Not many are truly qualified to pass judgement on Joe Paterno’s actions following the the Nov. 4, 2011, arrest of former longtime Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky on dozens of charges related to child sexual abuse.

Let alone those who might try to accurately characterize Paterno’s reaction to Sandusky frequenting the Penn State locker room in the nine years after Paterno was first made aware of a child rape allegation against Sandusky in the shower of a PSU football facility.

But, with the bolded text below, SbB hopes to accurately ascribe the behavior of the late Penn State football coach in the aftermath of Paterno first learning of the Sandusky child rape allegation in a Penn State football locker room in 2002.

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Paterno (11/6/2011): “As coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

Paterno (1/12/2012) “I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise that I did. I knew it was serious and I wanted to do something about it. And that’s why I went up the chain of command.”

I laugh at those who claim that we should have blind faith in our institutions.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “I didn’t know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the University procedure was.“

I chuckle at people who blame the ’system’ for their problems.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “We never had, in 61 years, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn’t feel adequate.”

It is you who make the organization work for you and you who will become victims of this system, if you fail to execute your responsibilities to yourself and to your fellow human beings.

Paterno (1/12/2011): “Obviously, he was doing something with the youngster. It was a sexual nature.”

Paterno (11/6/2011): “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report.”

We must always act but when we are wrong, we must be mature enough to realize it and act accordingly.

Paterno (1/12/2012): “When I finally got the head job, I was 16 years here before got the head job, when I finally got it I said we’re going to have the ‘grand experiment,’ and my thinking then was let’s do it the right way.”

Seduced by expediency, by selfishness, by ambition regardless of cost to principles, this spectacle will surely mark the end of the ‘grand experiment.’

We cannot morally escape our responsibility to the rest of the world.

There’s only one person qualified to provide such prescient, applicable commentary to Joe Paterno’s tragic actions the past nine years.

Read more…

UPDATE: (Jan. 25, 2011, 9:21aPT): Jay Paterno Tweeted the following Wednesday morning:

To clarify: Our family looks forward to welcoming everyone to a celebration of Joe Paterno’s life tomorrow afternoon.

UPDATE (Jan. 24, 2011, 5:13p PT): The HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reports that Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, who ordered all state government flags lowered to half-staff following Joe Paterno’s death, will not be attending the Thursday memorial service for Joe Paterno, “at the request of the (Paterno) family.”

From a report Tuesday evening by Charles Thompson of the Patriot-News:

Corbett’s press secretary, Kevin Harley, said today the governor is “not planning” on attending the service.

Asked why, Harley said, “I am not aware that any members of the (university’s) board of trustees are attending, at the request of the family.”

Corbett, he said, wants to respect that request.

Though reporter Thompson did note that, according to sources, the Paterno family qualified the ban on PSU Trustees:

Other sources said the family was discouraging the trustees from attending as a group. That would leave the way clear for individual members with long ties to the Paternos to attend.

As noted in the original post below, Sara Ganim of the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS recently reported that Corbett voiced his feelings to the Penn State Board of Trustees at the fateful Nov. 9, 2011, meeting in which Paterno was removed from his position by school officials:

Moments before Penn State’s board of trustees voted to fire Joe Paterno, Gov. Tom Corbett uttered a final thought.

“Remember that little boy in the shower,” Corbett said via speakerphone, acting in his role on the 32-member board.

It was the last thing the board members heard before being asked if anyone objected to relieving Paterno of a coaching job he’d held for 61 years.

With that, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 in a late-night move that led to student riots in State College and boiling animosity toward the board by alumni.

What motivated Corbett to make such a strong statement in the final moment before the Board of Trustees voted to terminate Paterno after 61 years at Penn State?

Keep reading.

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Current Pennslyvania Governor Tom Corbett officially learned of allegations of child sexual abuse against Jerry Sandusky in March 2009. As Attorney General of the state at the time, Corbett assigned a single state trooper to investigate the allegations - though that law officer was not authorized to bring charges against Sandusky because Corbett decided not to assign an agent from his office to directly supervise the investigation.

When Corbett became governor two years later the children’s charity Sandusky had founded in 1977, The Second Mile, had not officially been notified by Corbett or anyone in law enforcement that its founder was being investigated on multiple allegations of child rape.

