Joe Paterno told me in 1981 that he might retire in the next few years.
And he said the same thing to me again in 1988.
Since that first interview in 1981 – which I did with fellow Collegian writer Will Pakutka, now an assistant sports editor at the New York Daily News – I had 20 more one-on-one interviews with the Penn State coach.
And he probably delivered his “four to five more years” declaration in half of them.
So Paterno’s pronouncement at last week’s Big Ten Conference Media Days that he hoped to stick around as the Nittany Lions’ head coach for perhaps another half-decade is nothing new.
Of course, he’s an octogenarian now, and his ’81 assertion came 30 years ago, when he was merely 54 years old. Only 21 at the time, I thought Joe was ancient; now that I’m…er, hum…51, I see that Joe was barely middle-aged.
And when he told me basically the same thing again prior to the ’88 season, for the Penn State Football Annual, Paterno was a youngish 61. His hair was still jet black and he was the toast of college football, having won two national titles in the previous half-dozen years.
I’ve been writing about Paterno for a third of a century, and his last four- to five-year stretch – whenever that is is — will be/is no doubt among the most eventful in a glorious career. He’s a coach for the ages: 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s…90s?
Among soap operas, only the 72-year radio and TV run of The Guiding Light was longer.
Add up all the head coaches (seven) and games (507) and victories (318) at Penn State since 1909, and Joe still has them beat (one coach, 539 games, 401 wins).
So I hesitate not to believe that Joe will go until he’s 89, and will be on the field when the Nittany Lions play Pitt for the first time since 2000, when he was a kid of 73. I can’t wait to see CNN on the scene, reporting on Hell freezing over.
For historical perspective, let’s not forget that Amos Alonzo Stagg was the head coach at the University of the Pacific until age 84 — with a 5-7 record in his final season.
For five years after that, Stagg was an “advisory coach” at Susquehanna University under his son, Amos Jr., and for eight years after that he was an adviser to the Stockton Junior College football team. He hung up his coaching cleats at age 98, and died four-and-a-half years after that, at age 102.
Now we know an adviser isn’t the same thing as a head coach, but still…
You can bet that when Stagg coached Pacific he wasn’t working out like Paterno, who hit the trails north of his McKee Street home with daily diligence this summer to the tune of five miles per trek.
So, who knows, maybe Joe will be there at Heinz Field on Sept. 10, 2016, when Penn State resumes its series with Pitt. If you (and Joe) live long enough, you’ll see everything. We can only hope that Pitt apologist and Paterno lover/hater Beano Cook, now 80 and headed into the College Football Hall of Fame, is there to see it.
PATERNO AND RETIREMENT: 1981
So let’s cut to the chase. The good stuff.
The following is what Paterno told me and the balding Pakutka – affectionately known as “Domehead” by then-Collegianaire and current Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Penn State beat writer Ron Musselman; these days, Will is the primary guy writing those outlandish sports headlines on the back page of The Daily News.
The interview took place in Paterno’s old office at the end of the hallway of the top floor of the Greenberg Indoor Sports Complex, in an office that was, at most, 10 feet by 15 feet. It happened in-season — like that would happen these days — on Oct. 2, 1981, the day before the Nittany Lions thrashed Temple 30-0. (For comparison: PSU barely won its latest game against the Owls, 22-13, in 2010.)
Here’s what Joe had to say in 1981 about getting out of the business:
“…I’m not giving any thought at all to retiring. I’m hoping I’m physically able to coach another four or five years, and if I feel good at the end of four or five, maybe go a couple more, I don’t now. But I have not thought in any way about getting out of coaching.
“…I think it’s ridiculous to spend a lot of time planning for something that may not happen. Heck, something may happen to me and I may not feel like coaching next year. I wouldn’t want to make a commitment one way or another. But right now I’d like to coach another four or five years, but I don’t have other plans beyond that.
