Sonny Fulks
Managing EditorA native of Piqua, and graduate of Ohio State University, Sonny Fulks pitched four varsity seasons for the baseball Buckeyes from 1971 through ’74, and furthered his baseball career as a minor league league umpire for seven years, working in the Florida State League (A), the Southern League (AA), and the American Association (AAA). He formerly authored the Fanfile and WPTW.com sports websites, and is the photo editor of Gettysburg Magazine, published by Morningside Books, in Dayton, Ohio. Involved with a number of writing projects, he’s currently writing a book on former Ohio State baseball and hall of fame coach, Marty Karow.
CONTACTUnfortunately for Joe Paterno, he did not leave this life on his terms…rather, on the terms of his legacy being questioned for being less than what the evidence would probably prove.
In the wake of his death on Sunday, and his funeral on Wednesday of this week, the air waves are full of people trying to determine the legacy of Joe Paterno.
Coach and mentor to young men, or just a man who could have done more for the sake of truth and justice…irrespective of what he was as a football coach?
Humanitarian for what he did for his players and university over the past 40 years, or “enabler” for what many are willing to believe he did not do when he found out about Jerry Sandusky?
I personally don’t harbor such questions, and I hope you understand why when I tell you. I’m just not willing to question or second-guess…not without a lot more evidence!
I have no right to form an opinion on hearsay, or on the reports of the media about which we all harbor some degree of cynicism. Like it or not, they’re out to do a job, the same as Paterno was, to the degree that you believe what you read and what you hear.
I tend to believe things like this, though. At his public memorial service at Penn State on Thursday his son Jay, speaking to a packed arena, said, “I spoke with my dad 30 minutes before he passed, and I can tell you he left this earth with a clear conscience.”
That I believe. I’m sure he, the son, knew, definitively.
I greatly admire the football legacy of Joe Paterno, the 409 wins, his humility regarding that record, and his attitude of promoting his players and the university above his own career and financial ambition. He is, by all accounts, the last vestige of what we here in Ohio knew about Woody Hayes, whose largest contract for coaching Ohio State University was reported once to be $80,000 a year. The going rate’s a little higher now, you know.
I admire his dedication to his players…for actually fulfilling the recruiting promises made in the living room when he sold them on attending and playing for Penn State University. Read Rick Reilly’s account this week on ESPN.com…of how Paterno stood by and supported Adam Taliaferro’s fight to regain his mobility after a debilitating spinal injury playing football.
But as a man of whom so much is being questioned now, over what he knew and who he told pursuant to the heinous act of one of his assistants, I simply cannot condemn someone’s legacy based on what others assume, and assume negatively…not until we all know more. I wasn’t there. I don’t know. I won’t guess.
I do question this…that faced with the same decision to make, about what to say about what he heard, and as to whom he told…I don’t know that anyone in Joe Paterno’s position would have done so much differently.
I hear people say, “I would have done more. I would have done this…would have that.” Really? I’m not so sure.
How many would have done more over such a sensitive matter, knowing so much more was at stake…that what they said could bring an entire institution to the brink of reputational ruin, not to mention themselves?
Knowing that what they said could have impacted the lives and careers of that many innocents, stained simply through guilt by association? Pure human instinct about self-preservation would make me doubt.
What was expected of Joe Paterno was off the charts. None of us ever prepare for anything like that. Hence, how do you know what to say and who to tell? Apparently he went to the proper channels. Those people know what he said…the athletic director, the president, the board of regents. The rest of us just assume. If there’s a crime on anyone’s shoulders…if anyone’s legacy is at stake…should it not be theirs, and not Joe Paterno’s?
I’ll probably continue to think about him as a football coach, not as an investigative conduit. I’ll think of him in terms of those 409 wins and all the young men he shaped to achieve that ultimate mark in college coaching.
I’ll think in terms of what those men contributed after football, as fathers, husbands, community leaders, and representatives of Penn State University…all because of Joe Paterno, and for generations to come. Without evidence to the contrary, which none us have, why think anything less?
Do I condemn the actions of Jerry Sandusky, if he’s proven guilty? Of course. If he did that of which he’s accused it’s unconscionable…despicable.
But do I condemn a man’s legacy over an association, based on what some are willing to assume? Not so fast. And unfortunately, not without him being here to answer for himself.
As bad as I feel for the victims…for those who did nothing more than trust the reputation of an institution and the character of one individual representing it…I feel just as empty for the fact that so many now condemn unfairly out of assumption. About who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did with it.
It’s the saddest part of questioning a legacy…those who will never know, but doubt it just the same.
