The Lions' Pride

From A Buckeye,

Sorry for your loss, Joe Pa will always be the coach at Penn State. He will truly be missed by many people. I had the pleasure of meetinIg the man once and he was humble and took time to get to know me a little bit. I appreciate everything he has done for college football and the many athletes and people in your community.

RIP Joe

As a Jr in 1983, I passed Joe as we were both walking across what was then parking lot 80. I said good morning coach, he said good morning son. Still remember as if it was yesterday. RIP Coach.

+1 Rest in peace now JoePa

Crowd growing at #JoePa statue pic.twitter.com/MOEUwWRl

I feel like I lost my best friend.

Thanks anyway Pat, I know many feel the same as I do. I will try to participate more in the future, but the staff and regular posters are so thorough that I haven't felt the need to add my two cents. Keep up the good work as we move into a new era.

Dear Mr. Paterno,
Can I call you Joe? It just feels more natural that way. My Dad never called you anything other than Joe. Even when I was 7, he just refereed to you as Joe with such a sense a familiarity, respect, and admiration. Surely this Joe character had to be a close family friend or maybe even a relative, I thought.

May I digress just a moment to introduce you to someone. His name was Orwell, but he went by his middle name, Scott. He was just 4 years your elder, but passed away in 1979. He was my paternal grandfather, a man who worked hard all his life in the coalmines of western Pennsylvania. His job ultimately directly lead to his death. “Black-lung” was the story I heard all my life about why he died. I didn’t know much more about him and still don’t. My father admittedly didn’t even get to know him until a few years before he passed. I was born in 1985. I never met Orwell, and never really had a grandfather. But I did have Joe.

Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, we couldn’t always get a clear signal on the TV to watch the games. Instead, many Saturday afternoons consisted of working around the house or outside with my dad while we listened to Penn State games on the radio. That’s were I learned of your brother, George. George told me more stories about you. Stories of past games, and stories of your life.

I was a baseball player growing up. I never thought I’d end up at PSU. Surely I’d be on scholarship, catching for LSU or Arizona State someday. When I told my dad, he joked “not when you’ve got blue and white just down the road.” Of course, he was right. I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from PSU in 2007. (Looking at this picture from when I was about 5, you’d have thought that my fate was predetermined.)

I attended Penn State football camps in high school. I was actually there in June of 2002 when your brother George passed away. I was hoping to get to meet you or shake your hand, but understandably, you were out of town dealing with a painful loss. I now know that you had another burden on you at the time. I’d also like tell you about how a young graduate assistant acted during that camp. The grad assistant stopped a game that the campers were playing after realizing that one camper was trying to cheat to help his team. It was an innocent act during a game that had no meaning whatsoever, but your grad assistant stopped the game and brought everyone in close for a talk. He preached about integrity and that taking shortcuts would get us nowhere in life. I gained a tremendous amount of respect for him that day and those feelings continue. That grad assistant’s name was Mike McQueary.

I haven’t missed a Tuesday press conference in years. I used to look forward to listening to your tales of recruiting and of the challenges of coaching college aged boys. You exuded class always, never placing the blame on your players to the media. I looked forward to my Tuesday half hour with you. I wondered what life lesson you would teach each week. I thought that learning from your life, examples, stories, and wisdom was what it would be like to have a grandfather. You became my grandfather, the one I never had.

While in college, I attended all the pep rallies that you were going to speak at. I cheered wildly with pride as you displayed the ability to connect with a mob of students 3 generations younger. I loved how you asked the students not to boo the other team at any time. It was those requests that exemplified your class.

Though we’ve never met, and now sadly, never will, I needed to tell you how you’ve held a special place in my heart as my grandpa. These short paragraphs cannot even begin to describe the effect you’ve had on my life. Now that you’ve passed, I really only write them to hide my emotion. It’s hard to say goodbye, but alas, it’s time. Goodbye grandpa Joe. I love you.

Kory

I know we have our differences, and God knows we'll be back digging at each other next week, but the game of football is just that, a game. The people however are real, with wants and needs just like the rest of us. Human, like the rest of us. I keep forgetting that, I'm sorry.

R.I.P JOE PA GOD BLESS U AND FAMILY FROM THE U FAMILY

Thanks Pat this made me laugh.... +1

Never got to meet Joe unfortunately but I have a signed football thats in a case and when in high school I slept with the night before games for good luck. My family has had season tix since 1978 filled with many bowl games in between. Before a got a grasp of the game I would simply watch Joe through my binoculars up and down the sideline. My dad means everything to me and he told me pointing at Joe that man is class, that was all I needed to hear. My parents met before but dated during their time at PSU and were married soon after. My little brother is named after Trey Bauer the captain of the 86' nat'l championship team. I grew up for about 8 Saturdays a year in Happy Valley and will miss Joe dearly. It honestly wont be the same without him but his impact will guarantee Penn State will live on with success, integrity and class on and off the gridiron. Love you forever coach.

My girlfriend was a member of the "Singing Lions" in 2007. In mid-December of that year, she and the rest of the members went to Paterno's house to sing Christmas songs to Joe and Sue and other family members. She told me Sue had made several batches of Christmas cookies just for them and served them throughout the evening (and even forced them to bring home all the leftover cookies because she didn't want Joe to eat them all, haha).

My girlfriend told me Joe and Sue went up to each student who came to the house to sing (about 25 or so) to speak with them personally and thank them. She was blown away how genuine they were and felt like they were her grandparents.

Words can't describe the impact JoePa has had on lives of so many. He has certainly inspired me and I will do my best to pass along to younger people who Joe Paterno was and what he stood for.

R.I.P Joe Paterno.. CFB legend.