Joseph Vincent Paterno (1926- 2012) dedicated over sixty years to the Penn State community as both an assistant coach and then as head coach of the Penn State football program. In his forty four years as Penn State’s head coach, Paterno established himself as one of the greatest coaches of all time. He won two national championships, many other bowls games, and finished his career with an impressive record of 409-136-3, making him the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division-1 history.

However, Joe Paterno was more than just a legendary football coach; he is the perfect embodiment of what it means to be a member of the Penn State community.  He preached integrity and education – helping to mend athletics and academics in the college environment.  With Paterno leading the charge, Penn State became a powerhouse of a football program while maintaining excellence in the classroom. The young men who played for Paterno also got their degrees. Penn State athletes had an 85% graduation rate – placing second to only Northwestern University among Big 10 schools and way above the 67% Division 1 threshold.  

Moreover, Joe and his wife Sue were renowned for their charitable contributions to Penn State academics. The Paterno family has contributed over $4 million towards various departments at the university, and helped raise over $13.5 million to expand the Pattee Library. Not only did Paterno build this culture for excellence in both athletics and academics, but he also helped the university expand through monetary contributions.

In lieu of all of Paterno’s contributions, Penn State University has named several buildings in his honor. They also erected a seven foot bronze statue of JoePa outside of Beaver Stadium.

In July 2012, roughly six months after Paterno’s death, the statue came crashing down and is currently in storage – nowhere to be found. The removal of the statue came in light of the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal and the release of the Freeh Report. The Report harshly criticized Paterno for his role in the cover-up of Sandusky’s crimes and further tainting his legacy. Two weeks after the report’s release, Penn State accepted some of the most severe sanctions ever in the history of collegiate athletics. Penn State was stripped of forty scholarships from 2013 to 2017, forced to pay $60 million in fines, banned from post-season play for 5 years, and forced to vacate all 112 of its wins dating back to 1998. Joe held 111 of those wins, thus he no longer was the all-time winningest coach in NCAA history.

Since then, the Freeh Report has been deemed by many prominent figures and lawyers as “flawed” and a “rush to injustice.” Upon close examination of the report, it is concluded that Freeh did not conduct a complete investigation. Many of the 430 interviewees cited are not even cited in the report, which makes the document less credible.

Moreover, there is no evidence that supports the claim that Paterno acted to conceal information about Sandusky.  Many of the allegations made by Freeh were not supported by sufficient evidence in the report: none of the documents crucial to Freeh’s central claim, for example, were sent or received by Paterno. In other words, this report rushed to paint a negative picture on Penn State and the university’s beloved son.

There’s a reason why the harsh sanctions were lifted prematurely and why Paterno’s wins have been restored – because Paterno was innocent this whole time. He has always been a brutally honest individual; just ask any of the players that suited up for him.

Now that his name has been cleared, it’s time to do what is right and restore his statue. Yes, Paterno stated that in hindsight, he wished he did more, but that does not make him the villain by any means. He will always remain in our hearts as members of the Penn State community. He is all over town – on t-shirts, a mural and beer cans – and even in the “Unrivaled” pregame video.  

President Barron, we urge you to restore the statue to fully restore his legacy.