The viewing, at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center on the Penn State campus, was open to the public during the afternoon.
The line of those waiting to get in stretched more than a quarter-mile across campus, causing waiting times of at least 2 1/2 hours for most in frigid January temperatures.
During the morning, however, the Paterno family held a private service.
The current Nittany Lions football team, led in by new head coach Bill O'Brien, was the first group at the viewing.
"It's been a very sad couple of days here in State College, and really in Pennsylvania and the state of college football," O'Brien said. "It was really important for me to lead our team over to the viewing of Coach Paterno and greet his family."
O'Brien escorted his team off the three blue Penn State buses that carried Paterno's teams to Beaver Stadium each Saturday in the fall.
Following the current squad, more than 500 former lettermen paid respects to their former coach.
"It was such an opportunity to be around a person who possesses the kind of wisdom and knowledge [Paterno] had," former All-American linebacker LaVar Arrington said. "I was one of the few who had the opportunity to know the man. It was a very sobering day."
Arrington was among many former Penn State stars who attended the viewing, including Franco Harris, John Cappelletti, Kerry Collins, Larry Johnson Jr. and Daryll Clark.
Former Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary, who testified in a grand jury investigation that eventually led to child sex-abuse charges being filed against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, was also among the mourners.
"He was everything to you, next to your father, wife, mother," McQueary told the Daily Collegian, Penn State's student newspaper. "He was everything you would ever want in a head coach or a university icon."
