Penn State Football: Hats Off To Joe Paterno

The 83 year old Joe Paterno is a living legend. He is one of the most accomplished coaches in college football history and continues to add to his resume. JoePa, as he is affectionately called by the Penn State faithful, already has two National Championships, three Big Ten Championships, and 24 bowl wins. And not to mention he is already the winningest coach in NCAA Football history.

If that was not enough, JoePa won his 400th game as a college football head coach. What’s more impressive is that all 400 of these wins have come with one university, the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State is the only university the JoePa has ever coached at; dating back to 1950 when he was an assistant coach until 1965. Since 1965 the Nittany Lions have only known one coach and he has brought them great amounts of success.

Under Paterno the Nittany Lions only suffered one losing season from 1966-1999 (1988) and they enjoyed tremendous amounts of success. But at the turn of the century, not everything was so golden for the Nittany Lions.

From 2000 to 2004, the Lions suffered four losing seasons in five years (2000, 2001, 2003, 2004) and many were calling for the then-77-year-old Paterno to retire. Penn State president Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley asked for Paterno’s resignation, but JoePa said, “not yet.” Since then, Penn State has rallied to six straight winning seasons and two Big Ten Championships and no one has looked back.

JoePa is already a Hall of Fame coach and he has had one of the most illustrious careers for a coach in any sport. He has touched the lives of millions over his 60-year coaching career and while this may be his last season, he will always be remembered as a Nittany Lion. Hats of to JoePa.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.