NCAA: Sanctions promised at Penn State; Paterno statue removed
Workers place a tarp on a fence in front of the statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno before removing it in State College, Pa. The famed statue of Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday, eliminating a key piece of the iconography surrounding the once-sainted football coach accused of burying child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant. (July 22, 2012) Credit: AP
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The famed statue of Joe Paterno was taken down from outside the Penn State football stadium Sunday as the NCAA announced it would issue sanctions against the university.
Workers lifted the 7-foot-tall statue off its base and used a forklift to move it into Beaver Stadium as 100 to 150 students watched, some chanting, "We are Penn State."
The university said earlier Sunday that it was taking down the statue after a report found the late coach and three other top administrators concealed sex abuse claims against Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was convicted last month of 45 counts of sexual abuse of 10 boys.
Chris Durant, 20, an incoming senior at Penn State from Huntington, said he was glad to see the statue go.
"It helps the university heal as a whole," he said. "This was something that should have probably happened earlier, and I'm glad we can move on from it."
Hours after the statue's removal, the Paterno family issued a statement saying that taking it down "does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky's horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community."
Gayle Barnes, who served on the jury that convicted Sandusky in June, did not agree with the school's decision. "Everybody is coming down on Joe," the longtime resident of State College said. "But Joe is the only one who opened his mouth and said I should have done more."
The statue, weighing more than 900 pounds, was built in 2001 in honor of Paterno's record-setting 324th Division I coaching victory and his "contributions to the university."
The statue's sculptor, Angelo Di Maria, 65, of Reading, Pa., called Sunday's events "devastating."
"I've been preparing myself for the past couple of weeks, and I had a gut feeling that this was going to happen," said Di Maria, who called the statue "the crowning piece of my career."
Penn State president Rod Erickson said he decided to have the statue removed and put into storage because it "has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing."
With Scott Eidler
