Penn State University offered to rename Beaver Stadium after the late Joe Paterno, and the family declined—just as Joe Pa would have wanted.
Sara Ganim of PennLive.com reported the news of the offer. She also quoted a source close to the Paterno family, and that revealed that the family’s denial is in-line with the former coaches feelings on the matter. Ganim’s source on renaming the stadium after Paterno:
“[It would be] a tremendous and humbling honor,” but it “has always been a fan-driven matter. It was never important to Joe.”
Of course, as you might expect, there is more to the story. Ganim reports that the tensions between the family and the university “have exploded just short of all-out war since January.” The university offered to rename the stadium under the condition that the family would waive their right to sue the university.
The decision to pass on this deal leaves open the very real possibility of a future lawsuit.
The stadium is currently named after former Pennsylvania governor James Beaver. Beaver also served on the school’s board of trustees.
Any decision to rename the stadium would not have been arrived upon without some serious deliberation. And the decision to make the offer was likely facilitated by the fact that the majority of fans would back the move.
A poll of registered Pennsylvania voters revealed that 46 percent favored the idea of renaming the stadium after Joe Pa, while only 40 percent opposed it.
Paterno was fired in January in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. He passed away at 85 just two-and-a-half months later after a brief bout with lung cancer.
