STATE COLLEGE — At 2 p.m., the basketball game disappeared.

As soon as the public memorial service for Joe Paterno replaced it Thursday on Bill Pickle’s Tap Room’s five flat-screen TVs, the bar hushed. Off went the music, and all eyes turned to the celebration of Paterno’s life.

Jason and Dawn Barr, sharing a pitcher of beer with their lunch, had wanted tickets to the service. Like thousands of mourners, they came up short. But instead of watching the broadcast at home in Tyrone, they drove to State College.

“Just to be among everyone else, pay our last respects,” Jason Barr said.

“We just felt like we should be here,” his wife said.

The Barrs were among the many fans who gathered in downtown establishments and on the University Park campus to extend the memorial service beyond the confines of the Bryce Jordan Center.

Sipping from mugs and wine glasses, bar patrons gazed at video montages of Paterno in rapt attention. Some dabbed at moist eyes with napkins. Some wept softly. They smiled and chuckled at funny tales, and applauded after players from each decade of Paterno’s career gave heartfelt testimonials to their former coach’s influence on their lives.

When Jay Paterno asked the Jordan Center audience to stand together and recite the “Lord’s Prayer” — in honor of his father’s postgame locker room ritual — patrons at Bill Pickle’s rose to their feet.

Kristen Flebotte, a waitress who grew up in State College and graduated from Penn State last year, held back tears until Jay Paterno’s eulogy.

“It was very emotional,” she said. “I feel exhausted by it.”

Across the street at Chili’s Grill & Bar Restaurant, two friends watched the service in the bar. Scott Williams and Dave Kane, unable to get tickets, drove from York in the morning. They could have watched TV anywhere, but Kane said they had to be in State College for the occasion.

“We’re not alumni but we still feel like we’re part of the Penn State family,” he said. “And this is the Penn State family’s home.”

Kane, 36, said he held Paterno in high regard for his integrity and impact on his players.

“Beaver Stadium was the largest classroom on campus, in my opinion, because that’s what it was for Joe,” Kane said.

At Cafe 210 West, Chris and Kathy Goedtel, of Port Matilda, wore Penn State apparel to their favorite place for the service. They and a friend occupied a corner table, right below one of the bar’s several televisions. It mattered where they saw the memorial, Chris Goedtel said.

“We wanted to be on College Avenue,” he said.

Their niece, Jess Goedtel, joined them later. A 2007 Penn State graduate now living in the Lehigh Valley, she came to town for the service.

“Just to be with my Penn State family,” she said. “You kind of have to be together. It’s a funeral.”

In the HUB-Robeson Center, the student union, a crowd gathered around the large television in the main lounge area, and additional televisions were brought in. Hundreds more gathered in the nearby Alumni Hall, which had been equipped with a large flat-screen television. At the beginning of the service, they stood and sang the alma mater along with those onscreen.

Sophomore Morgan Sluder drifted into the HUB after class.

“He had an influence on the entire school, not just his players,” Sluder said of Paterno. “He was an inspiration for everyone associated with Penn State.”

Some at the HUB were years past their days as students. One-time Penn State student Gina Epperson, 28, drove from Lewistown with her 10-month-old child, Emily, because she “didn’t want to watch it at home alone.”

Vincenzo Gatto, a professor of Italian and former Penn State soccer player, said Paterno deserved a grand sendoff.

“Joe taught us all how to deal with defeat and celebrate victories,” said Gatto, who, like Paterno’s family, hails from Calabria, in Italy. “Football was just Joe’s way of teaching his students about life.”

Charles Venezia Jr. took his two children out of school and drove more than three hours from Valley Forge so that his family could “properly show their appreciation for Joe.”

“Joe’s lessons are the lessons I teach my son,” Venezia said, motioning to 13-year-old Charles Venezia III by his side. “It’s all about the team. Don’t worry about what the other guy does, just do your best.”

John Coughlin, a hockey coach at Worcester State University, said he “shared Joe’s philosophy.” He drove more than six hours from Charlton, Mass. to say goodbye.

“It was the least I could do for someone who did so much for so many,” he said.

Rachel Shively drove two-and- a-half hours from Greensburg to State College.

Shively’s parents went to Penn State. So did her brother. She didn’t even apply anywhere else, and from 1987 to 1991 performed during many football games as an alto saxophone in the Blue Band.

“It seems like Joe Paterno has been a constant in my life,” she said. “He was a lot more than a regular coach. He was this amazing regular guy that just seemed to belong to all of us.”

She had tried to get tickets online, but they went too fast. She ended up wandering into the Penn State All- Sports Museum in Beaver Stadium, where an employee invited her to watch the service on TV.

She and a dozen or so Penn State faithful teared up when the glee club sang the alma mater, and applauded Nike Chairman Phil Knight’s defense of Paterno. When Jay Paterno asked those inside the Bryce Jordan Center to recite the “Lord’s Prayer,” many in the museum did, too.

A few minutes later, they quietly dispersed.

“Thank you again for letting us sit here,” Shively told the museum employee. “It meant a lot.”