Joe Paterno Statue

“JoePa” Statue
Beaver Stadium
University Park, Pennsylvania
submitted by “wendyvee”

wendyvee says:
I was just looking at my website’s stats and realized that this is my 400th post! It also happens to feature a Pennsylvania football legend and my very own newly-graduated nephew, Sean!

 
Joe Paterno has been a Penn State University football coach since 1950! (16 as an assistant coach and 44 as head coach). I have had the pleasure of meeting him on two occasions … and though he can appear on the gruff side, he has a warm twinkle in his eyes.

The bronze statue, honoring Joe’s contributions to Penn State University, stands just outside PSU’s Beaver Stadium. It rises to just over 7-feet tall and weighs nearly 900 pounds.

There is a three-sided stone wall behind the statue. The left section of the wall reads, “Joseph Vincent Paterno: Educator, Coach, Humanitarian.” The section behind the tribute features four Nittany Lion football players following Paterno onto the field. The quote to the right of the the coach is: “They ask me what I’d like written about me when I’m gone. I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach.”  The other side of the wall features plaques with the scores of the games coached by Paterno from 1966-to present.

Congratulations to Coach Paterno for a coaching career that will likely never be duplicated, and to my nephew who is just beginning his own stellar career!

Links of Interest:
* A great collection of Joe Paterno images, both modern and vintage at Penn State Live
* Coach Paterno’s biography on Wikipedia

Related posts:

1. Blue Hen – University of Delaware
2. The Merci Train
3. EC-130E “Commando Solo II”
4. PA National Guard Museum
5. Scary Granny!

Tags: football, Pennsylvania, wendyvee