Saturday, October 04, 2003

From local dispatches

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State coach Joe Paterno is the subject of a one-hour documentary set to air on ESPN.

"The Season: Joe Paterno" airs at 7 p.m. Friday and will be rebroadcast at 4 p.m. Oct. 16. The ESPN-produced documentary is part of the network's Original Entertainment programming.

In his 38th season as head coach and 54th year as a member of the Nittany Lions' staff, Paterno is regarded as one of college football's greatest coaches. The leader in career victories among major-college coaches, he has a 338-103-3 record for a winning percentage of 76.4.

Paterno ranked fourth among active Division I-A coaches in winning percentage entering the 2003 season. He broke the record for career wins by a major-college coach, passing Paul "Bear" Bryant, with his 324th victory in Penn State's 29-27 victory Oct. 27, 2001, against Ohio State.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1950 graduate of Brown University, Paterno has directed Penn State to five unbeaten seasons ('68, '69, '73, '86, '94), two national championships ('82, '86) and is the bowl victories leader with a 20-10-1 postseason record. He is second only to Chicago's Amos Alonzo Stagg (41) in years coached at one school.

Paterno is one of only nine coaches in NCAA history to win 300 games (five of the coaches are in Division I-A), reaching the milestone faster than anyone (380 games).

He is the only Division I-A coach with 300 wins at one school.

Paterno has been instrumental in Penn State's 442-151-7 record since 1950. Penn State's game Oct. 11 at Purdue will be the 600th game in which he has coached since joining the Nittany Lions' staff.

Since Paterno became head coach in 1966, there have been 729 head coaching changes in Division I-A, an average of six changes per school.

Paterno's tenure at Penn State spans the administrations of 11 U.S. presidents, including one, President George Bush, whose nomination Paterno seconded at the 1988 Republican National Convention.

Paterno also has been recognized for his emphasis on academics. The 2003 NCAA Graduation Rate Report for Division I institutions revealed that Penn State had a graduation rate of 86 percent for the entering class of 1996-97, the highest graduation rate of any of the country's public institutions that play Division I-A football. The 86 percent graduation rate was substantially above the national average of 54 percent.

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