Despite that apparent disconnect, the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reported on Dec. 10, 2011, that at the same time Corbett was conducting his two-year investigation of Sandusky as Attorney General, Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign benefited financially from Sandusky’s charity:

Corbett accepted more than $25,000 from state board members of Sandusky’s charity, The Second Mile, during his gubernatorial campaign last year. On top of that, he accepted thousands more from the charity’s regional board members, according to Pennsylvania Department of State campaign contributions website.

His openness to the charity’s board members’ contributions to his campaign didn’t stop there. Corbett also allowed S&A Homes president and CEO Robert Poole, who chaired Second Mile’s board, to hold a small fundraiser for him at Poole’s home in January 2010.

Following Corbett’s election as Governor, he “re-released” a $3 million state grant to The Second Mile as part of the charity’s effort to erect a building meticulously-planned by Sandusky himself - with Poole’s company handling the construction. The release of the state funds came four months before Sandusky was arrested on dozens of child sexual abuse charges stemming from Corbett’s own investigation as then-Attorney General.

After the background of the grant was exposed to the public, Corbett pulled the state funding.

(Corbett gave millions in state funds to Sandusky pet project in July!)

From the month he learned of the Sandusky allegations to the day he took office as Governor, Corbett’s Attorney General office issued 42 press releases touting hundreds of arrests by the Corbett-commissioned “Child Sexual Predator Unit” and “Child Exploitation Task Force.” (March, 2009 to Jan. 18, 2011.)

But Sandusky’s case was never assigned to either detail by Attorney General Corbett, even after Mike McQueary told a Pennsylvania Grand Jury of the alleged shower rape of a child by Sandusky in December, 2010, and the first-hand revelations about Sandusky showering with children from two police detectives contained in a 130-page, 1998 Penn State Police Dept. report.

Two weeks after Corbett left office as Attorney General, in late January, acting Attorney General Bill Ryan assigned four more state troopers to the Sandusky case and three agents from the state’s attorney general office, with the latter empowering investigators to bring charges against Sandusky.

10 months later, Sandusky was in handcuffs and the Penn State Board of Trustees was contemplating the fate of Joe Paterno.

Of the November 9, 2011, Penn State Board of Trustees meeting that resulted in Paterno’s ouster, Sara Ganim of the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS reported it was Governor Corbett who had the last word before a vote was taken to determine the Penn State legend’s fate:

Moments before Penn State’s board of trustees voted to fire Joe Paterno, Gov. Tom Corbett uttered a final thought.

“Remember that little boy in the shower,” Corbett said via speakerphone, acting in his role on the 32-member board.

It was the last thing the board members heard before being asked if anyone objected to relieving Paterno of a coaching job he’d held for 61 years.

With that, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 in a late-night move that led to student riots in State College and boiling animosity toward the board by alumni.

Appearing on FOX News Sunday four days later, Corbett said:

“In my opinion, when you don’t follow through, when you don’t continue on to make sure actions are taken then I lose confidence in your ability to lead.“

After learning of Paterno’s death on Sunday, Corbett released a statement which read, in part:

“As both man and coach, Joe Paterno confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance.”

“Forbearance” as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a refraining from the enforcement of something (as a debt, right, or obligation) that is due.”

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A member of the Penn State Board of Trustees told the CENTRE (PA) DAILY TIMES Thursday that during an official briefing last May the Trustees were told by a Penn State lawyer that Jerry Sandusky had previously been the subject of four Grand Jury investigations.

(Same day Trustees claim tenured Spanier ‘fired’ he’s enjoying PSU facilities) 

Penn State Board of Trustees member Mark Dambly told the State College-area newspaper today:

“We were told in May of 2011, by Cynthia Baldwin, this was the fourth grand jury that was convened. The prior three led to no charges.”

Baldwin made the presentation to the Penn State Board of Trustees with then-Penn State President Graham Spanier, who was removed from his position by the board after the Sandusky Grand Jury presentment was released last November.

Tuesday Penn State announced that Baldwin, who has served as the University’s full-time general counsel and chief legal officer since early 2010, was stepping down. The “transition” was attributed to Baldwin having sufficiently staffed the school’s new in-house legal department.

The Daily Times also noted today that, “Penn State University spokesman Bill Mahon said he had heard there were prior grand juries.”

