Penn State is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hiring Joe Paterno, the coach who helped his school rack up countless victories and his assistant cover up countless rapes.
The plans for exactly what Penn State will do is unknown, other than stating that the program will be "commemorating the 50th anniversary of Coach Paterno's first game as Penn State head coach" before the game. … The Nittany Lions, until this point, seemed to want to distance themselves publicly from Paterno since his last game in 2011, most notably taking down his statue outside Beaver Stadium.
Now, the program is looking to honor the former coach, who died in 2012, for the 50th anniversary of his first game with Penn State in what is a controversial choice.
Paterno was fired in 2011 after it emerged that during his tenure, Jerry Sandusky had assaulted dozens of youngsters in his care. Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 separate charges. Though Paterno claimed to have been ignorant of his actions—pretending at one point not even to know what "sodomy" means—it later emerged he knew of Sandusky's activities since the 1970s. At least two victims accused Paterno, who died in 2012, of telling them not to go to the authorities.
