Paterno: Some axes were ground

By GLENN SCHUCKERS, Freelance columnist

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Now that some time has passed from the emotional events that surrounded the firing and then death of legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno, I still have a lot of thoughts about those events.

First, the firing. As far as I have ever read or heard, no one from the administration at the school has ever given a reason for terminating Joe's job. When they say things like, "It was something that had to be done," that tells me nothing. I want someone to step up and tell the truth about why it "had to be done."

Did it have to be done because Joe followed the rules the school set up? Those rules, just like the procedures at virtually every public and even private institution, say that when someone like a teacher or coach suspects things like abuse it is his or her duty to report it to his superior, and in just about every institution there is someone whose duty is to examine those allegations and report such suspected abuse to law enforcement.

So was Paterno fired because he did not follow the school's rules? No. He did just what the rules said he should have. But then, after the fact, a Board of Trustees seems to have said that he should have done more. Does that mean that they want everyone who works for the university to ignore the rules and do what he thinks is "right"? If that is what they want, then why have rules in the first place?

Then there is the matter of how the board fired the coach.

A phone call at something like 10 o'clock at night. A phone call? Whether anyone agrees that the firing was justified or not, I have not spoken to one person who has said the way it was handled was acceptable. This was not someone who had spent a few weeks cutting grass or painting lines on the pavement. This was a man who had virtually dedicated his life to making both the university's life and football team world class. Anyone who attended Penn State or even drove through town 50 years ago knows it has undergone a major revision in that time. Did Paterno do it all? Of course not, but the fact that his teams put the place on the map had a lot to do with its growth.

And after all that, he deserved more than a phone call. Was it so imperative that he be fired that night? It could not have waited until the next morning? Members of the board could not have gone to the house and delivered the news? Or were they too cowardly to do it face to face?

That gets us around to the real reason I think Paterno was fired and it had nothing to do with allegations or rules or what was done or not done in a shower room.

It had to do with popularity and success, and how Paterno's placed him outside of the control of the Board of Trustees. That is strictly my opinion; I have no hard facts to back that up and no evidence, other than what I have observed over the past 68 years.

But my opinion is that for quite some time now, maybe as many as10 years, some of the members of that Board of Trustees wanted to get rid of Paterno. It may not have been all of them, but we all know that on any board like that the actual power is wielded by a relative few. They are the leaders, most of the members are their followers.

And for about the last 10 years Joe Paterno, who was their employee, actually operated outside of their control. He did that for two reasons.

One, he was very good at what he did. I have no intention of going into the statistics of his record, but suffice it to say that his record shows that he was one of the best, if not the best, college football coaches in America. He was very good at getting the best players to come to Penn State and then taking that raw talent and turning it into superior college players and superior college teams.

Two, Paterno was popular in the entire university setting. His emphasis on academic performance, his gifts to things like the library and scholarship programs,and most of all, his unassuming demeanor endeared him not just to the athletes who played football or to the other athletes whose sports the football team supported, but to the student body at large.

It may well have been that success and that popularity that made his eventual dismissal inevitable.

A few administrators and executive types cannot deal with employees whom they cannot control. And make no mistake about it, Paterno's success and popularity made it tough, if not impossible, for the Board to control him. The fact that he had played by the rules, the fact that he had done what the rule book said he should do, did not make any difference. There might be a "witch" in town so everyone who knew that "witch" had to go. Paterno was given less consideration than might have been accorded a first year temporary employee because (again, this is just an opinion) the people who fired him were ashamed of what they had done.

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Glenn Schuckers was the proprietor of Schuckers Orchard from 1970 -1992, and was in education for 35 years as a teacher, administrator and bus driver. He has also been a bartender, steelworker, farmer and school board member. He decided to retire in 2009 and start another career. He and his wife Ann have lived in Brady Township, Clearfield County, since 1971. They have two sons, Erik and Nathan. His opinions are strictly his own. E-mail:curmud1@yahoo.com