The last 100 wins were the hardest for Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.
Getting from Win No. 1 to 100 took only 122 games. Along the way Paterno had three undefeated seasons and a 31-game unbeaten streak.
From 101 to 200 took 124 games. That trip yielded two national championships.
From 201 to 300 took 134 games. And it included entry into the Big Ten Conference and a Rose Bowl victory.
Getting from win 301 (20-13 vs. Pitt, Sept. 19, 1998) to 400 (35-21 over Northwestern on Saturday) took 155 games.
But, let’s be honest, it took a lot more than that.
THE HARDSHIP HUNDRED
The journey from 300 to 400 claimed a brother, a mother-in-law, a valued colleague’s wife.
It also saw the near loss of a football player and a son-in-law.
It ruined Paterno’s hip, broke some bones and snapped some muscles, and wreaked major intestinal havoc.
It led friends in the media, like Saraceno and Wilbon and Conlin and even his beloved Lyon, to gently nudge him out the door.
And it led his Penn State bosses, who wanted to basically fire him, to his home’s front door.
Then there were arrows in the ceiling, fights in the HUB and at the skating rink, a very ugly rush of players to some downtown apartments. Some pot, too much pot. Underage drinking, underage driving.
And then, perhaps inevitably, the deserved visit from ESPN’s “Outside The Lines.”
INSIDE THE LINES
Then there was the collapse of the 1999 season, when Minnesota’s field goal set off a tailspin of five-and-half years.
Four out of five losing seasons and a 27-36 record. A pair of ninth-place finishes in the Big Ten and a pair of six-game losing streaks. A 24-6 loss at home to Toledo and the ignominy of that 6-4 Homecoming defeat to Iowa.
Yes, there were 100 wins.
But so, too, there were 55 defeats. That’s a winning percentage of 64.5 percent, which pales next to the 83.9 of the first 100 and the 81.8 of the second 100.
It was 100 wins, but at times it seemed like 100 years.
When the fourth set of hundreds began, Paterno seemed like he was 61 (although he was 71).
When that set was completed on Saturday, Paterno seemed like he was 83 (and he will be 84 in just 44 days).
It has been a hard ride, indeed.
TESTING JOE
All that and more came during the past 100 wins. It tested him, tested the patience of Job Paterno.
He did not give in.
His body might have, a function of age not of will.
But his spirit…well, it wavered during Adam Taliaferro’s darker days, of which there were many. And his brother George’s death wasn’t easy.
What remained, though, was what has made Joe Paterno Joe Paterno.
There is his wife Sue, forever his confidante and backbone and touchstone and bridge to the real world.
And then there is Joe’s will, his determination, his stubborn adherence to ideals and the focus to see them realized, his loyalty, his realism and his optimism.
Those were not broken in the first 82 games of the last 100 wins, when Penn State was 43-39.
Because of who Paterno is and because of who he remained, the essence of Joe stayed intact and led to the last 73 games of the last 100 wins:
A 57-16 record (.780 winning percentage).
Three 11-victory seasons.
End-of-season rankings of 3, 24, 25, 8 and 8.
Orange, Outback, Alamo, Rose and Capital One Bowls.
A spot in the College Football Hall of Fame.
And 10 first-team Academic All-Americans.
THE LESSON OF THE LAST HUNDRED
Most of all, though, the last 100 wins have taught us this about him:
That amazingly — even when all else seemed to fail — he somehow kept on being Joe Paterno. The same Joe Paterno, from 1 to 400.
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