Penn State’s campus fell into a strange state of sadness, panic, anger, shock and really just a whole mix of every emotion yesterday when longtime football coach Joe Paterno was fired.
Joe Pa, coach of the Nittany Lions for nearly 46 years, defined Penn State football and even the university itself. He is a legend on that campus and one cannot think of the school without associating Joe Pa with it.
Now that he is gone, the students, faculty, athletes and anyone else affiliated with the school are struggling to cope.
Paterno, along with university president Graham Spanier, were involuntarily removed from their positions on Wednesday night after the Board of Trustees decided they must move on without them to begin repairing the school’s image, which has been destroyed by Jerry Sandusky and the allegations of what he did to young children.
Things got very hostile once the board announced Paterno would be going. According to The New York Times,
“After the announcements about Spanier and Paterno, the news conference immediately took on a frenzied and somewhat vitriolic tenor. Angry questions were shouted at Surma, who responded to them while the other board members sat behind him and to his sides. One cameraman repeatedly said, ‘Your campus is going to burn tonight.’”
Students were randomly committing acts of vandalism and destruction around the campus shortly after.
After yesterday’s rallies in front of Joe Paterno’s house to show their support for him, even more students met there and in front of the administration building where they chanted “We Want Joe!”
The board was most likely glad to see Paterno go and finally had a reason to cut him loose. They tried to force him to resign before and never succeeded in getting that done.
Now with all the leverage in the world, they were able to just terminate Paterno, no questions asked.
The Penn State students, however, are downright mad.
