Many in this leafy, vibrant college town nicknamed "Happy Valley" worry the temporary evisceration of Penn State's football program might inflict similar damage on a community that, for years, thrived as fans flocked to home games at the massive football stadium and a far-flung alumni base stayed connected by loyalty _ and by checkbook.
Slow. Toothless. Tone deaf to the real problems in college sports.
Many in this leafy, vibrant college town nicknamed "Happy Valley" worry the temporary evisceration of Penn State's football program might inflict similar damage on a community that, for years, thrived as fans flocked to home games at the massive football stadium and a far-flung alumni base stayed connected by loyalty _ and by checkbook.
The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday as the NCAA announced it would be issuing sanctions against the university whose top officials were accused in a scathing report of burying child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant.
The NCAA announced Sunday that it will issue sanctions against Penn State in the wake of a scathing report that found that top university officials buried child sex abuse allegations against a now-convicted retired assistant and led to the tearing down of the famed statue of once-sainted coach Joe Paterno.
In seven months on the job, Bill O'Brien has turned into much more than just the new leader of the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Joe Paterno's family on Monday vowed their own investigation of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, rejecting the findings of a special investigator who concluded the late football coach and other top Penn State administrators concealed Sandusky's sexual abuse of children in order to shield the school from bad publicity.
Penn Staters are trying to protect Happy Valley, the almost-too-good-to-be-true nickname for the campus enclave at the foot of Mount Nittany and the protective veil the community feels in its central Pennsylvania home.
Joe Paterno is dead and so is what was left of his good name, shredded to pieces by investigators who didn't seem terribly impressed by anything the coach once did on Saturday afternoons.
