fewer mistakes wins.”

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Overall, a great read.  It helps to have an interest in football, but it is not entirely necessary.  There are a lot of great life lessons and "Paterno-isms" that resonate throughout.  The book tells the tale of a life well lived, and standing tall in the face of adversary.

I recommend this book.  Not because it is meant to prove or disprove his legacy, but for the story itself, and the principles the man lived by before watching it all crumble.  I think many people could take a lot away from it.  

On to Book #17: "Planet Simpson" by Chris Turner.