Joe Paterno is going to be a member of the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame.
The former Penn State coach is one of 12 people being inducted into the hall on October 24. He's going in with former Penn State players Matt Bahr and Chuck Fusina, basketball coach PJ Carlesimo, hockey player Bernie Parent, former Pitt coach Foge Fazio and others.
Paterno had 409 wins in 45 years at Penn State. He was fired from his post in 2011 in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal. He died in January 2012. Sandusky is currently serving life in prison. Before his death, Paterno said he reported allegations against Sandusky to athletic director Tim Curley and PSU vice president Gary Schultz but wished he did more.
Paterno was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006 while he was still coaching Penn State.
As part of the sanctions handed down by the NCAA against Penn State for the university's role in the scandal, Paterno lost 111 wins and saw his official total drop to 298. Those wins were restored in January 2015 as part of a settlement with the NCAA and Paterno is (again) the official FBS wins leader among all coaches.
Penn State's bowl ban as part of the punishment was removed in 2014.
With the university no longer under NCAA sanction for the Sandusky scandal, Paterno's inclusion into the Hall of Fame makes sense. As long as his wins were vacated and the penalties were still intact his induction would have been a tad awkward. But now, especially with the evidence that the NCAA worked closely with Louis Freeh, the independent investigator hired to look into the university's role, Paterno's inclusion won't be met with nearly as much backlash.
Both Bahr and Fusina played for Penn State from 1976-1978. Fusina was an AP All-American in 1978 and Bahr held the school's single-season record for kicking accuracy until it was broken by Sam Ficken in 2014.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
