Paterno led the way when Penn State joined Big Ten

Associated Press

A comfortable member of the Big Ten for more than two decades, it’s easy to forget that Penn State wasn’t readily welcomed by everyone in the conference.

“I’ve been to Penn State,” said Bob Knight, then the coach at Indiana, when Penn State was first invited to join the league in 1990. “And Penn State’s a camping trip. There’s nothing for about 100 miles.”

Rick Bay, then Minnesota’s athletic director, was hoping that the Big Ten didn’t expand. And that if it had to, he hoped the addition wouldn’t be Penn State.

“I don’t think it’s a done deal,” he said. “Maybe it’s some wishful thinking on my part.”

Even Indiana’s president said he would vote against bringing Penn State aboard.

So it wasn’t as if all the Big Ten’s coaches and administrators sang “We Are The World” and offered a warm hug to the Nittany Lions.

The pragmatist in the grand design was Penn State football coach Joe Paterno. In 1990, he’d already been in charge of the Nittany Lions for 24 years.

Paterno knew the change would be difficult on everyone.

“The [Big Ten’s] presidents made an invitation and we accepted it,” Paterno said then. “It’s not going to be easy, though. I have a lot of empathy for coaches and athletic directors who have to make this happen. The easy part was done by the presidents. The hard part has to be worked out by others.”

For the record, not everyone in Happy Valley was sold on a conference affiliation, either.

One caller to a radio talk show said, “I think Penn State took a step down. I see Penn State giving everything to the Big Ten and getting nothing back in return.”

For years, Penn State had tried to create an Eastern conference, but had failed. Most neighboring schools didn’t look at football the same way Penn State did. Plus, there were differences in size, academic goals and geography to address. At least the Big Ten was comprised of like universities.

Still, even Penn State alumni were lukewarm to the lack of established rivalries and having to travel over 1,000 miles to watch the Nittany Lions play at Minnesota.

“It’s been mixed,” said Peter Weiler, then Penn State’s executive director of the alumni association. “But the temperature is changing. This thing has been percolating for a while. When it first hit the streets, the reaction is completely different than what you have now. There’s a lot of anticipation for the first game.”

Now the addition of Penn State is seen as a template for other conference expansions, commonplace in college sports these days. Penn State has been a perfect fit for both the university and the Big Ten, particularly in football.

It’s hard to imagine where the Big Ten would be without Penn State — and vice versa.

“Much the way that Penn State kind of acquired a little more national respect and a national footprint through the Big Ten, Penn State coming in helped to further nationalize the Big Ten,” said Jordan Hyman, a Penn State alum who worked for the school paper and has written books on Nittany Lions football.

Paterno, who died of lung cancer Sunday at the age of 85, became the conference patriarch as a rookie.

“If you look at just adding a guy like Joe and what he brought individually and what he represented, there was a star power,” Hyman said. “You look at the other coaches in the Big Ten, he was the guy. He had the magnetism. No offense to the [John] Coopers and [Lloyd] Carrs of the world, but they’re not Joe.

“And never will be.”