Last Stand

When I'm King of the World . . . 

Joe Paterno will be reminded that Napoleon was in a farmhouse sickbed, too ill to ride the lines of the Grand Armee and whip the troops into a frenzy before the Battle of Waterloo . . . JoePa has been the Napoleon of college football coaches.

The Nittany Lions have been less a football team than an empire during Paterno's 45-year rule. Starting with Lyndon Johnson, nine U.S. presidents have served since Paterno replaced Rip Engle at age 39.

Four-hundred-five victories later, he is an old man so injured by a second close encounter of the collision kind, he can no longer prowl the sideline. History's great generals and football coaches have been visible to their troops. "Lee to the rear," was a Civil War cry when Robert E. Lee ventured too far into harm's way.

For decades, JoePa would show up at the Friday-night pep rally on campus and ignite the student body with fiery Brooklynese oratory, then the next afternoon he would race from the tunnel into Beaver Stadium at the head of a squad dressed in unadorned blue and white. No names, no helmet decals, plain black footwear. The Nike swoosh was permitted only because so much money was involved. Joe himself was attired in a Penn State blue windbreaker, flood-level khaki Dockers, white sweat socks and black cleats.

He roamed the sideline barking at officials and his own assistants and players. Never a headset guy, Joe had an assistant at his side to keep him in constant communication with his offensive coordinator and QB coach in the press box.

Even as he grew old, Joe was an effective general. Then he got sick and injured and now, with his 85th birthday rushing at him, it is like watching the embers of a once-roaring bonfire growing cold one by one.

Now, he sits sparrow-like in the press box with aging coordinator Galen Hall and QB coach/son Jay Paterno, too injured to be anywhere near harm's way on the sideline. He tried it for one half, but the pain drove him upstairs. The TV cameras stalk him but rarely catch Joe speaking. He has a 100-yard stare.

The football team made it through the exhibition portion of the schedule with a home loss to mighty Alabama where State's tough defense played well, a fourth-quarter escape against Temple and blowouts of two subdivision patsies happy for the payday.