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Daily
Events...
Saying
good-bye to a hero
Adam
Tragone, Managing Editor
01.27.12
When
envisioning the atypical hero, every one of us has a prototype in mind.
Whether
it’s an athlete, a scientist or a family member, we all have someone we
look up
to for inspiration, someone to provide an example on how to live a
fruitful and
meaningful life.
This past
week, many of us lost a hero in one of the arguably cruelest ways
possible. Joe
Paterno wasn’t just a football coach. He was a mentor for hundreds upon
hundreds of young men, always striving to make those student-athletes
not just
great football players, but great citizens. He gave millions to Penn
State
University, and not to the football department, but to the library
where his name
will live for generations.
Regardless
of what you think about the scandal that engulfed the university, one
thing
remains certain, Joe Paterno always stood for something greater that
translates
across all spectrums, not just college athletics. Just because one time
he may
or may not have fallen short, certainly does not exclude his many years
of
dedicated service to the Penn State community and every single one of
those
young men he helped shape in to great citizens. As Ivan Maisel of ESPN
says in
his column about Paterno’s legacy,
“The whole
of his life renders the seismology of modern-day journalism moot. The
facts of
a 62-year coaching career were shaken. They did not topple over.”
Everyone has
a hero. At moments they may fall short of the lofty image we have of
them, but
in the end, it’s always about the whole, not the mere sum of the parts.
I’ll leave
you all with a quote from JoePa that truly sums up the man: “They ask
me what
I’d like written about me when I’m gone. I hope they write I made Penn
State a
better place, not just that I was a good football coach.”
You
certainly did. You made many people better. You made us all better.
—Adam
Tragone
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