The NEW YORK TIMES reported yesterday of the same May meeting in which Baldwin and Spanier briefed the Trustees about the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky, with the newspaper noting that during the presentation, “No one (Trustee) asked questions.”

In the same New York Times story Wednesday, multiple Penn State Trustees reported that the board fired then-PSU President Graham Spanier after the Sandusky Grand Jury presentment was released last November because he failed to keep them properly informed of the Sandusky investigation.

Current Penn State Trustee Ira Lubert, who also helped lead the school’s recent search for a new football coach in the wake of Joe Paterno’s Trustee-led ouster, told the Times yesterday:

“He (Spanier) should have told us a lot more. He should have let us know much more of the background.”

News of the latest Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky was first reported by the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS in March, two months before Baldwin and Spanier briefed the PSU Board of Trustees on the status of the investigation.

The Patriot-News reported today that by the time the Board was officially informed of the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation by Baldwin and Spanier:

Several front-page stories in The Patriot-News and on PennLive.com had described two alleged sexual assaults of young boys by Sandusky being investigated by the grand jury - at least one of which was said to have taken place in the Penn State locker room while Sandusky was a Nittany Lions coach. All of the stories were also reported in the (State College-area) Centre Daily Times and the first one was fully rewritten and put on the national news wire by the AP.

Adam Smeltz of StateCollege.com also interviewed Penn State Board of Trustees members today, several of whom did not appear in the Wednesday New York Times story that detailed claims made by the leadership of the board regarding the May briefing by Baldwin and Spanier about the the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation.

In their interview with Smeltz today, the PSU Trustees who did not appear in Wednesday’s New York Times story disputed the claim made yesterday by the PSU Board of Trustees leadership to the newspaper that Spanier had deliberately misled them about the status of the Sandusky Grand Jury investigation.

Spanier, who was photographed playing racquetball in a Penn State athletic facility on Wednesday, is now on a Penn State-paid “sabbatical” while maintaining his status as a tenured member of the Penn State faculty.

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After co-opting the WASHINGTON POST with his own personal crisis communications manager and high-priced criminal defense lawyer last weekend, somehow Joe Paterno still ended up in the RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER’s department of corrections on Sunday:

That’ll come as no surprise to Penn Staters, who haven’t been shy in decrying the injustices they claim have been perpetrated on their hero by the media in recent weeks.

Yes, we’re talking about the same Penn Staters incited to riot on worldwide television by their hero after Paterno provided the media a personal statement expressly designed to marginalize the same Penn State leadership he hid behind when called upon to stop a former longtime employee who had raped a child.

Yes, you are. Penn State.

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The voice of a Pennsylvania State Senator trembled as he delivered an emotional, sometimes tearful defense of Joe Paterno at Tuesday’s Senate session in Harrisburg.

Jack Corman, an influential Pa. State Senate Republican who chairs the appropriations committee, lost his composure and was forced to pause three times before finishing a half-hour speech in which the Penn State alumnus was repeatedly overcome with emotion.

Corman’s intial remarks scolded the public for allegedly dismissing what he called the “the 60 years of his (Paterno) life’s work” after a Nov. 5, 2011, Pennsylvania Grand Jury presentment revealed that the ex-Penn State football coach failed to report directly to police allegations that former PSU assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused a child in the Penn State locker room in 2002.

“Today I wanted to come to the floor of the Senate and talk about one of my constituents that I thought there was a rush to judgement on. (Paterno) spent the better part of six decades building a community, building an insitution and a building a program that somehow was all lost, sixty years of his life’s work was all lost in a matter of days due to a rush to judge everyone’s actions (involved in the Sandusky case).”

Most of Corman’s comments on the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate Tuesday involved chronicling Paterno’s past accomplishments at Penn State, while the Senator also refused to conclude that the former Penn State football coach was wrong for not reporting directly to police alleged child sexual abuse by a former longtime colleague at Paterno’s then-current workplace.

Corman broke down twice in the final throes of his emotional plea to the people of Pennsylvania to not hold Paterno’s lack of action - in the face of alleged child rape - against the former coach:

“When you look at the life of Joe Paterno and what he’s meant, the biggest compliment I could say my community where I live, my alma mater where I went to school, the commonwealth which I raised my family is a better place. (pause) It’s a better place because Joe Paterno chose to live here.”

