Penn State Football Coach Joe Paterno Wins 400th Game of His Career
The 400th victory was just one more accomplishment in a career filled with them. He is the career leader in bowl appearances with 36, and in bowl victories with 24, including a 6-0 record in the Fiesta Bowl. Paterno's teams have won two National Championships, in 1982 and 1986, and have finished in the top ten 23 times. He has had five unbeaten, untied teams (1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994). Joe Paterno was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
Penn State was down a bit from 2000 to 2004, with four losing seasons during that stretch. Predictably, there were some who said Paterno was too old and the game had passed him by. That theory was disproved in the second half of the 2000s when Penn State finished with records of 11-1,9-4 twice, and 11-2 twice. Penn State won four out of five bowl games during that time. Paterno is under contract through the 2011 season.
Penn State has had 31 of its players become NFL first round draft picks in the Joe Paterno Era. Three of his players are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. These include linebacker Jack Ham and fullback Franco Harris who played on the great Pittsburgh Steelers teams of the 1970s; and offensive lineman Mike Munchak, who played for the Houston Oilers in the 1980s and early 90s.
Paterno has always stressed academic success as well as athletic success. While JoePa, as he is known, was proud of his latest career milestone and was clearly enjoying the moment, he was already looking forward to Penn State's next opponent. He concluded his post game comments to the crowd with "now that the celebration's over, let's go beat Ohio State".
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Published by Mark Hudziak - Featured Contributor in Sports
Mark is a Featured Contributor in Sports for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. He also blogs about the Civil War at Iron Brigader.com. He is an analytical chemist for a public health laboratory in his other... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentWhat a great sports icon Paterno is. Good report Mark.
a throw back ..jopa will never be replaced
Great work, Mark.
I hadn't heard about this, go PSU! Thanks Mark :)