SPORTS
December 8, 2011 | DAILY NEWS STAFF REPORT
A PERSON CLOSE to Joe Paterno's family has told the Associated Press the former Penn State football coach is undergoing treatments and progressing after being diagnosed last month with lung cancer. The person requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. Paterno's son, Scott, last month requested privacy for the family after revealing that doctors discovered his father's treatable form of lung cancer during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness. School trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9 in the aftermath of child sex abuse charges against retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.
SPORTS
May 13, 2013 | By Marc Narducci, Inquirer Columnist
Gerald Hodges' football career has been about adapting, persevering, and producing. And now it will be about adjusting - to the NFL. The Penn State linebacker and former all-South Jersey performer from Paulsboro was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth round, the 120th player chosen. "It's a blessing when my name was called, and now I get a chance to put a franchise on my helmet," Hodges said by phone. The 6-foot-1, 243-pounder began his college career as a safety but moved to linebacker.
SPORTS
October 9, 1996 | By Ray Parrillo, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A youngster grows up with a single athletic purpose: He wants to play linebacker at Penn State. His high school coach, recognizing the youngster's physical talent, asks him to play quarterback. But the boy wants to hone his skills at linebacker so he can move on to Penn State to do the same. No thank you, he says to the coach. Penn State recruits him as a linebacker after he has made just about every high school all-America team that matters. The plan is still intact - until three days before his first game as a freshman.
SPORTS
February 13, 1986 | By Ray Parrillo, Inquirer Staff Writer
Penn State's football program, thought to be on wobbly knees before its surprising 1985 season, apparently landed a second straight recruiting bonanza yesterday when the Nittany Lions signed 16 players, five of whom were rated among the top 100 scholastic prospects in the nation by the Terranova Report, a national scouting service. Meanwhile, Pitt and Notre Dame, two of the main rivals on the Nittany Lions' 1986 schedule, followed different tracks as the Panthers went for "skill position" players and Notre Dame stocked up with beefy linemen.
SPORTS
May 22, 2011 | By Marc Narducci, Inquirer Columnist
Back before it was in vogue to be throwing the ball all over the field in high school football, Tony Sacca was ahead of his time. During his senior year at Delran in 1987, Sacca completed 96 of 176 passes for 1,665 yards and 24 touchdowns. At the time, the touchdown mark was a single-season South Jersey record. (The current record is 40 by Holy Cross' Jason Amer in 1999.) Sacca also led Delran to an 11-0 record and the school's first South Jersey Group 2 title. Sacca became a four-year starter at Penn State, where he threw for 5,869 yards and 41 touchdowns, and he was drafted in the second round by the Phoenix (now Arizona)
NEWS
July 26, 1998 | By Laura Barnhardt, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT
It's a humid Wednesday night in July, and at least 50 young people are lined up outside a jam-packed bar called the Gingerbread Man, waiting to get inside for half-price drinks. The artist formerly known as Prince blares from the sound system inside. A young male voice from the crowd booms toward the two bulked-up bouncers at the door: "Let us in! This is how riots get started!" It is just a joke, but no one laughs. Two weeks ago, Beaver Avenue, around the corner, made history as the site of the worst riot in Pennsylvania State University history.
SPORTS
May 16, 2013 | By Joe Juliano, Inquirer Staff Writer
Penn State moved quickly Tuesday night to respond to a Sports Illustrated story that appeared to paint an unflattering portrait of the university's medical operation as it applies to football. The article is mentioned on the cover of this week's issue of the magazine with the headline "Do Athletics Still Have Too Much Power at Penn State?" It is expected to be released online Wednesday morning. A statement issued by Penn State said: "To characterize the medical care Penn State provides our student-athletes as anything other than the highest quality is erroneous.
SPORTS
February 12, 2012 | By J. Brady McCollough, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
All Jamil Pollard knew about his signing-day ceremony was that he needed to bring a Penn State sweatshirt, and that his parents should be there. When the 6-foot-4, 275-pound defensive tackle walked into the small gym at West Deptford High on Feb. 1, his parents were there as planned, but their stern expressions indicated this might not be such a joyous occasion after all. They had already been told that Pollard's most recent grades had fallen short, putting his college future in doubt.
SPORTS
September 13, 2010 | By Joe Juliano, Inquirer Staff Writer
Joe Paterno had felt during the week that Penn State would be a better team in the long run for having had the opportunity to play Alabama. And now that the game is over with, the veteran coach could be correct. Then again, the Nittany Lions need significantly better play in key areas if they hope to compete with the class of the Big Ten starting in less than three weeks. Any chance the Lions had of staying with the top-ranked Crimson Tide was buried under four turnovers - three of which were claimed in the red zone - and the visitors were battered, 24-3, on Saturday night in steamy Tuscaloosa.
NEWS
May 14, 2013 | By Andrew Maykuth, Inquirer Staff Writer
Pennsylvania State University geoscientist Terry Engelder spent most of his career toiling in obscurity, studying fracture behavior of rocks known as black shales. Even among geologists, he says, it was kind of a boring topic, and he was often slotted to present his papers on the last day of professional conferences. "Not only was it the last day, but it was in the afternoon of the last day," he said. But then, Engelder and Gary G. Lash, a colleague from New York, discovered natural gas in the Marcellus Shale.