Five things you may not know about Joe Paterno

1 In 1983, he wore whale pants. The story goes that Paterno bought them at a tacky beach shop on the Jersey shore. His wife, Sue, dared him to buy them and, surprisingly, he did. Then, one Saturday that fall, his khakis were in the wash so he put on the pants, which featured small little whales blowing water out of their blowholes. He then made the 20-minute walk across campus and coached in front of 80,000 amused fans.

2 He had laser eye surgery in the offseason.

Long known for his rolled up pant cuffs and coke-bottle glasses, Paterno no longer needs the specs, except to read. Because he feels weird — and, frankly, looks weird — without them, he said he plans to still wear a pair during games albeit a thinner lens.

3 And speaking of those glasses, a pair of married Penn State graduates bought an autographed pair of Paterno’s frames for $9,000 earlier this year.

Paterno donated the pair, with the money benefiting Penn State Public Broadcasting. It was just the latest charitable gift from the Paternos, who have donated more than $4 million to Penn State University.

4 He’s not the winningest coach in college football history, just the winningest in Football Bowl Subdivision (I-A) history.

Paterno’s 394 wins give him 17 more wins than former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. But he’s still 14 behind longtime Grambling coach Eddie Robinson (408, all at the Football Championship Subdivision level) and St. John’s (Minn.) coach John Gagliardi (471 in NAIA and Division III). Gagliardi is still active.

5 His favorite poet is Virgil, a Roman classicist best known for the phrases “Love conquers all,” “Easy is the descent to Hell” and “Fortune favors the bold.”

Paterno isn’t big on pop culture, preferring the classics and biographies on people such as Winston Churchill and Alexander the Great.

“I’ve been to about four movies in the last 35 years,” Paterno told ESPN’s Gene Wojciechowski. “I think the last one I saw was, uh, ‘Amareus,’ — what was it, ‘Amadeus’?”

— Joe Scalzo