Outside of Beaver Stadium at Penn State, there are a few trees that were planted about 10 years ago on a patch of grass. This scene may look very average to the uninformed passerby, but there is a tumultuous history behind this area that is now invisible.
Joe Paterno was a football coach at Penn State from 1966 to 2011. Within this time, the team got 24 wins, and Paterno received the most career wins for a Division 1 coach (Bertram, 2020). Joe was loved and well known by many players and students. In 2001, the artist Angelo DiMaria was commissioned by Paterno’s wife and friends to build a statue of him that would be placed in front of the stadium. The statue featured Paterno with his finger in the air, and behind him on the wall were football players running. Around the statue were plaques and a quote by Paterno.
On November 5, 2011, Paterno was fired along with the Penn State president Graham Spanier (Bertram, 2020) when it was uncovered that Jerry Sandusky, the assistant football coach, had been abusing young boys for years. This had occurred from 1994 to 2009, and Paterno was accused of having knowledge of and covering up these acts. There was one incident in particular—Sandusky in the shower with a boy—that a graduate assistant named Mike Mc Queary (Hobson, 2018) reported to him in some amount of detail, and Paterno never alerted the authorities. Instead, he reported it to the athletic director at the time, Tim Curley. The lack of action that Paterno had regarding this incident led to his (and Curley’s) being fired from Penn State. This caused an uproar and even somewhat violent riots in the streets– a reporter was knocked out and a camera car was flipped over (Engel et al., 2021).
The NCAA also punished the Penn State football program, removing their wins since 1997 and reducing the amount of scholarships they were able to give out (Van Natta Jr, 2012).
Only 74 days after being fired, Paterno died from lung cancer. This saddened many people, especially given the recent circumstances.
In July of 2012, Penn State had the statue of Joe Paterno removed from outside Beaver Stadium. They did this early in the morning because they knew there would be an uproar. People had mixed reactions to this, and many were upset. Some thought it was an “act of cowardice” to remove the statue (Van Natta Jr, 2012) and others felt angry that the university did this with no warning. Angelo Di Maria, the artist who made the statue, was understandably sad and said that “He was a good man… He made a mistake” (Van Natta Jr, 2012).
Meanwhile, the trial continued. Sandusky continued to plead guilty, and men continued to come forward claiming to be victims and receiving compensation. In total, there were 52 alleged victims. In the end, Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child abuse and sentenced to 30-60 years in prison. (Pallotto, 2024). In 2023, he appealed for another trial claiming to have more evidence, but the court rejected his request and he is still in prison today (Pallotto, 2024).
People still argue about how much Paterno really knew about the case. Unfortunately, Paterno died before people could ask him a lot of questions about it. Joe Paterno’s legacy remains a controversial one. No one will dispute that he was an amazing football coach, but people argue about how, at all, his life should be commemorated. There are still grumblings about his statue being taken down. There are some that say it should be replaced, and there was talk about another statue of Paterno, reading a book, being placed in a different area. Others argue that the focus on Paterno must be painful for the survivors and their families, and the less visual representation of him in the town, the better. (Doyel Apr 24, 2015)
This situation leads us to an important question about who should be commemorated in our communities and on a larger scale. It’s also an interesting example of how different people can have different views about the same event that occurred. While everyone agreed that Sandusky was guilty, many people believed Paterno was innocent.
The landscape is now invisible because to someone who doesn’t know the history behind the area, it is just a patch of grass. But to the informed person, this patch of grass carries a weight and a meaning to it that is hard for them to put into words. The site where Paterno’s statue used to be has a story that came from a tragedy in the community.
This is a story about certain influential members of a community (the Board of Trustees at Penn State) choosing what they want our community’s cultural landscape to look like and making the rest invisible. Although not everyone agreed with the decision to take the statue down, the Board of Trustees were the ones who got to make that decision. However, Paterno’s legacy is still spread throughout State College. The Paternos donated a lot of money to Penn State, and this is visible in many parts of the town. Paterno Library is named after him, as are many other smaller places—a bar at the Nittany Lion Inn is called Dear Joe—and the local Texas Roadhouse still has his face and a quote of his on the wall. The Creamery even has an ice cream flavor named after him called Peachy Paterno. Therefore, even though the Board voted to remove his statue, they didn’t erase the mark he made on Penn State, and he will always be associated with this place. Even the invisible statue outside of Beaver Stadium is a reminder to many and holds a cultural significance in State College.
Sources:
Doyel Apr 24, G. (2015, June 2). A statue for Joe Paterno? are memories really that short?. CBSSports.com. https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/a-statue-for-joe-paterno-are-memories-really-that-short/
Hobson, W. (2018). What did Joe Paterno really know about the Sandusky scandal at Penn State? - The Washington Post. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/04/07/what-did-joe-paterno-really-know-about-the-sandusky-scandal-at-penn-state/
Bertram, C. (2020). The rise and fall of Joe Paterno. Biography. https://www.biography.com/crime/joe-paterno-rise-fall-reputation
Tikkanen, A. (2024, September 27). Joe Paterno. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joe-Paterno
CNN Editorial Research. (2024, April 24). Penn State scandal fast facts. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/us/penn-state-scandal-fast-facts/index.html
Engel, J., King, K., Frisina, C., Sizemore, T., & McGowan, L. (2021, December 3). Recounting penn state’s largest riot after the firing of Joe Paterno. The Daily Collegian. https://www.psucollegian.com/sandusky/recounting-penn-state-s-largest-riot-after-the-firing-of-joe-paterno/article_5e0690ac-5390-11ec-a8a0-9f57ebcadec7.html
Jr., D. V. N. (n.d.). Joe Paterno statue taken down. ESPN. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/8188530/joe-paterno-statue-removed-penn-state-university-beaver-stadium
Pallotto, B. (2024, September 19). Pa court upholds rejection of ex-PSU coach Jerry Sandusky’s latest bid for a new trial. Centre Daily Times. https://www.centredaily.com/news/local/crime/article292743849.html
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