Former Penn State football players, most of whom represent the five decades in which Joe Paterno led their storied program, today issued a formal request of their university: return Joe’s statue and the players’ wall, and make a long overdue apology to Sue Paterno for the way in which Paterno’s legacy has been unfairly tarnished in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky saga.
Brian Masella, former tight end and punter, and 1975 alumnus spoke on behalf of the more than 200 lettermen who signed the statement which he has sent to University President Eric Barron, as well as every Penn State Trustee.
“We have been told during the last four-plus years that the board and administration are waiting for the appropriate time to repair the damage they created. Now is the appropriate time. Enough is enough!”
Masella added that one of the signatures on the letter represents a deceased member of the program whose sibling felt very strongly that he would want to support the effort to appropriately acknowledge that Penn State football was in no way connected to the crimes of Jerry Sandusky.
“Our program has always been one of integrity, honesty, and respect. Under Coach Paterno, we strove for academic excellence and made an ongoing commitment to becoming better men. We deserve to have that respect reciprocated by Penn State and its leadership.”
Penn State University responded by writing: “We appreciate the passion of our former Penn State lettermen for Coach Joe Paterno and the football program, and thank them for their input and many contributions and achievements. We recognize that this is emotional for many in the Penn State community, many of whom differ, yet feel strongly about this issue. The University’s leadership has clearly indicated that there will be a time and place to acknowledge Coach Joe Paterno’s many contributions. Any plans by the president to reach out to the Paterno family will be done privately.”
THE STATEMENT:
We, the undersigned, are united by the common bond of having been a member of the Penn State Football Team. We state, unequivocally, that our program has always been one of integrity, honesty, and respect. Under Coach Paterno, we strove for academic excellence and made an ongoing commitment to becoming better men.
We remain saddened that the Penn State Administration and the Board of Trustees thrust our program and coach into an undeserved negative media frenzy in 2011. Nearly five years after the firestorm, they still have not defended us or corrected the false narrative. Our legacy and our university deserve better. Penn State’s leaders should take two steps toward repairing the damage that they created.
First, restore the statue of Coach Paterno and the players’ wall to where they stood previously outside Beaver Stadium. These testimonies to “Success with Honor” should never have been removed.
Second, a formal apology from the University to Sue Paterno needs to be issued. This is a common act of decency, which is both warranted and long overdue.
The university’s leaders have repeatedly stated a desire to restore unity to the Penn State community. We hope that they will not waste a great opportunity to do so.
1950’s Robert Belus
Frank Della Penna
Charles Koval
Daniel Maddigan
Fran Bucky Paolone
James Scott
John Storer
1960’s Ronald Adams
Alex Chiara
Peter Cimino
Jack Curry
Alan Delmonaco
Gary Eberle
John Eppensteiner
Gerry Farkas
Ed Gabriel
Chuck Gambone
Warren Hartenstine
Robert Kline
George Kulka
Jon Lang
Linc Lincoln Lippincott
Thomas McGrath
Dave McNaughton
Pete Ochsner
Bill Rettig
Jack Sain
Ted Sebastianelli
Gary Shaffer
Thomas Stuart
Jack White
Gary H. Wydman
Joe Zelinsky
1970’s Frank Ahrenhold
Russell Albert
Kurt Allerman
Ferris Atty
John Balena
Bruce Bannon
Dave Brockway
Richard M. Brown
Chuck Burkhart
John W. Bush
Bobby Campbell
John Cappelletti
Michael Cappelletti
Joseph V. Carlozo
Thomas Greg Christian
Craig Coder
Ron Coder
F. Len Consalvo
Bill Crummy
Steven A. Davis
Gary W. Debes
Thomas F. Donchez
William Ericsson
Morris Fansler
Chuck Fusina
Michael Gilsenan
Bill Glennon
Tony Gordon
David F. Graf
Gary Gray
Mike Guman
Brian Hand
Jim Heller
Scott Hettinger
Ron Hostetler
Thomas M. Hull
John Huttenberger *
Gary Klossner
Bob Knechtel
Richard A. Knechtel
Joe Lally
Ron LaPointe
Philip F. LaPorta
John R. Lewchenko
Kevin Lyden
Brian Masella
Peter Michaelson
Robert Nagle
Joe Navin
John Nessel
Richard N. Nichols
Ed O’Neil
Michael A. Orsini M.D.
Ron Pavlechko
Woody Petchel, Jr.
Gary Petercuskie
Charles Pittman
Carlos Quirch
Tom Rafferty
Joel Ramich
George Reihner
John M. Reihner
James E. Rosecrans
C. Douglas Rothgaber
George SanFilippo
Bernard Shalvey
Tom L. Shoemaker
Tom Shuman
Derek Smith
John P. Susko
Gary R. Tyler
Michael Urquhart
Kip Vernaglia
Marshall Wagner
1980’s Roger Alexander
Mark Battaglia
Jeff Bergstrom
Kirk Bowman
Tim Bronish
Jeff Brunie
Bruce Clark
Bill Contz
Tom Couch
Peter Curkendall
Rick D’Amico
John DePasqua
Dean DiMidio
Michael Dunlay
Eric Etze
Craig Fiedler
Tim Freeman
Brennan Gaertner
Gene Gladys
John W. Greene
Nick Haden
Greg Hay
Stu Helgeson
Joseph Hines
John Hornyak
Robert Jagers
Joe Johns
Ken Kelley
Massimo Manca
Carmen Masciantonio
Jay McCormick
Mike Meade
Rob Mikulski
Robert Mrosko
Aoatoa Polamalu
Kevin Romango
Michael Russo
Rich Schonewolf
Brian Siverling
Patrick Slater
Rob Smith
Pete Speros
Tim Sweeney
Blair Thomas
Darryl Washington
Jeff Woofter
1990’s John Andress
Michael Barninger
Dave Brzenchek
Robert Ceh
Keith Conlin
Brett Conway
Daniel Drogan
Adam Fahrer
Chafi Fields
Derek Fox
Rudolph Glocker
Ryan Grube
Mike Heller
Leonard Humphries
Greg Huntington
Corey Jones
Scott Kaufmann
Jeffrey Koontz
Chad Linnon
Mike Malinoski
Christian Marrone
David Miller
Bradley Pantall
James Scourtis
Dave Smith
William Spoor
Brian Stairs
Justin Williams
2000’s Tyler Ahrenhold
Drew Astorino
Jason Bisson
Nick Daise
Steven Delich
Tom Humphrey
Justin Ingram
Cedric Jeffries
Andrew Kubic
John Kuceyeski
Justin Kurpeikis
Ben Lago
Nick Marmo
Shawn Mayer
James Mitchell
Michael Pawlikowski
Andrew Pitz
Paul Posluszny
Ryan Primanti
Curt Reese
Matt Schmitt
Bryan Scott
Ryan Scott
Mickey Shuler
Alan Zemaitis
2010’s Jesse Alfreno
Larry Federoff
Patrick Flanagan
Eric Flohr
Stephen Obeng-Agyapong
Coaches John Bove
& Staff Booker Brooks
Don Carlino
Craig Cirbus
Raymond J. Horan
Allen Meyer
George Salvaterra
Keith Richeal
* requested by John’s family
