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Penn State to 'commemorate' 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno's first game

(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Penn State plans to “commemorate” the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as Nittany Lions head coach.

The news was revealed Thursday in a press release detailing the school’s “themed game days and promotions” for the upcoming season. The recognition for Paterno will take place on Sept. 17 when PSU hosts Temple. The game has also been dubbed “THON and Community Heroes Day” and “Faculty & Staff Day.” No other details were immediately available.

Other than brief glimpses of Paterno in various in-stadium hype videos, this will be the first acknowledgement of the coach by the program in Beaver Stadium since his last game as head coach on Oct. 29, 2011. Paterno, who joined the Penn State staff as an assistant in 1950 and became head coach in 1966, was fired by the university’s board of trustees on Nov. 9, 2011 — just days after the arrest of longtime PSU defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for child sexual abuse.

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Sandusky, who was found guilty on 45 counts in June 2012, coached under Paterno from 1969 to 1999. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1977 and held that position until his retirement in 1999.

Former PSU assistant Mike McQueary has said on several occasions he witnessed Sandusky with a boy in the showers of Penn State’s football building in 2002. In grand jury testimony from winter 2011, Paterno testified McQueary told him he had seen Sandusky “fondling a young boy” in the showers and that it was “of a sexual nature.” Paterno said McQueary did not get into specifics. Paterno said he then notified then-athletic director Tim Curley about what McQueary told him. He has been criticized for not doing more.

In the Freeh Report, a Penn State-sanctioned investigation into the Sandusky situation released in July 2012, it is alleged that Paterno, along with former school president Graham Spaniel, Curley and former senior vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz were aware of complaints against Sandusky. In one instance, the Freeh Report accuses Spanier, Curley and Schultz of choosing not to report the allegation against Sandusky which was relayed from McQueary to Paterno.

The Paterno family has long argued that Joe didn’t have knowledge of Sandusky’s misdeeds. Additionally, Penn State president Eric Barron, who was hired from Florida State in 2014, has been critical of the Freeh Report. He called it “absurd” in January 2015.

“I have to say, I’m not a fan of the report,” Barron told the Associated Press. “There’s no doubt in my mind, Freeh steered everything as if he were a prosecutor trying to convince a court to take the case.”

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Paterno finished his career with a 409-136-3 record at Penn State, the most wins in FBS history. As a part of the NCAA sanctions against Penn State, 111 of his wins were removed from the record. The wins were restored in January 2015.

For more Penn State news, visit BlueWhiteIllustrated.com.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!