With his voice trembling, Corman closed with the following:

“He’s (Paterno) in the biggest battle of his life now but when you view his history he will win. Our prayers are with him and I can only hope my community, my institution are worthy of his efforts to make us grow.”

Corman, who represents the Penn State area in the Senate, currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Second Mile, the charity Sandusky founded to allegedly facilitate his sexual abuse of children.

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On January 12, 2011, then-Penn State Senior VP of Operations Gary Schultz testified under oath to a State College-area Grand Jury.

(”Idea” during months between ‘98 Sandusky PSU Police report & ‘retirement’)

During the testimony by Schultz, the man who was running the day-to-day operations of Penn State at the time, he characterized what led to Jerry Sandusky’s departure from Penn State:

“I candidly have recollections that Coach Paterno and Jerry had reached a point where Coach Paterno felt it would be best that he make a coaching change.”

On Nov. 5, 2011, the same Grand Jury reported of Victim 4, one of the children Sandusky allegedly sexually abused:

The Penn State football program relocated to the Lasch Football Building in 1999 and that facility had a sauna. Victim 4 reported that after the move, most of the sexual conduct that did not occur in a hotel room occurred in the sauna, as the area is more secluded.

Victim 4 remembers Sandusky being emotionally upset after having a meeting with Joe Paterno in which Paterno told Sandusky he would not be the next head coach at Penn State and which preceded Sandusky’s retirement. Sandusky told Victim 4 not to tell anyone about the meeting. That meeting occurred in May, 1999.

While Sandusky’s “retirement” from Penn State was announced three months later, Paterno allowed Sandusky to coach the entire 1999 season.

The Grand Jury reported that it was during the 1998 and 1999 Penn State football seasons that Sandusky allegedly, repeatedly sexually abused Victim 4 - a child at the time - while representing Penn State on road trips and during overnight stays by the school’s football team at a local hotel before home games:

Victim 4 was listed, along with Sandusky’s wife, as a member of Sandusky’s family party for the 1998 Outback Bowl and the 1999 Alamo Bowl. He traveled to and from both bowl games with the football team and other Penn State staff, coaches and their families, sharing the same accommodations. Victim 4 would frequently stay overnight at Toftrees with Sandusky and the football team prior to home games; Sandusky’s wife was never present at Toftrees when Victim 4 stayed with Sandusky.

This was where the first indecent assaults of Victim 4 occurred. Victim 4 would attend the pregame banquet and sit with Sandusky at the coaches’ table. Victim 4 also accompanied Sandusky to various charity golf outings and would share a hotel room with him on those occasions.

Less than a year before Paterno told Sandusky in 1999 that, “it would be best that he make a coaching change“, Penn State law enforcement filed an exhaustive 130-page police report in which Sandusky confirmed to detectives that he had showered with two boys in the Penn State locker room. As part of the Penn State Police report, Sandusky admitted to the mother of one of the boys - in the presence of two police detectives - that his behavior “was wrong” and that “I wish I were dead.”

Shortly after that report was filed and three months before Paterno reportedly told Sandusky in 1999 that, “it would be best that he make a coaching change“, Neil Rudel of the ALTOONA (PA) MIRROR reported that Paterno had recently proposed that Penn State’s Altoona branch campus start a football program.

With Sandusky as head coach.

In a Jan. 22, 1999, piece titled, “PSU Altoona Explores Football,” school CEO Allen Meadors indicated that the Sandusky-coached football program proposal was Paterno’s idea:

The idea was actually born out of a conversation with Joe Patemo. “He told me it was time for football at Altcona,” Meadors said. “I wouldn’t have even considered it if Joe wasn’t supportive of it.”

“I think it’s a good idea for the community,” Patemo said. “Eventually a lot of our branch campuses will have football, and I think more kids would be willing to stay four years, and it would help applications for admission.

“There are so many kids that really would like to play football and would like to have the Penn State name, and some of these (Division III) schools are so much more expensive than Penn State. It would be an opportunity, and there isn’t a prettier campus in the state than Altoona. The next logical step would be football”

But in a followup story by Rudel in the Mirror on April 9, 2011, then-Penn State Altoona CEO Meadors said he was initially pitched the idea by Sandusky:

“Jerry called me and asked if I would be interested in having a football team at Penn State-Altoona. I said ‘Sure, if we had a way to pay for it.’ He mentioned that he knew a gentleman who might be willing to provide the necessary funds. We visited with the gentleman, but he never committed the money, and a football-team project never got off the ground.”

