Inquirer Editorial: The tarnish is there, but the glory, too

Amos Alonzo Stagg, Glenn "Pop" Warner, Knute Rockne, Paul "Bear" Bryant, and now Joe Paterno.

The legendary Penn State coach, who died Sunday after battling lung cancer, has joined a pantheon of departed gridiron generals who pushed college football to its lofty place among America's pastimes.

Even the tarnish to his reputation that Paterno deserved, for failing to act more decisively after the alleged rape of a young boy was reported to him, won't keep football historians from giving him his due as one of the greatest coaches ever to walk the sidelines.

In 46 seasons as Penn State's head coach, Paterno won 409 games, the record for major-college football coaches. The member of the College Football Hall of Fame had five undefeated teams. His 24 bowl victories are more than any other coach, and his Nittany Lions won two national championships.

Including his time as an assistant coach, Paterno was at Penn State more than 60 years. He had become as much a part of the campus as the old President's House, which was built in 1864. Paterno's contributions to the university went far beyond being a coach. He was a major donor to the school and easily its biggest cheerleader.

But the university that Paterno, a Brown graduate, grew to love, the university that had loved him back with the same fervor, unceremoniously fired him with three games left in the 2011 season after the rape allegations became public.

Adding insult to injury, the firing came in a telephone call from the board of trustees, which decided it would be too difficult to attempt a face-to-face meeting. Instead, it had an envelope delivered to Paterno's home that included a directive for him to call the board.

But while its method of delivery might be questioned, the board's decision to dismiss Paterno certainly seemed justified. The coach contended he followed proper procedures in reporting the alleged assault to administration officials, but many of his fans still find it hard to believe that he didn't do more.

Indeed, Paterno himself acknowledged regret for not doing more after a graduate assistant in 2002 told him that he had witnessed former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky molesting a boy in the locker-room showers. Paterno told his superior, athletic director Tim Curley, and left it at that.