NCAA: Funeral & Memorial Services Set For Joe Paterno

Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

A private funeral for former Penn State coach Joe Paterno will be held Wednesday, and his family has scheduled three days of public memorial events this week.

Paterno died Sunday at age 85, less than three months after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

In a schedule released by a family spokesman, the first public viewing will be held Tuesday, a 10-hour session starting at 1 p.m. ET at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus.

Another viewing will take place for four hours Wednesday, starting at 8 a.m. A private funeral service is scheduled for 2 p.m. that day.

A memorial service will be held Thursday at 2 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center, the basketball arena next to Beaver Stadium.

Pennslyvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday ordered all state flags at the state Capitol and at state facilities to fly at half-staff through sunset on Thursday in Paterno’s honor.

Paterno, who won more games than anyone in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation for winning with integrity, had been in the hospital since Jan. 13 for observation for what his family had called minor complications from his cancer treatments.

Not long before that, he conducted his only interview since losing his job, with The Washington Post. Paterno was described as frail then, speaking mostly in a whisper and wearing a wig. The second half of the two-day interview was conducted at his bedside.

On Monday, Paterno’s former players continued to pay tribute to their mentor.

Tennessee Titans coach Mike Munchak, who lettered under Paterno in 1979 and 1981, said Paterno’s accompishments will never be matched.

“What he was most proud of though was not what we accomplished, but how we accomplished it — ‘success with honor’ was his phrase for it,” Munchak said in a prepared statement. “He instilled a spirit in each of us that we were part of something bigger than ourselves and upholding the Penn State tradition. The things I learned at Penn State are still with me today and they have made me a better person and a better coach.”

Miami coach Al Golden, who played and served as an assistant under Paterno at Penn State, said the values Paterno instilled in his players and coaches “will never be diminished. ”

“They are manifested in our leadership, character, class and dedication to improving the lives of others in the classroom, workforce and community. They are distinctly evident in the way we raise our children and the type of husbands and fathers we have grown to be. I am forever grateful for the impact that Joseph Vincent Paterno has made on my life,” Golden said.

Matt Millen, an ESPN NFL and college football analyst who played for Paterno at Penn State, told ESPN Radio’s “The Herd” that the difficult end of Paterno’s tenure doesn’t diminish his greater legacy.

“It doesn’t mean that despite your best efforts and despite all your experience in a storied career, in a storied life, that you don’t make a decision that in his own words, you wish you would have done more,” Millen said Monday. “There’s some flaws within 50 years as well, but the biggest piece of it is all good, and it has impacted many, many lives.”

Millen told “The Herd” that when he spoke with Paterno about a month ago. Paterno wasn’t preoccupied with the fact he was no longer coaching.

“He didn’t even talk about not coaching. His concern was for others. His concern was how it did affect the program … all he talked about was the kids, the children, the alleged abuse victims,” Millen told ESPN Radio. “That broke his heart. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around how that whole thing could even happen and really what it is, even. It was hard for him to get his mind around that.”

“There are only a few people who make a real difference in the world and those are rare people. And Joe Paterno was a rare person,” Millen added.

It was because Paterno was a such a sainted figure — more memorable than any of his players and one of the best-known coaches in all of sports — that his downfall was so startling. During one breathtaking week in early November, Paterno was engulfed by a scandal and forced from his job, because he failed to go to the police in 2002 when told a young boy was molested inside the football complex.

“I didn’t know which way to go … and rather than get in there and make a mistake,” he said in the Post interview.

Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator expected to succeed Paterno before retiring in 1999, was charged with sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. Two university officials were charged with perjury following a grand jury investigation of Sandusky. But attention quickly focused on an alleged rape that took place in a shower in the football building, witnessed by Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time.

McQueary testified that he had seen Sandusky attacking the child and that he had told Paterno, who waited a day before alerting school authorities. Police were never called and the state’s top-ranking police officer later said Paterno failed to execute his moral responsibility by not contacting police.

“You know, (McQueary) didn’t want to get specific,” Paterno said in the Post interview. “And to be frank with you I don’t know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it.”

Paterno built his program on the credo “Success with Honor,” and he found both. The man known as “JoePa” won a major college-record 409 games and took the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl games and two national championships. More than 250 of the players he coached went on to the NFL.

Paterno had his detractors. Some questioned whether his commitment to academics was more words than actions; others claimed his players often got special treatment compared to non-athletes. His coaching style often was considered too conservative and some thought he held on to his job too long.

But the critics were in the minority, and his program was never cited for major NCAA violations. However, the child sexual abuse scandal prompted separate investigations of how the school handled the situation by the U.S. Department of Education and the NCAA.

At a wrestling match Sunday between Iowa and Penn State at Rec Hall on Penn State’s campus, fans were asked to observe a moment of silence. The crowd of more than 6,500 then gave a 30-second standing ovation while an image of Paterno flashed on two video boards.

The screen flashed the words “Joseph Vincent Paterno. 1926-2012,” just below a picture of a smiling Paterno, wearing a blue tie and blue sweater vest with arms crossed across his chest.

At a women’s basketball game Sunday, Penn State players wore a black strap on their shoulders in memory of Paterno.

A moment of silence was also observed before the Nittany Lions men’s basketball team’s 73-54 loss at Indiana.

–ESPN