In Rudel’s 1999 article, Sandusky confirmed that he had “spoken about it” with Paterno and that he would “be interested” in running the startup Penn State-affiliated program if the funds could be raised.

Sandusky has discussed the possibilities of football with Meadors several times and could conceivably envision himself becoming the head coach here.

“If it was possible (to have a program in Altoona), I’d be interested,” Sandusky said. “It would be nice. I think it’s a great idea for Penn State Altoona.”

Just three months later Paterno told Sandusky - as related by PSU VP Schultz to the State College Grand Jury - “it would be best that he make a coaching change.”

After that meeting, a Penn State Altoona football program startup was never discussed again publicly by Paterno, Sandusky or PSU Altoona officials.

At the time of the proposal, Penn State Altoona CEO Meadors told the Mirror in the original, Jan. 22, 1999, article that, “I’m concerned their (Paterno and Sandusky) scope is narrow. They’re mainly looking at Altoona, but it would have to be a much broader view than Altoona.”

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Former Penn State linebacker Brandon Short reported on ESPN Wednesday - via “two independent sources” cited by the ex-Nittany Lion linebacker - that Jerry Sandusky watched the Oct. 29, 2011, football game between Penn State and Illinois at Beaver Stadium from the luxury box of then-Penn State President Graham Spanier.

(Erickson at meeting where Short reported Trustees first told of Sandusky)

Excerpt of Short’s comments from ESPN’s Outside The Lines program today:

“Two independent sources at the (Penn State) university have confirmed to me that Jerry Sandusky watched the Illinois-Penn State game in the President’s suite with multiple members of the (Penn State) Board of Trustees.”

Short later affirmed to ESPN host Bob Ley that the game he was referencing was the Oct. 29, 2011, Penn State-Illinois game at Beaver Stadium. The Attorney General of Pennsylvania released the Grand Jury presentment detailing dozens of allegations against Sandusky involving the sexual abuse of children on Nov. 5, 2011, less than a week after the Penn State-Illinois game.

Further, Short reported that Spanier, who has since stepped down as PSU President, briefed members of the school’s Board of Trustees on the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky in New York in March, 2011.

Spanier was contacted by the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS in March before the newspaper first broke the news of the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky. Spanier, who was interviewed by the Grand Jury as part of the Sandusky investigation, declined comment to the newspaper at the time.

An official meeting of the Penn State Board of Trustees was held in New York City’s Helmsley Hotel on March 18, 2011.

According to the official minutes of that meeting posted on Penn State’s official website, current Penn State President Rodney Erickson was at the March, 18, 2011, meeting of the school’s Board of Trustees in New York - the same meeting Short reported that the Board was informed by Spanier of the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky.

Last Saturday Erickson told the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS he was completely unaware of the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky until the presentment was released to the public last November:

“nearly all individuals at the university, including me, were not aware of any this until we read it in the grand jury presentment, so how would we have known?”

Three days later, yesterday, Erickson told the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE that he first learned of the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky by reading about it in the CENTRE DAILY TIMES. The newspaper, which serves the State College area, first reported of the Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky on March, 31, 2011.

Yesterday Erickson also told the Post-Gazette that then-Penn State President Graham Spanier briefed the Penn State Board of Trustees about a Grand Jury investigation of Sandusky at a meeting in “May or July.”

Sandusky or anything relating to a Grand Jury investigation involving a person associated with Penn State is not mentioned in the official minutes of the March, May and July official meetings of the Penn State Board of Trustees posted on the school’s official website.

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Multiple sources close to the football programs at Penn State and the University of Pittsburgh have indicated to SbB that acting Penn State head football coach Tom Bradley is the leading candidate for the defensive coordinator position under new Pitt head football coach Paul Chryst.

(Fit for Pitt? Bradley coached under Joe Paterno for 33 years at Penn State)

One source close to the Pitt program told SbB that Bradley is Chryst’s first choice for the job, but because of Bradley’s longtime association with the Penn State program - and his reported close ties to Jerry Sandusky - the Pitt coach will have to get school athletic director Steve Pederson and other Pitt officials and donors to sign off first. Read more…

The date is January 12th, 2011, 11:06 a.m. The questions were asked by Ms. Jonelle Eshbach, Witness, Joseph V. Paterno.

