Anger over firing sizzles at Paterno’s memorial

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

The near-capacity crowd of 12,000 seemed to be just waiting for somebody to bring up the subject. Finally, when someone rose in Joe Paterno’s defense to argue that he had been made a scapegoat, the audience was instantly on its feet, applauding thunderously.

Anger and resentment came spilling out at a campus memorial service Thursday for the football coach, two months after he was summarily fired by the trustees.

It was Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight who broke the dam, defending Paterno’s handling of child-sex allegations that were leveled against a former coaching assistant.

“If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation and not in Joe Paterno’s response,” Knight said. Paterno’s widow, Sue, was among those rising to their feet.

Later, Paterno’s son Jay received a standing ovation when he declared: “Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience.”

Capping three days of mourning on campus, the 21/2-hour ceremony was filled with lavish praise that probably would have embarrassed Paterno, who died Sunday of lung cancer at 85 after racking up more wins — 409 — than any other major-college football coach and leading his team to two national championships in 46 seasons.

Though the Penn State campus has been torn with anger over the child-sex scandal and Paterno’s dismissal, Jay Paterno said his father didn’t hold a grudge.

“Perhaps his truest moment, his living testimony to all that he stood for, came in the last months of his life. Faced with obstacles and challenges that would have left a lesser man bitter, he showed his truest spirit and his truest self,” Paterno said.

Only one member of the university administration — the dean of the college of liberal arts — and no one from the Board of Trustees spoke at the memorial, which was arranged primarily by the Paterno family.

Among the speakers were Michael Robinson, who played for Paterno from 2002 to 2005, quarterback Todd Blackledge from the 1980s and Jimmy Cefalo, a star in the 1970s. All three went on to play in the NFL.

Former NFL player Charles V. Pittman, speaking for players from the 1960s, called Paterno a lifelong influence and inspiration.