OT: Paterno knew of Sandusky abuse in 1976

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

The PSU cultists will still defend him. 

http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/05/court_filing_says_joe_paterno.html

A new bombshell dropped in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal Thursday.
 
It came in the form of a line in a court order on a related insurance coverage case involving Penn State, and its ramifications can't immediately be gauged.
 
But that line was eye-popping in itself.
 
The line in question states that one of Penn State's insurers has claimed "in 1976, a child allegedly reported to PSU's Head Coach Joseph Paterno that he (the child) was sexually molested by Sandusky."

jethro34

May 5th, 2016 at 7:34 PM ^

PSU should have had the death sentence for this. Now the ship has sailed and the program will no longer face any ramifications, but Sandusky's victims will likely never recover.

dieseljr32

May 5th, 2016 at 9:39 PM ^

I was just covering a similar case but not on the grand scale like Sandusky and PSU was. Those people are now in their mid 50's in this case and they were still so scarred from what happened to them as teenagers. 

Sandusky's victims will likely suffer from the same fate. So sad.

Yo_Blue

May 5th, 2016 at 10:15 PM ^

Victims of that kind of abuse just can't get over it.  The effects linger for their entire life.  PSU fans can't continue to ignore and defend this.  JoePa cared deeply about his university, but he cared more about his own legacy, to the detriment of everything else.  Sad.

zwick

June 5th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^

Sounds like a witch hunt to me.    

 

The writer said there were 6 other coaches that also knew.    Why don't they name them?   Do you care about the kids?  If so then name the coaches.   Some of them might still be coaching.   Are they afraid of implicating UM,  OSU,  UCLA?      

zwick

June 5th, 2016 at 3:21 PM ^

Sounds like a witch hunt to me.    

 

The writer said there were 6 other coaches that also knew.    Why don't they name them?   Do you care about the kids?  If so then name the coaches.   Some of them might still be coaching.   Are they afraid of implicating UM,  OSU,  UCLA?      

Winchester Wolverine

May 5th, 2016 at 11:16 PM ^

I don't think the entire program should feel the ramifications of the acts of a few morbidly sick people. It's unfair to place those not even remotely involved in the dark light cast down by those in charge.

Joe hid behind his wins, donations, and "genuine" care for his players. If this is true, he should be treated as if he never exsisted in the record books. Every statue, painting, and etching in the walls should be torn down. However, the fate of the program should be left alone, already in a state of perpetual disgust and disdain.

If people think this way, perhaps as more prospective students/atheletes realize their automatic association with a history of pedophilia by simply saying "I go to Penn State", they won't join at all. The program could possibly end up killing itself.

Megatron

May 5th, 2016 at 11:45 PM ^

I don't believe in death like SMU got by NCAA in 80's. I believe NCAA did good thing where players could transfer to any school and that they couldn't go to any bowl games for a few years, also don't like vacating victories either when the games were already played NCAA is always wrong when they rule on that. Jerry is rotting in jail and he will be burning in Hell.

M-Dog

May 6th, 2016 at 12:12 AM ^

I'm from PA and both my brothers went to Penn State.  For the good of Penn State, I think they should have shut the program down for a year . . . to clean house and completely "reboot" so to speak.  To publically disconnect cleanly from a past that had gotten out of control.

Instead, they way they did it keeps it just trudging along through the muck forever.  Everyone who is not a blind PSU homer knows that nasty stuff went down and Paterno looked the other way at best, and tried to cover it up at worst.

The program should have taken its lumps for a tragic past, and then in word and deed made a clean break from it.

Then they would not have to let it define them every time a new sick episode is uncovered.  And you know there will be more.  This guy was serial.

 

drzoidburg

May 6th, 2016 at 12:22 AM ^

yeah i think last i heard there was a fed investigation into snail mail trading of child porn going back decades, so i was expecting more. Not necessarily paterno's involvement before Mcqueery came forward, although if true it now makes even more sense why paterno urged the AD and prez to keep it under wraps....he would've been put personally at risk due to a cover up for years and years. It certainly makes paterno look a real devil if true

saveferris

May 6th, 2016 at 11:33 AM ^

For the good of Penn State, I think they should have shut the program down for a year . . . to clean house and completely "reboot" so to speak. To publically disconnect cleanly from a past that had gotten out of control.

Easy to say, but we as Michigan fans have a much different perspective of our place in college football history than Penn State. Joe Paterno comprises pretty much all of Penn State's glory. Without him, they're nothing. If the type of scandal that hit JoePa had befallen Bo Schembechler, it would have hurt Michigan, but our history wouldn't completely be stricken.

drzoidburg

May 6th, 2016 at 12:17 AM ^

well not just that, but should have been removed from the conference. I don't buy tickets the years sandusky state is on the schedule, or watch the games michigan or any other team plays against them. If i thought they were repentant that might be one thing, but as is with their "this is our 9/11" and trying to resist their proper punishment (which is to shut down football), they disgust me in every way

FauxMo

May 5th, 2016 at 7:42 PM ^

If this can in any way be proven true, Joe Paterno should be scrubbed from the sport of college football. Any award he won, any game he won, any record he holds, any statue...etc. They should all be gone. And he should be remembered for nothing but this, in perpetuity, forever.

wolverine1987

May 5th, 2016 at 8:05 PM ^

For the better. But back then, before society was liberalized as it is now, people didn't talk or even report things like that. It wasn't until the late 70's that you even said "pregnant" on TV. The usual reaction to anything of that nature was disgust and turning away, never to be spoken of again. It's not right, but I understand the reaction people had to that back then, and things did not get reported. 