Q: Would you please introduce yourself to the Grand Jury?

Mr. Paterno: My name is Joseph V. Paterno.

Q: I’m sure everyone in the room knows, but just in case there’s anyone that doesn’t, how are you employed?

Mr. Paterno: I’m a football coach at the Pennsylvania State University.

Q: As that football coach at the Pennsylvania State University, did you have as employed under you an individual by the name of Jerry Sandusky?

Mr. Paterno: I did for a while, yes.

Q: Do you currently have employed for you since sometime in the early 2000s an assistant coach named Michael McQueary?

Mr. Paterno: Yes.

Q: I’d like to direct your attention to what I believe would be a spring break of 2002, around that time. Do you recall Michael McQueary calling you and asking to have a discussion with you about something that he observed?

Mr. Paterno: I’m not sure of the date, but he did call me on a Saturday morning. He said he had something that he wanted to discuss. I said, come on over to the house.

He came over to the house.

And as I said, I’m not sure what year it was, but I know it was a Saturday morning and we discussed something he had seen.

Q: Without getting into any graphic detail, what did Mr. McQueary tell you he had seen and where?

Mr. Paterno: Well, he had seen a person, an older — not an older, but a mature person who was fondling, whatever you might call it — I’m not sure what the term would be — a young boy.

Q: Did he identify who that older person was?

Mr. Paterno: Yes, a man by the name of Jerry Sandusky who had been one of our coaches, was not at the time.

Q: You’re saying that at the time this incident was reported to you, Sandusky was no longer a coach?
Mr. Paterno: No, he had retired voluntarily. I’m not sure exactly the year, but I think it was either ‘98 or ‘99.

Q: I think you used the term fondling. Is that the term that you used?

Mr. Paterno: Well, I don’t know what you would call it. Obviously, he was doing something with the youngster.

It was a sexual nature. I’m not sure exactly what it was.

I didn’t push Mike to describe exactly what it was because he was very upset. Obviously, I was in a little bit of a dilemma since Mr. Sandusky was not working for me anymore.

So I told — I didn’t go any further than that except I knew Mike was upset and I knew some kind of inappropriate action was being taken by Jerry Sandusky with a youngster.

Q: Did Mike McQueary tell you where he had seen this inappropriate conduct take place?

Mr. Paterno: In the shower.

Q: Where was the shower?

Mr. Paterno: In the Lasch Building.

Q: Is that on the campus of Penn State University?

Mr. Paterno: It’s right on the campus.

Q: Did you tell Mike McQueary at that time what you were going to do with that information that he had provided to you?

Mr. Paterno: I don’t know whether I was specific or not. I did tell Mike, Mike, you did what was right; you told me.

Even though Jerry does not work for the football staff any longer, I would refer his concerns to the right people.

Q: You recall this taking place on a Saturday morning, the conversation with Mike?

Mr. Paterno:  Yes.

Q: When did you — did you do something with that information?

Mr. Paterno: Well, I can’t be precise.

I ordinarily would have called people right away, but it was a Saturday morning and I didn’t want to interfere with their weekends.

So I don’t know whether I did it Saturday or did it early the next week.

I’m not sure when, but I did it within the week.

Q: To whom or with whom did you share the information that McQueary had given you?

Mr. Paterno: I talked to my immediate boss, our athletic director.

Q: What is that person’s name?

Mr. Paterno: Tim Curley.

Q: How did you contact Mr. Curley?

Mr. Paterno: I believe I did it by phone. As I recall, I called him and I said, hey, we got a problem, and I explained the problem to him.

Q: Was the information that you passed along substantially the same information that Mr. McQueary had given you?

Mr. Paterno: Yes.

Q: Other than the incident that Mike McQueary reported to you, do you know in any way, through rumor, direct knowledge or any other fashion, of any other inappropriate sexual conduct by Jerry Sandusky with young boys?

Mr. Paterno: I do not know of anything else that Jerry would be involved in of that nature, no. I do not know of it.

You did mention — I think you said something about a rumor. It may have been discussed in my presence, something else about somebody.

I don’t know.

