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Paterno heads class being honored at Hall of Fame
81-year-old coaching legend entering his 43rd year at Penn State
Last Modified: Friday, July 18, 2008 at 11:32 p.m.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Joe Paterno has his own take on Mark Twain’s “Life on the Mississippi” and the challenge a riverboat captain faces trying to navigate the waters of a mighty river. For Paterno, it’s a little bit like coaching college football.
PLAYERS
Jim Ballard
Quarterback
Mount Union, 1990-1993
Player profile: Led Mount Union to NCAA Division III title in 1993 with a 14-0 record, setting a playoff record with eight TD passes in a semifinal win over St. John’s of Minnesota. . ... Won the Gagliardi Trophy as the top player in Division III in 1993. ... Finished career with 17 Division III records.
Tom Brahaney
Center
Oklahoma, 1971-72
Player profile: All-America pick in 1971 and ’72. ... Helped Sooners lead the nation in rushing, scoring and total offense in 1971. ... Finalist for the Lombardi Award in 1972. ... All-conference pick in 1971 and ’72.
Dave Brown
Safety
Michigan, 1972-74
Player profile: Member of Michigan’s all-century team. ... Three-time All-Big Ten selection . ... Wolverines went 30-2-1 during his three years, tied for three Big Ten conference titles, never went to a bowl game. ... In 33 games, Wolverines had 11 shutouts and surrendered more than 10 points only five times. ... Died in 2006.
Jeff Davis
Linebacker
Clemson, 1978-81
Player profile: Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year in 1981, when Tigers began year unranked and went 12-0 to win the national championship. ... Started 35 games, making at least 10 tackles in 30 of those. ... Selected to ACC’s 50-Year Anniversary team in 2002.
Doug Flutie
Quarterback
Boston College, 1981-84 Player profile: Heisman Trophy winner in 1984. ... First player to pass for more than 10,000 career yards. ... Led Eagles to three straight bowl games, the school’s first bowl games in 40 years. ... Best known for his last-second, game-winning touchdown pass to Gerard Phelan in a 47-45 win over Miami.
Johnnie Johnson
Defensive back
Texas, 1976-79
Player profile: Two-time All-America and three-time All-Southwest Conference pick. ... Selected as nation’s top defensive back by Downtown Athletic Club in 1978. ... Set school records for most punt return yardage in a game (131), most punt return yardage in a season (538) and most punt return yardage in a career (1,004).
Rex Kern
Quarterback
Ohio State, 1968-70
Player profile: A leader of Ohio State’s Super Sophomores that led the Buckeyes to an undefeated season and national championship in 1968. ...
During his three years as a starter, Ohio State went 27-2, won two Big Ten titles and played in two Rose Bowls.
Ronald McKinnon
Linebacker
North Alabama, 1992-95
Player profile: Only defensive player to win Harlon Hill Trophy as Division II player of the year. ... Led the nation’ top rated defense in 1995.
... First-team all-conference pick four straight seasons. ... Led Lions to three consecutive conference championships. ... Selected as conference’s player of the quarter century (1971-95).
John Randle
Defensive end
Texas A&I, 1988-89
Player profile: Member of Associated Press Little All-America first team in 1988 and second team in 1989. ... In 20 regular-season games as a junior and senior, had 34 sacks. ... Led Texas A&I to a 20-4 record, a pair of Lone Star Conference titles and two trips to the NCAA Division II playoffs.
Ahmad Rashad
Running back, wide receiver
Oregon, 1969-71
Player profile: In college known as Bobby Moore. ... Set 14 school football records, including single-game (249 yards), season (1,211) and career (2,306) rushing marks. ... Led conference in scoring at two positions — as a wide receiver in 1969 and as a tailback in 1971.
Brad Rowland
Halfback
McMurry, 1947-50
Player profile: Led Texas Conference in rushing all four years. ... Set 16 school records, including career rushing yards (4,437), single-season rushing yards (1,249) and career total offense (5,200). ... First small-college player to start in the East-West Shrine game in 1951.
Anthony Thompson
Running back
Indiana, 1986-89
Player profile: Won Maxwell Award as most outstanding college football player in 1989. ... Lost to Andre Ware in a close Heisman Trophy race that year. ... Broke NCAA single-game rushing record with 377 yards against Wisconsin, which still ranks fifth all-time. ... Rushed for a then-NCAA record 65 touchdowns.
Wilson Whitley
Defensive tackle
Houston, 1973-76
Player profile: Won Lombardi Award in 1976. ... Anchored a defense that led Houston to the Cotton Bowl in 1976, its first year in the Southwest Conference. ... Team’s MVP in 1975 and ’76. ... Despite playing only one year in the SWC, picked as conference defensive player of tt to Dartmouth after Michigan coach Bo Schembechler said he wasn’t good enough to play for Wolverines. ... Still holds Dartmouth’s record in career unassisted tackles (243) and ranks second in total tackles with 370.
Richard Wood
Linebacker
USC, 1972-74
Player profile: Played on two national championship teams. ... USC’s first three-time All-America. ... Trojans went 31-2-2 during his career. ... Three time All-Pacific 10 Conference first-team selection. ...
Led USC in tackles in 1972 and ’73.
