Say It Ain't So Joe Pa!

Unfortunately it is.  I'm from Pennsylvania where Joe Paterno walks on water and is the Pope of Pa.  Since Monday shock waves have been spreading out from Pleasant Valley, Pa. home of Penn State University and Beaver Stadium.  An idyllic college town nestled in the mountains, it's been hit by the shock heard round the world.

This past weekend a retired football coach was named in a child abuse case/sexual assault that took place at Penn State in 2002.

Upon being informed of this event Joe Pa notified his higher up in the chain of command at Penn State.  He did not notify the police.

Ten years later this lapse of judgment or lack of a moral compass has come home to bite Coach P on his butt.  No one in Pennsylvania could ever imagine the day Paterno would not be coaching the Nittany Lions.  Imagine it this Saturday because that is the day Joe Pa will not be pacing back and forth on the sidelines.

I was there New Year's Eve in Miami,  Fla., 1973 when Penn State was in the Orange Bowl.  It was fantastic to be young, broke and in downtown Miami rooting on Penn State with so many other northerners in town.   Dionne Warwick was lip synching on her special float, but to me it was the Penn State mascot, dreassed up as the ever energetic lion that roared who strutted his stuff to PSU's marching band.  

I had no money for a ticket to that game.  But fast forward to New Year's Day 1979 when the 2 greatest college football coaches that ever have lived were meeting in New Orleans inside the Superdome.  Bear Bryant and Joe Paterno.  'Bama kicked our butts that year, but now i can say Roll Tide with the best of them.  It just didn't feel too good losing that afternoon but Time heals all wounds.

Yet another memory is of the 1968 bowl game when Penn State was losing terribly.  I got so upset and disgusted I turned off the tv.  I couldn't take it anymore.  Imagine my surprise the next day to hear Penn State had won!  I was in shock.  Impossible!  But true.  Somehow they came from behind and won while Betsy Balega was making a late night snack in the kitchen in Shamokin, Pa.

And then there was 1972 when the New England Patriots offered Joe the job of head coach.  He turned them down.  I was shocked again.  But I learned the power of college football in America. 

One day you're the cock of the walk, the next day you're a feather duster.

Thanks for the memories, Joe.

Betsy Balega
November 10, 2011