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| I took these photos than 5 years ago. |
Yesterday the world lost one of the most positively influential human beings it has ever seen, Joseph Vincent Paterno. You may think I’m crazy or exaggerating but that’s probably because you simply aren’t aware of the massive scope of his impact, as most people aren’t. To say that this humble football coach impacted millions of lives would not be stretch if you consider the impact that Penn State University as a whole has had on the world in the past six decades.
You see, Penn State wouldn’t be what it is today if not for Joe. When he arrived at the University in 1950 it was just a cow-town farm school. Today it is a top tier research university, churning out hundreds of thousands of exceptional graduates and dominating fields like engineering, meteorology and nursing. Those achievements might not have been possible if not for Joe Paterno and his emphasis on winning football games while educating boys and turning them into men of character.
Penn State consistently had the highest graduation rate of football players among all Division 1 championship level programs. Joe did not ever allow his players to even skip a single class, something I and all other students do routinely. If he caught a player in their room when they were supposed to be in class, they got benched. He made it clear that school was the first priority. Joe was grossly underpaid relative to his peers for decades and yet he poured millions of his own money into academics at Penn State, including building a massive library which bears his name. His “Success with Honor” mantra became the PSU brand and attracted millions, maybe even billions, in research money across numerous fields of study. There are currently more than half a million PSU alumni spread out across the US and the globe and every single one of them has been impacted, whether they acknowledge it or not, by Coach Paterno.
It would take me more time than I have to explain to you why this is true but ever Penn Stater knows it is. When I chose Penn State over several other excellent schools it wasn’t because of the football team. My high school didn’t have football, I had no interest in watching it, and I didn’t even buy season tickets. I chose to come to State College for the globally recognized Scholars program and for their top five Chemical Engineering department, yes, but also for a certain family pride vibe I felt during my first campus visit. They called it being “Penn State proud” and I liked it.
I was fortunate enough to live in a building where I had breakfast with the football team every morning for three years. Joe didn’t come to breakfast every day, but he did very frequently. There were many occasions when he’d be leaving the building around the same time I was, only to stop and chat with a handful of students including myself. His smile was infectious and in all seriousness he would usually tell us something like “Study hard.” and “you’d better get to class, you’re going to be late”.
He was the one person besides my own father that consistently reminded me why I was there, to study and learn. Not for football games or parties or boyfriends.
