Joseph Vincent Paterno died at 9:25 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 22 of metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung, according to a statement released by Mount Nittany Medical Center.
He was 85 years old.
Shortly after his death, the Paterno family released a statement reflecting on the man who “fought hard until the end, stayed positive, thought only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been.”
“As the last 61 years have shown, Joe made an incredible impact. That impact has been felt and appreciated by our family in the form of thousands of letters and well wishes, along with countless acts of kindness from people whose lives he touched,” family members said. “It is evident also in the thousands of successful student athletes who have gone on to multiply that impact as they spread out across the country.”
The Hall of Fame coach was fired Nov. 9 in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
Paterno recorded the most wins in Division I football history with 409, the most bowl appearances with 37 and the most bowl wins with 24.
He won a pair of national championships and three Big Ten titles.
Paterno was named AFCA Coach of the Year five times and was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1986.
As coach of Penn State, Paterno wanted to guide student-athletes to perform well on the field, as well as in the classroom. His “Grand Experiment,” as it came to be known, led to Penn State becoming one of the top academic football programs in the nation. Penn State has had 49 Academic All-Americans — 47 with Paterno as head coach — in its history, which is third among FBS teams.
“For all of us who played for Joe, he taught us so much. He was a teacher and an educator first. He taught us about self-discipline and paying attention to the small details. He built young men from the inside out,” acting Athletic Director Dave Joyner said in a statement on behalf of Penn State Athletics. “He’s famous for saying, ‘if you keep hustling and plugging away something good will happen’ and we all discovered how true that was.”
Paterno was born Dec. 21, 1926 in Brooklyn, N.Y. to Angelo and Florence Paterno. He had one brother, George, who also played and went on to coach football. Paterno attended Brooklyn Prep, where he excelled at football and basketball during his teenage years.
His academic and athletic efforts at Brooklyn Prep led him to Brown University, where he played quarterback and cornerback for the football team under coach Rip Engle. Paterno’s 14 interceptions are tied for the record for most interceptions in a career at Brown.
After his time at Brown, the then-23-year-old Paterno came to Penn State to serve as an assistant coach. He followed Engle, who left Brown to become head coach of the Nittany Lions. Paterno served under Engle from 1950 until 1965, when he took over as Penn State head coach following Engle’s retirement.
Once head coach, Paterno quickly turned the Lions into a perennial winner, guiding Penn State to consecutive undefeated seasons in 1968 and 1969 — finishing both at 11-0. However, the Lions finished at No. 2 in the AP poll at the end of both seasons.
Those wouldn’t be the last Paterno-coached teams to be overlooked by the voters. During his 45 full seasons as head coach, Paterno coached five undefeated and untied football squads but just one of those teams was voted consensus national champion. The 1973 Lions, led by Heisman Trophy winner John Cappelletti, finished 12-0 but were denied a national championship. Paterno became an advocate for a playoff system in college football.
Ironically, the first of Paterno’s two national championships came in 1982, when the Lions overcame an early-October loss to Alabama to finish the season atop the polls. Penn State capped its first consensus national title with a 27-23 victory over Georgia in the 1983 Sugar Bowl.
Four years later, Penn State entered the Fiesta Bowl against Miami as heavy underdogs. A stout defensive effort coupled with five interceptions helped Paterno and the Lions defeat the Hurricanes, 14-10, and gave Penn State its second national championship of the decade.
Paterno’s teams continued to succeed, and he coached his fifth and last undefeated squad in 1994, which ended in a Rose Bowl victory over Oregon.
The Lions went through a rough patch from 2000 to 2004, going 26-33 in that time. He finished his career 66-20 in his final seven seasons.
“The Penn State football program is one of college football’s iconic programs because it was led by an icon in the coaching profession in Joe Paterno,” current Penn State coach Bill O’Brien said. “There are no words to express my respect for him as a man and as a coach.”
Paterno’s dedication to the academic pursuits of his players and the university were apparent from his contributions and donations to the school. Paterno and his family gave more than $4 million to the university, in addition to other charitable work. Paterno and his wife, Sue, co-chaired the fundraising effort for the 1997 expansion of the Pattee Library. For their efforts, the addition to the library was named for the Paternos. Recently, the family even donated $100,000 to the school in December 2011.
“To me, he was my mentor for 37 years, and the lessons that I learned from him as a player, coach and friend will live on with me forever. It was Coach Paterno who saw what I could be and helped me to realize that potential,” former coach Tom Bradley said in a statement. “He was a tremendous teacher not because he knew all of the answers but because he challenged us to find the answers for ourselves. He made us better men than we believed we could be — both on and off the field.”