“Joe Paterno is on his deathbed and someone needs to find him a casket!”

Don’t quote me here. I wouldn’t be caught dead saying something so stupid.

Last December, at a joint-team pep rally held two days before an Alamo Bowl showdown between Penn State and Texas A&M, an Aggie ’shouter’ – basically a male cheerleader in disguise – echoed this statement on a microphone and received a resounding, boo-filled response. Such boos, however, have been few and far amidst the criticism of the 82-year-old Penn State head football coach.

In 2001, a website with the domain name www.firejoepaterno.com emerged on the Internet with a fairly blunt message. The site’s managers claimed to be Penn State fans with the school’s best interest at heart.

“We all have our primes,” the site explains. “Joe’s came a long time ago.”

In 2004, after finishing the season 4-7 and on the heels of four losing seasons in five years, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and University President Graham Spanier paid Paterno two visits. These were not to talk recruits or thank him for his constant support of the school and program through donations, speeches, alumni visits and simply being himself, but to attempt to force Paterno into retirement.

Every season since I can remember (I’d say 15 of 22), the first issue ever discussed with regard to Penn State has always been, when’s he gonna retire? Isn’t it time for him to go?

Well I know I speak for myself and my grandmother, Gaga, from nearby Bellefonte, Penn—two minutes from the shadow of Beaver Stadium — when I say to the legion of JoePa doubters and haters that have emerged over the past several years: Shut your collective mouth and respect the man.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not here campaigning out of sympathy for head coaches that get criticized and/or fired. There are many coaches that deserve the boot. Often they are run- of-the-mill men who don’t succeed for any given reason: think Clemson’s Tommy Tuberville. Paterno, though, is an immortal (almost literally) among these men.
In the most general of terms, Joseph Vincent Paterno is one of the greatest college football coaches of all time. Just look at his track record. It speaks not only to his endurance, but also his unprecedented success. 505 games coached, 380 wins. That’s a winning percentage of 75.2.

34 bowl game appearances with 23 Penn State victories. Both of these statistics are records in the NCAA. He is the only coach to have won the Rose, Orange, Fiesta, Sugar, and Cotton bowl at least once. You don’t just win those BCS bowls by hanging around.

Two Big Ten football championships, two national titles, 21 finishes in the top ten national rankings, four undefeated teams, five Coach of the Year awards, one Sports
Illustrated Sportsman of the Year nod, and a Wheaties box.

Critics claim much of Paterno’s legacy is stuck in the 80s, but these records and elite finishes keep coming. In 2005, after his own athletic director asked him to step down, Paterno not only demonstrated he can still recruit by landing two blue chip prospects in wideout Derrick Williams and corner Justin King, but also turned in an 11-1 season, finishing third in the country, and capped it off with a BCS victory in the Orange Bowl. That’s only four years ago, when he was 79!

To top it all off, Paterno and the Nittany Lions are currently ranked third in the AP poll, are a perfect 8-0, and just last Saturday crushed the Michigan Wolverines 46-17.

Beyond records, however, there is no doubting that JoePa is a man, a motivator and a coach who is needed on his sideline for as long as he can stay.

Penn State, How can you turn your back on a coach who since 1966 has turned down no less than five offers to coach on the professional level?

You doubt your leader, but look what he has done and continues to do for your school.

53 years ago, Penn State was little more than an unheard of cow town school with no endowment and a vague reputation for, wait for it, its agriculture program. Today Penn State is a multi-million dollar University, thanks in no small part to Paterno. Beaver Stadium isn’t called the house that Joe built for no reason. Paterno’s perennially ranked program and bowl game wins bring large checks and national publicity to Happy Valley. But he doesn’t stop there. The Paterno library expansion of the University’s Pattee Library is so named because the coach was the face of a 1997 fundraising drive to build it. From their own pockets Paterno and his wife Sue have donated over $4 million to various scholarships and programs. Additionally, on his team, Paterno has always guaranteed that student comes before athlete. There are no excuses for missed tests or study sessions. When they are on the road, Paterno often conducts study hall. At home his wife Sue has been a consummate tutor for any Penn State player needing help. What does this all amount to? Consistently above average academic success compared with other D-I programs. Three out of the last five years, the Nittany Lions’ graduation rate was the highest in the country—so much for leaving early.

Joe Paterno is the embodiment not only of college football but also of what college football should always strive to be: not in a corny “oh isn’t he just the sweetest” way, but in the way Vince Lombardi embodied the league whose championship trophy bares his name.

You don’t usher such a man out the door, you relish the chance to experience him. So shut up and watch as me and my grandmother and the other residents of Bellefonte speak out, because the humble Paterno won’t. He won’t lash out, won’t disrespect and won’t bring shame upon his school or his sport the way his critics have. He’ll just say, as he did in an interview a few season back, “I think I could coach another 100 years.”

With immortality already achieved, let’s hope he does.