Tag Archives: Statue

Jul 30 2012

The Place Where JoePa Stood


        

Trees now line the area outside Beaver Stadium where the statue of Joe Paterno once stood.

The trees could be seen Saturday, a day after the statue was moved from Beaver Stadium.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the statue was moved Friday.

The statue’s current location is not reported, and Penn State spokesman David La Torre said the university will not be answering any questions about it.

“We don’t comment on the statue,” La Torre wrote in an email.

The statue was removed last Sunday on the heels of the release of Louis Freeh’s findings — a 267-page report that found Penn State officials were involved in a cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse allegations. Paterno, along with members of the Penn State administration, was found to have direct knowledge of the allegations and did not report them.

In the days leading up to the statue’s removal a banner plane flew through State College with the message, “Take down the statue or we will.”

The university has not released information of what the long-term future of the statue will be.

Jul 23 2012

Joe’s Legacy Is In Our Hearts, Not Statues or Buildings


By Keith Platt

While the powers that be can tear down statues and vacate wins, Joe’s legacy
isn’t encapsulated by a building, a statue or a trophy. Joe’s monument is
enshrined in all of the young men he taught to be leaders. Joe’s legacy is
enshrined in each of those young men that we had the honor and privilege to
cheer for and call our own. Whatever moral failings Joe may have had, he always
managed to recruit the highest caliber of young men to play football for his
team. This is evidenced by the graduation rates and GPA, at or among the highest
in Division I Football. It is also evidenced by the large amount of players who
chose, voluntarily, to give their time and efforts to Special Olympics and THON.
This is how I choose to remember Coach Paterno

Jul 22 2012

The Penn State I Knew Died Today


The decision to take down Joe Paterno’s statue is a case of the media destroying all due process.  We are now a people lead by knee jerk reactions and mob rule.  I challenge anyone to show me where in the Freeh Report Joe Paterno is accused of committing anything that could find him guilty of anything in any court of law.  Joe Paterno is the ONLY one who ever expressed a sentiment of, with hindsight, I wish I had done more!  There is not one shred of evidence.  There are many accusations in emails written by OTHER people, nothing that even names him as anything less than forthright, honest, cooperative.  I knew him, too, by personal experience to never meddle in how his players were punished  when they did something wrong or didn’t make the grades.

What is next?  Will they blow up Beaver Stadium, since it is probably the biggest tribute to what Joe Paterno contributed to the university? Will they blow up the library?  Will they blow up the town?  How about the creamery that produced “Peachy Paterno ice cream?  My University died today.  I will continue to look at my picture of the white out at Beaver Stadium with wonderful memories of “once upon a time there was a place called “camelot”  I don’t know the place that the board of trustees and its administration have created, and I don’t care to know it, either.  I am heartbroken that Penn State lacked the leadership to stand for right against so much wrong.

I am ashamed of my alma mater, but I am not ashamed of Joe Paterno and what he accomplished and contributed.  I wish the University Administration and Board of Trustees had shown discretion and leadership instead of destroying the institution they were charged with protecting.

Jul 21 2012

Penn State Board Opinions Differ


Last weekend, a campus security guard stood a few paces from the Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium, keeping watch for would-be vandals. This week, a few students camped out around the statue to ensure it would not be vandalized after a plane flew over the campus Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with a banner that read: “Take the statue down or we will.” More than a decade ago, the 7-foot statue was commissioned by a group called “Friends of Joe and Sue Paterno,” comprised of about 35 trustees, some of whom are still on the board, and deep-pocketed university benefactors.

The group hired a Reading, Pa., artist named Angelo Di Maria, 65, to sculpt it. The statue was then bequeathed to the university, a trustee briefed on the arrangements said Friday night. Two trustees who contributed to the statue’s cost are Ed Hintz and Jim Broadhurst, both of whom were notified in May 2011 by then-president Graham Spanier at a private dinner about the Sandusky matter, according to the Freeh report. Both men have denied that Spanier told them about the investigation, but some of their fellow trustees said this week they do not believe them.