FauxMo

May 5th, 2016 at 8:08 PM ^

I agree. This is in no way a funny topic, but Louis CK's bit on the "town child molester" in his town in the 1970's is spot on. There was a child molester, everyone know who he was and where he lived, the parents warned all the kids, and if anyone got molested, it was their fault for getting in his car. Funny-sad, but also pretty much true...

Brimley

May 5th, 2016 at 9:54 PM ^

I was walking home from a friend's house in around 1974 (I was around 12 years old) when a guy slowly drove past me a few times and then asked me if I needed a lift.  I was terrified, told him no and took off like Jesse Owens.  When I got home, my mom called the local cops (Grand Blanc).  They took information over the phone (general description of guy and car, partial plate I got).  Never talked to me.  Never came to the house.  Never talked to neighbors.  Nothing.

Now go look up the Oakland County child killer.  I always wondered if I met him that day.

You're right that people treated this differently then.

JeepinBen

May 6th, 2016 at 11:17 AM ^

I mean, in Illinois a few weeks ago 60 people wrote letters defending the character of Dennis Hastert - the self proclaimed child molester.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-dennis-hastert-letters-of-support-20160422-htmlstory.html

These are people who KNEW that he was guilty of the hush money case, and still want to support the KNOWN CHILD MOLESTER. In 2016!

Brimley

May 6th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^

I get your point, but I see Hastert's deal as more a case of people willing to overlook terrible, terrible stuff because someone is famous or rich or powerful.  The general view of child abuse has changed over the years (thank God).  However, some people's willfully ignoring vicitms due to star power of the perpetrator has not.

Yooper

May 5th, 2016 at 9:20 PM ^

It was obvious from when this first came out that Paterno was an enabler/was complicent to this whole sordid mess. This hopefully ends any respect for Paterno, even at PSU

Cock D

May 5th, 2016 at 10:14 PM ^

When I heard that Sandusky was "retiring" I shot him an email and asked him what's up.

 

His response was along the lines of he had heard things  that were so outlandish, that it would crazy to repeat; but if they were true, it would be terrible.

 

No way Joe didn't know.

The Mad Hatter

May 5th, 2016 at 11:35 PM ^

The fact that Sandusky never got another job, despite being an excellent DC, leads me to believe that his crimes were much more widely known. Probably the sort of thing that coaches and players whispered about after having a few.

I'll bet several D1 coaches had at least heard rumors, way before he was fired.

The Mad Hatter

May 6th, 2016 at 9:45 AM ^

He wanted to spend more time raping kids via his charity and access to PSU facilities.

Of course it seemed like a normal retirement.  This is one of those things that only looks odd in hindsight.

Although, he was only 55 at the time, which is kind of young to retire, especially when everyone assumes you'll take over as HC when Joe hangs it up.

jmblue

May 6th, 2016 at 3:19 PM ^

I agree with all that.  I'm just not sure if people outside of PSU knew anything about this. Apparently ABC didn't, given that they made his retirement one of the "storylines" of that broadcast.   I would assume that if they'd heard any rumors of molestation, they wouldn't have touched that topic with a 10-foot pole.

 

Yeoman

May 6th, 2016 at 8:24 PM ^

He said publicly that he was interested in a head job somewhere. Maryland interviewed him for HC a few years before his retirement, and I remember hearing that he was a likely hire...and then their interest seemed to dry up overnight (well, literally it was over a weekend--on Friday they were setting up a Monday meeting with the screening committee, and on Sunday night his wife was fielding a call that he'd been removed from consideration and the meeting was off).

Which doesn't mean they knew anything. They might have made some phone calls, heard some not-so-warm "recommendations" that made it clear there was some dirty laundry of some unspecified sort. I'm guessing a lot of people knew there was supposed to be something that might make him a problematic hire, a fair number of people had heard rumors of what it might be (probably some of them completely off base), but very few people knew.

 

 

WolverineHistorian

May 6th, 2016 at 12:38 AM ^

Yes, I hated that. I went to the big house when we played Penn State in 2009. The game was a nightmare (as most RichRod games were) but my seats were close enough that I had a perfect close up view of JoePa and he didn't bark any orders to players and coaches, he did nothing but pace for three straight hours on the sideline. He couldn't have been less involved in the game.

Even then, I thought it was stupid that he kept getting credit for wins when he was nothing but eye candy for the PSU fan base.

03 Blue 07

May 5th, 2016 at 10:54 PM ^

I read the opinion on Deadspin. There is witness testimony in the record about incidents that occurred (and which JoePa likely had knowledge of, though the court doesn't address that) in 1976, 1987, 1988, in addition to the 1998 and 2001 incidents. They knew. They covered it up.




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Ty Butterfield

May 5th, 2016 at 7:37 PM ^

Can't believe Penn State had sanctions reduced and the wins restored. The wins for the Fab Five should be restored. Fuck the NCAA.