I don’t remember, and I could not honestly say I heard a rumor.

Q: You indicated that your report was made directly to Tim Curley. Do you know of that report being made to anyone else that was a university official?

Mr. Paterno: No, because I figured that Tim would handle it appropriately.

I have a tremendous amount of confidence in Mr. Curley and I thought he would look into it and handle it appropriately.

Q: We have no further questions of you.

Testimony concluded at 11:13 a.m. Date, January 12, 2011, 11:20 a.m.

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Super Bowl-winning coach Dick Vermeil, who in 2001 wrote the foreword to Jerry Sandusky’s “Touched” autobiography and assisted the ex-Penn State football coach with his Second Mile charity over three decades, told Kelley Bydlon of ESPN760.com this week that, “Jerry really cared about (The Second Mile children) in a different way than is being portrayed right now.”

(”I knew Jerry very well“)

Vermeil also told Bydlon, that the revelations about Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse of children, which has thus far resulted in 52 criminal charges against the former Penn State assistant coach, “is a real downer for me. I still hold hope that it’s not all true.”

On the subject of Joe Paterno’s ouster at Penn State, Vermeil this week labeled the situation to Marks-Peltz as, “Unfair. Especially for a man of his class and quality.”

When asked if Paterno did enough to help a child who in Grand Jury testimony Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary reported under oath was anally raped by Sandusky in the Penn State locker room, Vermeil said of Paterno’s decision to not report the incident to authorities, “I would never second guess him.”

Below is the full transcript from Vermeil’s comments to Bydlon:

Kelley Bydlon: “You were involved with The Second Mile, how well did you know Jerry Sandusky?”

Vermeil: “I knew Jerry very well, I didn’t know this side of him, I still want to really believe it to be true. I wrote the foreword to his book. I’ve been involved in helping him with that charity over thirty years.

“It’s a real downer for me. It’s disappointing as heck.

“I still hold hope that it’s not all true.”

Bydlon: “When the news came out, was it complete disbelief for you?”

Vermeil: “Yes it was. I’d heard rumors there were investigations like all of us did around Second Mile, you could not. You’d have to be deaf not to hear it. But I would always give him (Sandusky) more credit for those rumors being true.”

Bydlon: “How devastating was it for people involved in the charity?”

Vermeil: “I know for a fact they helped a ton of kids, and I know that Jerry really cared about them in a different way than is being portrayed right now.”

Bydlon: “What did you think of the way Joe Paterno was exited out of Penn State?”

Vermeil: “Unfair. Especially for a man of his class and quality.  In two days he went from the epitome of what everyone should be like as a coach and I still believe he belongs in that category.”

Bydlon: “In your mind did he (Paterno) did enough to stop what was happening?”

Vermeil: “I wouldn’t second guess him because if he thought it was more serious than it was he would’ve reacted more seriously. I think he reacted according to what he knew, the way he felt he should.

“I would never second guess him.”

Mike McQueary testified in open court in Pennsylvania today that after he witnessed Sandusky involved in an “extreme sexual” act that resembled “intercourse” with a child in the Penn State locker room in 2002, he told Paterno about the incident the next day:

“I went to his house and sat at his kitchen table and told him I saw Jerry with a young boy in the shower. That it was way over the lines and extremely sexual in nature.

“(Paterno) was slumped back in his chair, he said well I’m sorry you had to see that. It’s terrible. I need to think and tell some people about what you saw and I’ll let you know what we’ll do next.”

Also revealed in the same Harrisburg court proceeding today was the transcript of testimony Paterno previously gave a Centre County (PA) Grand Jury regarding what he was told by McQueary about Sandusky’s alleged rape of a boy in Penn State’s locker room in 2002.

During a reading of Paterno’s previously recorded comments, it was confirmed that Paterno did indeed tell the Grand Jury that McQueary related to him that the incident involving Sandusky and a child in the Penn State locker room was of a “sexual nature.”

In a November 7, 2011, statement Paterno claimed:

“As my grand jury testimony stated. I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker room facility. It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report. Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As Coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

As part of his 2001 contribution to Sandusky’s “Touched” autobiography, Vermeil, who was coaching the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs at the time and in 1999 led the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl title, wrote of the ex-Penn State assistant coach, “He (Sandusky) could very well be the Will Rogers of the coaching profession.”

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