Joe Paterno’s statue has been removed from outside of Beaver Stadium.
A construction crew used jackhammers and a forklift to move the nearly 1,000-pound bronze statue of the former football coach from where it’s been standing for more than a decade.
Police blocked off Porter Road at about 6:15 a.m., and a construction crew put up a fence around the statue as they prepared to take it down Sunday morning. Workers removed the statue from its original location around 8:20 a.m. and it taken inside Beaver Stadium.
The monument was not raised above the fence, so the crowd — which grew as the morning went on — did not have a chance to catch a glimpse of it, though Paterno’s finger could be seen above the tarp as the drilling continued.
A University Police officer said it is unknown how long Porter Road will be closed and she said the fence will be up for “quite a while.”
7:20 a.m.
Joe Paterno’s statue is in the process of being removed from outside of Beaver Stadium.
Police blocked off Porter Road at about 6:15 a.m., and a construction crew put up a fence around the statue as they prepared to take it down Sunday morning. Penn State President Rodney Erickson also released a statement saying the statue will be stored in a “secure location.”
“Coach Paterno’s statue has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing in our University and beyond,” Erickson said in the statement.” For that reason, I have decided that it is in the best interest of our university and public safety to remove the statue.”
Construction workers placed a blue tarp on the fence around the statue, obstructing the view of onlookers. The only visible part of the statue over the fence is Paterno’s raised right index finger.
There has been a lot of talk of removing the statue from its Beaver Stadium home since former FBI Director Louis Freeh released a report was last Thursday regarding his internal investigation of Penn State. There was a plane hauling a banner with the message “Take the statue down or we will” flying around Beaver Stadium earlier in the week, and many current students, alumni and Penn State fans have visited the statue in the last few days.
The statue was still standing as of 7:35 a.m. but removal of the former coach’s likeness was underway, and it is being removed exactly six months after Paterno died of lung cancer on January 22, also a Sunday.
In his statement, Erickson also addressed the issue of Paterno’s name being on the Pattee and Paterno library. Erickson said the Paterno name would remain.
“The library remains a tribute to Joe and Sue Paterno’s commitment to Penn State’s student body and academic success, and it highlights the positive impacts Coach Paterno had on the University,” Erickson said. “Thus I feel strongly that the library’s name should remain unchanged.”