Legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno announced today that he plans to retire at the end of the football season, but that could be derailed when the university’s board of trustees, including Governor Tom Corbitt, meets on Friday in the wake of a sex abuse scandal that has implicated top school officials.
Meanwhile, a newspaper reported that university President Graham Spanier may resign or be fired by the board of trustees, which has moved up a Friday meeting to tonight. Governor Tom Corbitt will be in attendance.
According to the report, Provost Rodney A. Erickson is the likely choice to take the president’s job on an interim basis, with the university launching a national search for a permanent replacement.
The trustees, some of whom had unsuccessfully pressured Paterno to retire in 2004, have determined that he would not coach next season, but are still discussing the precise timing of his exit, according to news reports.
Paterno, in a statement that did not appear to have been cleared by the administration or athletic department, said, “This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.”
He in fact did little, but unlike the athletic director and a university vice president in charge of the university police department, did not perjure himself when the department was asked to conduct an investigation into the sexual abuse of a 10-year-old boy by defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky in the football team’s locker room in 1998. The investigation died of neglect after the local district attorney , while Sandusky has been implicated in seven other alleged incidents.
One of the men who visited Paterno in 2004 was Steve Garban, now the chairman of the trustees. With the future of university President Graham Spanier also in doubt because of the scandal, it is expected that Garban will be one of the main decision-makers in determining Paterno’s fate. Corbitt’s appearance also is significant because members of his administration and state law enforcement officials have been harshly critical of how Paterno and the university have handled the scandal.
Paterno asserted in his statement that the trustees “should not spend a single minute discussing my status,” a clear indication that he is trying to leave Happy Valley on his own terms.
Beyond the Friday board meeting, whether he will be on the sidelines on Saturday when 19th ranked Nebraska visits 12th ranked Penn State for a nationally televised game will speak volumes.
Meanwhile, one of the stranger twists in the scandal concerns the fact that former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who decided to not prosecute Sandusky, went missing in April 2005. it is widely belief that the DA decided to not go forward is that he didn’t want to be responsible for a case that could take down a hometown icon.
Gricar’s disappearance has spawned a host of conspiracy theories. His abandoned car was found, as was his laptop minus its hard drive, but his body has never been found.