Penn State to open 'Paterno Family Football Experience' - ESPN

Penn State has announced it is opening the Paterno Family Football Experience Room in the All-Sports Museum inside Beaver Stadium on Thursday, a «permanent museum experience» the school says will celebrate Penn State's football history.

The museum will now include a Joe Paterno exhibit, featuring the former Penn State coach's original office desk and workspace, personal artifacts and a curated timeline documenting significant moments from his more than six decades with the Nittany Lions. The museum will also hold Penn State trophies, commemorating past achievements by individual teams and players.

«Penn State Football's history belongs to generations of student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters who helped build this program,» athletic director Pat Kraft said in a statement. «This room gives us an opportunity to preserve that history, present it thoughtfully and create an experience that connects the proud tradition of Penn State Football with its future.»

The museum exhibit will open a little over 14 years since the school removed Paterno's statue outside the stadium, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky's crimes. Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant under Paterno, was convicted in 2012 of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period and sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. Paterno was fired in November 2011.

An internal report headed by former FBI director Louis Freeh later concluded that Paterno and other university leaders «failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade.» The university and the Paterno family came to a settlement over the Freeh report in 2020. In that settlement release, the Penn State Trustees said the Freeh report contained «opinions about