JoePa's legacy more than football

As Joe Paterno so often asked of us beat writers over the years, usually at the end of a rambling story about the old days that he didn't think we found half as interesting as we really did, "you guys have enough now?"

After a week of talking about his legacy, reminiscing about his life, debating whether another man's scandal would forever tarnish everything he accomplished, the last moments Penn State alumni and former players and fans had to publicly remember him in about the most emotional week in this university's history, Paterno probably wouldn't have had this any other way.

There was plenty of talk about the past. Because what a great past it was to talk about.

But the moments that rang loudest, clearest, at his public memorial service Thursday at the Bryce Jordan Center were the ones that talked about the future.

The future, after all, is what JoePa was always about, anyway.

Certainly, the major news coming out of "A Memorial For Joe" will be the words of Nike chairman and longtime Paterno friend Phil Knight, who called out the Board of Trustees, the media, the governor, the grand jury, anyone who insists Joe Paterno enabled, through his own inaction, a monster to prey on innocent children. Anyone who may have had a hand in his firing.

"There is a villain in this tragedy, and it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno's response," Knight boomed.

"I do not follow conventional wisdom. Joe Paterno was my hero for 12 of the last 12 years. My question is, who was the real trustee of this university?"

That's a moment for today.

The moments that will be remembered forever come from guys like Charlie Pittman.

The All-American running back from the late 1960s was both one of the first black players Paterno recruited, and one of the best players, period. But the most emotional part of his speech about Paterno involved his son, Tony.

They were the first father-son combination to play for Paterno, and Tony was a good enough player to start at cornerback on the 1994 Nittany Lions team, a good enough student to have gained acceptance to Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Pittman praised his son's decision to bypass the Ivy League to play for Paterno.

Together, the Pittmans played on three unbeaten teams for Paterno. When they started, Penn State went 45-0-1. And both were academic All-Americans.

"Joe made his program his second family," Pittman said. "And family brings comfort. Family survives hard times. It outlasts controversy. Our university has always lived by Joe's edict that if you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of itself. That will not go away because the architect is no longer there."

There were plenty of football stories being shared. Todd Backledge talked about being the quarterback on Paterno's 1982 national championship team, saying that honor was only exceeded in his life by the honor of speaking Thursday at the memorial. Michael Robinson said Paterno predicted he'd one day be a Pro Bowl fullback and, with his voice cracking, Robinson pointed out that he had to make an 11-hour flight from Honolulu, where he was practicing for his first Pro Bowl appearance Sunday, to speak at the Bryce Jordan Center on Thursday.

But here's guessing Paterno would be most proud of the speech given by Lauren Perotti.

The North Pocono High School graduate is a member of the first class of Paterno Fellows, a partnership between the College of Liberal Arts and the Schreyer Honors College that requires fellows to distinguish themselves in ethics, service, leadership, communication and international and intercultural awareness. It's an academic program based in Paterno's ideals, supported by the coach himself.

It's a program that will live on into the future, an example of his mission beyond that lush green turf at Beaver Stadium.

"The Paterno way has become the Penn State way," Perotti said, "and Success With Honor has become the standard."

There's also Jeff Bast, the unofficial first mayor of Paternoville, the community of students who have camped out near Beaver Stadium in tents the week before home games. He spoke for the tens of thousands of students, maybe more, who went to Penn State because of what Paterno did for the university. The library. The spiritual center. The countless buildings and programs the Paterno family threw millions of dollars into.

"Joe didn't just recruit the Michael Robinsons or the Mautis or the Blackledges," Bast said. "He recruited the Ryans, the Joshes, the Laurens and Nicoles. Enter your name here. He recruited all of us."

As a friend said last week, "I didn't go to Penn State because of Joe Paterno. But I don't know if I would have went there without him." Students will always go to Penn State, in part to what Paterno has accomplished.

Pittston Area legend Jimmy Cefalo said Paterno "took the sons of coal miners and steel mill workers and farmers in rural Pennsylvania with the idea that we could come together and do it the right way, the Paterno way."

And in no immeasurable way, that was the theme Thursday. Paterno's way, as Perotti said, became Penn State's way. He instilled the confidence and direction in the university, and there was no shortage of words from those who were closest to Paterno urging Penn Staters never to forget it.

As his emotional speech ran to a close, his son Jay Paterno recalled the conversation his mother, Sue, had Monday with president Barack Obama, who congratulated her on the record of greatness her husband built at Penn State. Sue responded, "We plan to continue it."

"You guys are his legacy," Jay Paterno, said. "Your families, the people you've reached. It is a ripple that has grown into a tsunami across the world."

It's not just football players either. It's Bast and Perotti. It's the Ryans and the Joshes and the Laurens and the Nicoles, too.

Maybe, in the end, Joe Paterno's last gift to Penn State is a sense of closure on three of the most trying months any university has ever faced. Paterno's legacy will be a positive one as long as Penn Staters continue to honor him the way they have in the past. His legacy will live as long as there are Jimmy Cefalos and Michael Robinsons and Lauren Perottis and Jeff Basts.

"Rest in peace, Coach," Pittman said. "We'll take it from here."

DONNIE COLLINS covers Penn State football for The Times-Tribune. Contact him at dcollins@timesshamrock.com, read his blog at http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/pennstate/, or follow him on Twitter @psubst