Q&A with Lou Prato

Editor’s note: The following is part of a Q&A with author and Penn State sports historian Lou Prato that didn’t run in the April issue of Town&Gown because of space.

T&G: Overall, what do you think has changed the most when it comes to Penn State and its athletic program?

Prato: It may be difficult for Penn State fans to admit this, but the perception of the athletic program has changed drastically since the child abuse scandal of 2011. I devote only one chapter on the scandal in my 100 Things book and it’s about all the misinformation that came out about the culture of football. Here we are five years later and we still don’t know the truth about it all. This isn’t the place to go any further than that because there are still civil and criminal proceedings making their way through the legal system. Penn State is divided, and I’m not sure we will ever be united again. However, outside of Penn State, the perception about the athletic department, and football in particular, is extremely negative among the general public. I hear from readers all the time about how they are sometimes accosted by people, and it is often nasty. Before the scandal, the NCAA president publicly said Penn State exemplified all that was good about collegiate athletics, and his devious successor turned us into the villain, symbolic of all that is bad about collegiate athletics. It’s easy to blame the media for that perception — and some of the media have been irresponsible and malicious — but it had its genesis in the offices of the attorney general and governor, our own board of trustees, and the NCAA. 

T&G: Do you think Penn State is still a special place and unique in the world of college athletics?

Prato: Yes, it still a special place, but not unique. Frankly, we were never really unique in the broadest sense of the word. There were other schools that prided themselves on melding high academics with high athletic standards. Stanford and Duke come immediately to mind. Penn State was in that category and, as far as we know, still is. Despite what some of our critics contend, Penn State was never a football factory. However, I am not sure what is in the future. There is too much money now involved in college athletics with the millions of dollars of income from television and the ever-increasing need to keep up with the competition with lavish spending on facilities and the salaries of coaches and their assistants. For decades, Penn State strived to keep sports in perspective within the amateur campus environment, but that has become more and more difficult. And one more thing. There will never again be a coach like Joe Paterno who coached at one school in major college football for so long and won so many games. College football is now all about short term accomplishments. Win or else.

T&G: Prediction for the 2016 football season?

Prato: I don’t like to make predictions. So much can happen between now and the first game of the season that will impact the season. The biggest question is whether the new offensive and defensive coordinators will make a difference one way or another? Let’s just guess as a loyal fan and say 8-5 and another bowl game and hope for the best.