Chris Zorich
Nose tackle
Notre Dame, 1988-90
Player profile: Won Lombardi Award in 1990 and was a finalist for Outland Trophy despite playing last four games with bad knee. ... First-team All-America selection in 1989-90. ... Part of Notre Dame’s best winning streak with 23 straight victories.
COACHES
Herb Deromedi
Central Michigan, 1978-93 Coach profile: Winningest Mid-American Conference coach with career record of 110-55-1. ... Led Chippewas to MAC titles in 1979, 1980 and 1990.
... MAC coach of the year in 1980 and 1990. ... Guided Chippewas to two of the biggest wins in school history: a 20-3 win over No. 18 Michigan State in 1991 and a 24-20 win over the Spartans again the next year.
W.C. Gorden
Jackson State, 1976-91
Coach profile: Winningest coach in Jackson State history with a record of 119-45-5. ... Took Jackson State to the Southwest Athletic Conference championship eight times and to Division I-AA playoffs nine times. ... His teams won SWAC-record 28 straight conference games 1985-89. ... Conference coach of the year six times.
Joe Paterno
Penn State, 1966-Present
Coach profile: Preparing to start 43rd season at Penn State. ... Second among major college coaches in career wins with 372, one victory behind Florida State’s Bobby Bowden. ... Career record is 372-125-3. ... No. 3 in winning percentage among active coaches, trailing Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer (147-45, 76.5) and Bowden (75.6). ...All-time leader among coaches in bowl appearances (34) and postseason victories (23).
Doug Porter
Mississippi Valley State 1961-65, Howard 1974-78, Fort Valley State 1979-85, 1987-96
Coach profile: Career record of 166-107-5. ... At Mississippi State, turned around a program that had not had a winning season in five years. ... Served as Eddie Robinson’s assistant at Grambling State for nine seasons. ... Led Fort Valley State to six Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles and two NCAA playoff appearances. ... Seven-time SIAC coach of the year.
“He wrote that a captain has to learn more than anybody should ever have to learn, and then the next day he’s got to learn it in a different way. That’s pretty much what coaching is all about,” Paterno said. “You’ve got to know more than anybody ought to have to know.”
The 81-year-old Paterno, entering his 43rd season as head coach at Penn State, has shown through the years he knows more about maneuvering through the coaching waters than just about everybody, which is why he will be enshrined with 19 others into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday night.
“I don’t know anyone more deserving than Joe,” Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said.
Others in the class are 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie of Boston College, 1990 Lombardi Award winner Chris Zorich of Notre Dame and 1989 Maxwell Award winner Anthony Thompson of Indiana.
JoePa was supposed to be enshrined into the hall a year ago along with Bowden, but when the induction ceremony in New York rolled around in December 2006, he was still recovering from a broken leg sustained along the sideline during a game. So it was put off for year.
He goes into the hall with a career record of 372-125-3, placing him a victory behind Bowden, the all-time major college leader.
Paterno said he isn’t worried about that, though, saying competition is what motivates him, not wins and losses.
“My feeling has always been that when you’ve got to play somebody good, I think that makes you hustle a little more, it makes you pay a little more attention to details, it gets you a little bit more fired up, because of the satisfaction that comes when you do beat a good football team,” he said.
Paterno’s Nittany Lions have beaten a lot of good teams.
Included among those victories are national titles in ’82 and ’86, and five undefeated seasons. He’s been voted coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association a record five times.
He has seen a lot of changes since taking the job in 1966. He’s gone from a time when most Americans were still watching television on black-and-white sets with just a few channels to choose from to a day when most homes have computers and fan web sites critiquing every move a coach makes abound.
He’s also seen a lot of changes in teenagers. He believes they face a lot more challenges today, citing problems such as guns in school, teenage drinking and a report earlier this year that some girls in Massachusetts made a pact to get pregnant.
The basics of coaching, though, remain unchanged. The key is to teach athletes how to become better football players and knowing how to read each player to know how to get the best out of him.
That challenge is what keeps Paterno in coaching.
It was a message Paterno’s disappointed father stressed when he learned his son was going into coaching rather than going to law school. Paterno’s father had one message for him: “Have an impact.”
“That kind of stuck in my craw,” Paterno said. “I think a way to have an impact on the place is to have an impact on the people — the people around you and the people you coach.”
Paterno has certainly done that, producing doctors and lawyers as well as NFL stars. He had his chances to coach in the NFL, but turned them down because he didn’t think he could have the same influence.
“Not that pro football isn’t a great game. But it’s not that kind of a challenge,” he said. “And I’ve always been kind of an egghead.”
He’s had an impact off the field as well. A library on campus is named after him and he and his wife, Sue, have contributed at least $4 million to the university.
Despite all those accomplishments, things haven’t always been happy at Happy Valley. There were some critics several years ago who thought the game had passed Paterno by after the Nittany Lions posted four losing seasons in five years from 2000-04. Paterno has answered them with an 11-1 finish in 2005 and back-to-back 9-4 seasons.
Still, the question of how much longer Paterno will coach is ever present — especially because his contract is up at the end of the upcoming season. University president Graham Spanier and Paterno have both said no contract is necessary.
“When I think it’s best for me to get out, I’ll sit down with the people who should know my decision first and bang around how’s the best way to get a successor,” he said.
He doesn’t know when that will be. So when he does leave, what would he most like to be remembered for? “Being tough enough to coach that long,” he said.
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