'Trustees are troubled' by Lions' losses
Sunday, October 19, 2003
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News
The football coach spent decades shaping young men's lives, accumulating a
winning record of legendary proportions.
He was revered by alumni and fans. He pushed the university into national
prominence.
Then the aging coach's team started losing. Fans became restless. But some
felt he should be able to retire on his own terms. He didn't want to leave.
The university president, under pressure from alumni, stepped up and urged
him to retire. The coach was given one more season.
That's the story of how the winningest college football coach of all time,
Grambling State University's famed Eddie Robinson, approached his exit.
It is a cautionary tale as Joe Paterno nears the end of his storied career.
Some Penn Staters are contemplating how and when he might leave -- and who
might tell him to go.
University officials and deep-pocketed supporters publicly divert attention
from the situation by bragging about the football program's overall success,
its strong record of graduating athletes and its part in the Penn State
tradition.
But privately, conversations among trustees and donors touch on the visible
signs that the program is eroding.
Next year could be 'critical':
Since 2000, the team has a 21-22 won-loss record. This year, Paterno is on
pace to have the worst season of his 37-year head coaching career.
This from the coach with 338 career victories, tied for the most in
major-college football. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden won his 338th last
night, a 19-14 victory over Virginia.
At 76, Paterno shows little interest in calling it quits. He told a recruit
last year he hopes to coach at least through 2006.
"Right now, I have plans to coach forever," Paterno said Friday at a Penn
State luncheon in Pittsburgh. "I'm sure other people have some doubts. I'm
excited about the team."
But Paterno's five-year contract expires next year. "Next year will be a
critical year," a trustee said.
Trustees see the thousands of empty seats on game days, many of them in the
student section.
Licensing revenue from the sale of Penn State merchandise has dropped. Phone
calls come to the administration daily from disgruntled fans, said vice
president of university relations Steve MacCarthy.
There is confusion on the sidelines. Trustees said some players seem
uncertain whether they should be on the field or off. Time-outs are called
because of delays in calling in plays. That's the coaches' fault, trustees
said. And then there's Paterno's growing tendency to get in officials' faces
over calls.
"The trustees are concerned, maybe a lot more concerned than they are
showing," said a board member who requested anonymity.
A stellar fund-raiser:
Trustees' board chairman Edward Hintz said coaching changes are university
President Graham Spanier's call in consultation with the athletic director.
Hintz said the trustees should assume no role in coaching decisions.
"I would advise strongly they should not get involved," he said. "That is
one of the reasons we do well in athletics at Penn State. We hire good
people to make those decisions and keep the trustees out of them."
But the 32 trustees move in circles outside the campus. They hear from
alumni and fans about what is happening on Saturdays. They hire the
university president.
Several trustees said they consider it inconceivable to think the board
would get involved in Paterno's fate. That's a decision that falls squarely
on Spanier, they say.
Last week, Spanier avoided answering the question. "Penn State is proud of
its football tradition," he said in an e-mail. "We have not seen
diminishment in our success" in attendance at games, applications for
admission and fund raising.
"All of us who are sports fans prefer to win, but it is important to
maintain perspective," Spanier said.
For years, Penn Staters have said Paterno should be the one to decide when
it's time to go, considering all he has done for Penn State. Of course, that
was when the football team won most of its games.
Yet his record remains stellar when it comes to fund-raising.
"He's the No. 1 fund-raiser for the university, without a doubt," a trustee
said.
Hintz said if he had to put a figure on what Paterno has raised for Penn
State, it could be $100 million or more.
Another trustee recalled sending Paterno on a plane in quest for a certain
amount of donations, and he came back with twice the amount because he took
the time to sign a football or have his picture taken with a donor's
daughter or son.
"The guy has celebrity status, the status of a living legend. ... When he
speaks, he has powers of persuasion that are absolutely astounding," said
Roger Williams, executive director of the 146,000-member Penn State Alumni
Association, the largest alumni group in the country.
Paterno and his wife, Sue, also have been generous with their personal
wealth. In recent years, they gave more than $4 million to the university
for a library expansion, campus interfaith spiritual center and
scholarships.
"He's given a lot himself and set a good example by doing so," Hintz said.
Paterno's power:
Paterno and the football program help to finance Penn State's 29
intercollegiate sports. Last year, football alone raised 59 percent of the
$65.4 million athletic budget, said George Patrick, financial officer for
the athletic department.
Add contributions to the Nittany Lion Club -- which qualifies fans to buy
football and basketball tickets -- and the football program pays 82 percent
of the athletic budget.
"If it wasn't for football, we'd probably be cutting sports," said Kay
Kustanbauter, executive director of the Nittany Lion Club.
Paterno's icon status, the money he pulls in, and the prestige he brings to
the university have given him power.
"The real problem with him having so much power is that no one has the
authority to question him," a trustee said.
Make that no one but Spanier. And Spanier has.
Last spring, Spanier said Paterno should not have played Anwar Phillips in
the Capital One Bowl on Jan. 1, after Phillips had been accused of sexual
assault. Phillips, who has since been acquitted of all charges, was expelled
Dec. 12 from the university, but the expulsion did not take effect until
mid-January.
"That took guts," a trustee said of Spanier's criticism of Paterno.
Making a decision to remove a coaching legend also requires guts.
People said as much about Grambling University President Raymond Hicks when
he pushed Robinson to leave. But that had consequences.
Hicks resigned under fire in 1997 during Robinson's final season. Newspaper
accounts suggest Hicks' departure had to do with issues like declining
enrollment and a budget deficit. But there was Robinson's retirement, too.
Robinson's Grambling State Tigers won three of 11 games in his final season.
College's all-time winningest coach left on a losing note.
JAN MURPHY: 787-3061 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com
