Joe Paterno was a mountain of a man when it came to the ranks of coaches, both college and professional. With his passing on Saturday, he will be remembered for the greatness he inspired on the football field, but sadly, it will be overshadowed by the child-abuse sex scandal that brought down the reign of college football’s all-time wins leader. While Sandusky will eventually get the justice he deserves, Paterno sadly passed with the weight of shame on his shoulders.
Still, despite the travesties of his former assistant and the inaction that now characterizes Paterno’s legacy, he still left a lasting effect on the game, the community he fostered, and the players he coached. At some level, he also deserves to be remembered for the good he did.
With that in mind, here are some of Joe Pa’s most memorable quotes:
“Besides pride, loyalty, discipline, heart, and mind, confidence is the key to all the locks.”
“Losing a game is heartbreaking. Losing your sense of excellence or worth is a tragedy.”
“You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you’ll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.”
“Success without honor is an unseasoned dish; it will satisfy your hunger, but it won’t taste good.”
“The only thing I have control over, … is to try to get our football team to play as well as it can play, and have them realize they are playing against a team which has talent, coaching and tradition. And we are on the road before 110,000 people. Unless you’re stupid, you’ve got to understand that.”
“Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things.”
“We are in the business of trying to help kids grow up.”
“It’s hard for me to explain. I don’t have an ego. I’m going to work to give these kids a chance to win. If we win, it’s theirs. You guys are making this too complicated, believe me.”
“We’re going to work and try to get the right combination and maybe one of these days, we’ll walk off the field and say ‘I think we are a good football team.”
“The minute you think you’ve got it made, disaster is just around the corner.”
Paterno may not have made the best decision in the end, and many will argue that his vision of his own legacy may have gotten in the way of that, but at the end of the day, he was still a polarizing figure that has a lasting impression on the kids who played for him and the community that supported him.
Sources:
– Joe Paterno Quotes – BrainyQuote.com – Famous Quotes by Joe Paterno – QuoteDaddy.com