Joe Paterno got canned today as the Penn State coach. He was a frail small man. At age 84 he probably should have retired many years ago.
The abbreviated 2011 season was his 62nd on the Penn State coaching staff. He had been the head coach for 45 seasons.
The Major remembers him well at Ohio State. Paterno would lead his unrated team into Buckeye Stadium and repeatedly hand the Oho State team its ass.
He beat the Ohio state coach, Woody Hayes, so many times that Hayes didn't want to to renew the rivalry with Penn State.
Paterno was memorable because he always wore white spatz shoe covers on the field.
Paterno was an excellent coach in his prime. His line would be 30-35 lbs. lighter than the Ohio State line but it would push the Buckeyes around.
Once a coach gets old, his staff does most of the work and the coach becomes a recruiter. That was certainly true for Woody Hayes by the mid-60s.
Football is the major business at many universities and the football players were sequestered in special rooms in Buckeye Stadium and many had private tutors.Some of the better players had jobs from college alumni boosters who paid out salaries, but the players really didn't really work anywhere.
These booster scandals pop up at universities frequently. This problem is endemic to football.
Rumors were that that a top fullback, "Bob" Ferguson, left the university in the mid-60s in a brand new red corvette. How could a new grad afford such a vehicle? Rightardia can only guess.
Football is a big business because it brings affluent alumni back to the college who donate money. It is the glue between the schools and its wealthy donors.
There has always been something tribal about a big college rivalry that draws alimni back to the alma mater.
However, football is an expensive sport because of all of the protective gear players must wear and because the sport in punctuated with special teams.Most university teams have more than 60 players.
NCAA football has a scholarship limit of 85. That is a lot of scholarships for an 11 person team.
Many small colleges have abandoned football because of the cost. Most schools could operate a men's and women's soccer teams for less money than one college football team. The average women's soccer team has 25 members and the men's team about 28. Soccer scholarship are limited to 9 on a division 1 men's team and 14 on a woman's team.
Rightardia hated to see old Joe go. He was great coach who was well past his prime. Penn state could have been a little gentler with him.
However, football is an expensive sport because of all of the protective gear players must wear and because the sport in punctuated with special teams.Most university teams have more than 60 players.
NCAA football has a scholarship limit of 85. That is a lot of scholarships for an 11 person team.
Many small colleges have abandoned football because of the cost. Most schools could operate a men's and women's soccer teams for less money than one college football team. The average women's soccer team has 25 members and the men's team about 28. Soccer scholarship are limited to 9 on a division 1 men's team and 14 on a woman's team.
Rightardia hated to see old Joe go. He was great coach who was well past his prime. Penn state could have been a little gentler with him.
source: Wikipedia
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Subscribe to the Rightardia feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/UFPYA
Rightardia by Rightard Whitey of Rightardia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at rightardia@gmail.com.
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