Penn State to Honor Joe Paterno at Game vs. Temple
Penn State will honor Joe Paterno before its home game against Temple this season, according to a press release about the season’s promotional schedule.
On the September 17th game against the Owls at Beaver Stadium, Penn State will hold an pregame ceremony “[c]ommemorating the 50th anniversary of Coach Paterno’s first game as Penn State head coach,” per the release. Per Onward State, which first reported the news, Penn State has not had any in-stadium mention of Paterno since his last game on October 29th, 2011 (besides his appearance in a few “hype” videos).
Paterno was fired in the aftermath of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, and died on January 22nd, 2012. His former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in June 2012.
Penn Staters for Responsible Stewartship, a pro-Paterno group that disputes the findings of the Freeh Report and is attempting to remake the Penn State Board of Trustees, said in a post on its Facebook page “we will accept this recognition of Joe on September 17 as only the first of many steps necessary to repair the needless damage caused by the unwarranted condemnation of Joe and the entire Penn State community.” Across the country, the reaction to the honoring of Paterno has been… less positive.
As part of Penn State’s attempt to recoup money paid in settlements to Sandusky victims, the insurance company had a risk management expert identify six instances where Penn State should have let the insurance company know of its possible liability — one where Paterno was allegedly directly notified by a Sandusky victim of an assault in 1976.
The Temple game is also THON and Community Heroes Day, Faculty & Staff Day and a “stripe out,” which means everyone is supposed to wear blue and white striped shirts. Temple is on a one-game winning streak against the Nittany Lions, winning last year’s game 27-10 — its first win against PSU since 1941. Penn State leads the overall series, 39-4-1.
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