“What’s happened is a lot of people think I’m staying in coaching because of a national championship – that’s what keeps me (in it), the Holy Grail. That’s got nothing to do with my plans. We could win three national championships in a row or we don’t win one for five years. That’s got nothing to do with it.”
Paterno continued:
“The only things that affect my plans are, number one, am I happy with what I’m doing and still have a decent relationship with my family? And do I feel I’m doing a good job? If I don’t feel I’m doing a good job for the squad, I ought to get out of it.
“That’s all: Come to work in the morning, hoping to do a good job and see what’s going to happen the next day.”
That was 257 victories ago.
PATERNO AND RETIREMENT: 1988
Six more college football seasons, two national titles and 77 months later, Joe said it again:
Four or five more years.
It was a mid-March day in 1987 when I interviewed Paterno, and we talked for 40 minutes for the Penn State Football Annual preseason magazine. At the time, he was still being pulled in many directions: For example, he was vice chairman of the Campaign for Penn State, a $200 million fund-raising effort. (A sign of the times: The university’s current campaign goal is $2 billion.)
The interview took place in the same office as it did in 1981, and I noted some of the titles on his bookshelf: “Dianetics,” “Vince” (Lombardi), Ridge Riley’s “Road to No. 1” and the “Athlete’s Guide to Agents.” The trophy he received as Sports Illustrated’s 1986 Sportsman of the Year was prominently displayed.
I pointed out a story in USA Today about Paterno coaching four or five more years.
“Is that true?” I asked, and off he went:
“I’d like to. I’ve told people that I’d like to go another five years. I feel good. If I stay healthy, I’m going to coach five more years. I made that commitment to myself and talked it over with my family, and they’ve consented to go along with it.
“I think that in five years I’ll be old enough where I should get out of it. And I think I won’t be too old to get involved in some things that interested me. It’s hard to envision myself retiring. I think I’ll want to change and maybe not get into something so strenuous and demanding as coaching.
“If you give yourself a timetable, it gives you a chance to wade into something. It will give me an opportunity to kind of work my way into something new in my life without jeopardizing doing the job that should be done here.”
What goes into that decision? I asked.
“It gets tougher all the time. The older you get, the closer you get to where you ought to get out of it. The way I’ve looked at it is I’ve looked at my family situation. I still have a youngster at home (Scott). And in five years, he’ll be in the middle of college and somewhat established. I’ll be 65. I may not know if I’m doing a good enough job or not doing a good enough job. At that stage you have a tendency to kid yourself.
“I think that financially I’ll be able to do just about whatever I want to do. Realistically speaking, I don’t know if I can maintain the energy needed to do the job much beyond that. I’m a hands-on kind of coach and I wouldn’t want to be otherwise. I wouldn’t be comfortable any other way.
“That all fits in the same kind of time frame. I’d like to turn it over to somebody who would have a lot of fun with it. Sixty-five is still young enough these days to be able to get involved in something else. Whatever that is, I don’t know.”
There’s more:
“People want to jump in and say “politics” right way, but I don’t know. I have not thought about going into politics in an active way. There’s too much involved in running for office. Maybe there will be something develop in politics that would be appropriate and where I would have to go out and run and all that stuff.”
Even then, there were questions about what Paterno told recruits when they asked about how long he would stay at Penn State.
“I’ll tell them when I’m going to retire,” he answered. “That’s unless I make a decision to stay three years from now. At that time, I may feel as good as I feel now and I don’t want to get out of it.
“Of course, I can reassess my position. But for now, for the next few years I’ll have to tell kids that I’ll be here for ‘X’ number of years. Then they’ll have to have the confidence that the program will be in good hands that we’ll pick a good person. It’ll probably be someone who can do a better job.”
“Right,” I said, a sarcastic sort at the time.
“No, I’m serious about that,” Paterno replied. “A lot of people should be able to do a fine job. And Penn State should be able to get itself a top-notch coach, whether he’s on the staff or not.”
Amazingly, that was 23 years and 194 wins ago.
Funny, it seemed like just yesterday.
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