UNIVERSITY PARK — Shortly after Phil Knight took time to remember Joe Paterno while also giving a stern message to the Penn State Board of Trustees who fired the late coach in November, one of Paterno’s first recruits was the first person to congratulate and thank Knight for broaching a subject none of the other guest speakers did.

Charlie Pittman, who played for Paterno in the 1960s, quickly found a shaken Knight backstage at Thursday’s “A Memorial for Joe” event at the Bryce Jordan Center. Just moments before, Knight had spoken in a calm, measured tone, sometimes sipping water to ward off tears as he reminisced about Paterno to the thousands on hand.

Knight called Paterno his “hero” while also bringing to the surface a lighter side of Paterno, one that sang “Wild Thing” as former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel strummed a guitar at their annual coaches meetings with Nike brass. But Knight didn’t mince words and soon railed against the board of trustees for their firing of Paterno for what the board would later describe as Paterno’s past inaction just days after sexual abuse charges were filed against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky last November.

“(Paterno) gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chain to the head of the campus police and the president of the school,” Knight said. “The matter was in the hands of a world-class university, and a president with an outstanding national reputation.”

“Whatever the details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me,” Knight continued, jabbing a finger at his own chest. “There’s a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation. Not in Joe Paterno’s response to it.”

The statement brought the thousands on hand to their feet, where they remained, clapping for nearly a full minute.

Knight quickly exited the platform and broke down backstage.

“It was tremendous. It’s something that needed to be said,” Pittman said. “I walked up to him afterwards and I commended him. I told him — he was in tears — and I told him, ‘I’m so glad that you did that. It needed to be said.’ I’m glad he said it. I sort of just touched on it a little bit, but he went for the knockout punch.”

Pittman, who spoke before Knight, insisted Paterno left a sparkling legacy that stressed the importance of family, academics, honesty and integrity when he passed away on Sunday.

“We’ll take it from here,” Pittman said in his closing remarks.

ESPN analyst Brad Nessler, who accompanied his broadcast partner Todd Blackledge to the event, enthusiastically greeted Pittman as spectators filed out, much like Pittman had done for Knight.

“I loved your last line,” Nessler said. “Your whole speech was awesome.”

But Pittman said he realizes, not everyone will be swayed.

“I’m wondering if there will be repercussions from around the world about that,” Pittman said of Knight’s words. “Believe me, there are some people out there who still think Joe should’ve done more, could’ve done more and are not letting him off the hook.”

It was a testy subject afterward with most of the speakers opting not to address the subject, or sidestepping the question altogether.

“I don’t want to talk about that. Sorry,” Jeff Bast, the founder of student-made tent city outside of Beaver Stadium dubbed Paternoville, said.

Like father, like son

Charlie Pittman wasn’t the only Pittman prepared to speak Thursday.

Charlie’s son, Tony, who was a standout defensive player for Paterno in the 1990s was pegged to eulogize his former coach, but was scratched from the program before the event began as Christian Marrone instead represented the 90’s decade.

“He was a little disappointed and I was a little disappointed so I went back and I had a prepared speech. So I had to adjust on the fly,” Charlie Pittman said. “I had to go in and figure out how I was going to work Tony into my speech and make sure he got the recognition that he truly deserved.”

As a duo, Charlie and Tony were the first father-son tandem to play for Paterno. Tony’s mom, Maurese, said she wasn’t thrilled when her son chose Penn State, simply because she didn’t want him to have to deal with playing in his father’s shadow.

Tony had his choice of Harvard, Yale or Princeton. He chose Penn State to his mother’s early chagrin.

“I was afraid for Tony to come to Penn State because I thought it would be a hard act to follow (his dad),” Maurese Pittman said. “I was the one who wanted him to consider Yale.”

But Tony was able to make a football career for himself at Penn State. A generation apart, the two built quite a father-son resume in blue and white uniforms. In games both of them started they compiled a 45-0-1 record and played on three of Paterno’s five undefeated squads.

Both were Academic All-Americans.

“He was a mentor, in many ways, a second father,” Tony Pittman said of Paterno. “In my case, I could kind of double that. Not only was he that to me, he was that to my father and so throughout I got a double dose of everything (Paterno) had to say because I started hearing it from my dad and came here and heard it again.”

Sneaking a peak

Maurese and Charlie were high school sweethearts. They dated throughout college while Charlie was at Penn State and Maurese at Morgan State University back in Baltimore.

Maurese used to bus her way up to Happy Valley to see her boyfriend when he was playing for Paterno.

Once, during Charlie’s junior season, a campaign he would go on to help lead the Nittany Lions to an Orange Bowl win over Kansas, Maurese took her typical bus trip up to State College.

When she arrived, she trekked to the Lions’ practice field where she staked out a position in the bushes, behind the fences bordering the teams’ practice fields. As she peered through the greenery, she was caught, by none other than Paterno.

Expecting him to throw her out, Maurese prepared to get a tongue lashing from Paterno.

“Joe saw me and I thought, ‘Oh, I’m in trouble now,’” Maurese said. “But all he did was walk over and say, ‘Hi, I like your outfit.’ And I had picked that outfit special, but it shocked me that he didn’t say, ‘Hey, get out of here.’”

Maurese later remembered her first meeting with Paterno when the latter came on the recruiting trail with his sights set on her son.

“Who wants to see your star players’ girlfriend watching practice? But he was a gentleman about it. That was a good first impression.”

Travis Johnson can be reached at 231-4629.