The way Nike Chairman and Founder Phil Knight sees it, Joe Paterno’s been a hero to him for 12 years.

News of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case, he said, did nothing to change that.

“If there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, and not in Joe Paterno,” Knight said at Paterno’s memorial service Thursday, prompting a booming applause and a standing ovation.

Knight said he believed the university wronged Paterno, referring to the Board of Trustees’ decision to remove Paterno days after child sex abuse charges were filed against Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator with Penn State football.

According to a grand jury presentment connected to the Sandusky case, former assistant coach Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2002 that he saw Sandusky doing something “sexual in nature” with a boy in the shower. According to the presentment, Paterno told two administrators — former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Interim Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz — about the incident but did not directly notify police. Curley and
Schultz now face perjury and failure to report abuse charges in connection with the Sandusky case.

Speaking at “A Memorial for Joe,” Knight said Paterno never let him down.

Through all of the events that surrounded the Sandusky case, Knight said Paterno never once complained or lashed out. Everything Paterno did after he was fired still conveyed the message “We Are… Penn State,” Knight said.

After the memorial, former football player and fellow speaker Charlie Pittman said that Knight’s sentiments needed to be said.

“I’m glad he said it, and I touched upon it a little bit. But he went for the knockout punch,” Pittman said. “He’s Phil Knight. I’m just Charles Pittman.”

And Pittman said he agrees that Paterno was not afforded due process when the trustees removed him as head coach.

“The point is, the Board of Trustees acted inappropriately with the way they handled it and treated him,” Pittman said.

But Knight’s speech wasn’t confined to the events of the past several months. In one portion, he recalled a time when Paterno sung a duet to the song “Wild Thing” at an annual Nike event for years for coaches and their wives. The rendition, he noted, wasn’t particularly artistic.

“Twenty-one days from now in Hawaii, there will be an enormous void on talent night,” Knight said.

He said that 12 years ago, he began to think of Paterno as his new hero.

“I need someone to look up to. You’re my new hero,” he said he told the coach then. He said Paterno responded with a relaxed “Aw, shaw.”

When Paterno died, Knight said he asked himself “Who’s going to be my hero now?”