Joe Paterno

The Pennsylvania State University

Joe Paterno turned 73 last month, but he shows no signs of slowing down, or stepping aside.

After posting his 20th bowl victory as head coach at Penn State, a 24-0 rout of Texas A&M, Paterno said: "I have absolutely no plans to retire. I'm going to coach until I feel I can no longer do a good job, or if my health doesn't allow me."

It is almost impossible to imagine Penn State without Paterno. This past season marked his 50th at the school, his 34th as head coach, and he led the Nittany Lions to a 10-3 record, his 18th season with 10 or more victories. But it is the way that he has won and what he represents to college football that inspires the most respect.

"Joe makes a point of stressing academics over football," said Bob Rickenback, an offensive lineman under Paterno in the early '70s. "He says football can only carry you so far and he's right. There aren't many schools, or coaches, that take that approach."

The Maxwell Football Club has selected Paterno as the 11th recipient of its Reds Bagnell Award for Outstanding Contributions to Football. With 317 career victories, he needs only seven more wins to pass the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant atop the all-time Division One career list.

Wrote Harvey Yavener in the Trenton Times: "As the year 2000 begins, can there be a more epic page turner than Joe Paterno. Or a less likely giant? (He has done it) without the dramatic of Rockne, the imperial trappings of Bryant, the authoritarianism of Woody Hayes and the rest of that overbearing group. It's been the cerebral Paterno who has triumphed over time and place. Joe Paterno the educator who has become his state's leading citizen and the nation's model coach.

"(It has been) Paterno who maybe conceded the cosmetic nuances as the world underwent upheaval, yet held firm to the ideals he espoused, who remained unaffected by the accolades, as constant and unchanging as the unadorned uniforms his teams wear. He is ready for the next class of dream seekers to arrive, ready to try to lead them to 21st Century glory."

"The greatest testimonial to the Penn State football program is its list of graduates," said Bill Lenkaitis, an All-American center at Penn State, now a dentist in Foxboro, Mass. "Look at where these guys are now and what they're doing. Look how many go to medical school or law school. Look how many become heads of corporations.

"That's the real test of a college football program. Not how many trophies they have in the window, not how many players they have in the Hall of Fame, but how many guys they have making it, really making it, 10 or 15 years down the road. On that score, I'd put Penn State up against any of them."

Michael O'Brien, author of the biography "No Ordinary Joe," lauded the coach for "(his) effort to prove that academic standards and excellent football could coexist at the university."

Wrote O'Brien: "Paterno also tried to make other athletic programs live up to his school's same high standards. As a result of his efforts and the efforts of other reformers to clean up big-time college athletics, public awareness of unethical practices has increased, college administrators have extended their vigilance, academic expectations have risen and penalties have been stiffened."

"There are more important things than football," Paterno once said. "As a football coach, I want to set an example, set some goals for the kids outside the athletic arena."