When Penn State football was fun | Opinion

During the 54-day “odyssey” (as one sports writer correctly labeled it) to find a new head football coach for Penn State, I used some of the time to reflect on the Joe Paterno years. They were, to borrow from Charles Dickens, the best of times.

Paterno became the head coach in 1966. I arrived at the main campus in 1968 and subsidized my monthly G.I. Bill check with a job in the sports department of a now deceased newspaper. While I focused on high school sports, I did get to review a WPSX-TV (now WPSU) panel discussion about Joe Paterno and the virtues of college football. The most memorable line came from the late Bernie Oldsey who supported collegiate football by noting that you could not go around bragging “My English department can beat your English department.” A winning football team gave you bragging rights.

Paterno, an English major at Brown, went 5-5 the first year, then 8-2-1 followed by back-to-back 11-0 seasons capped with victories in the Orange Bowl. Some years were better than others but it was not until 2000 that Paterno had his first losing season (and there would be only three after that). Up until then there had been only four seasons that a Paterno-coach team did not go to a bowl game. Paterno holds the record of coaching in 37 bowls. Penn State won two national champions and had five undefeated untied seasons.

I could go on, but the point I want to make is that they were the best of times even though Penn State won only two national championships. But the fans were happy. They usually got a winning season and a bowl game. What’s not to like?

Somewhere between the end of Paterno’s tenure and today, we’ve lost our perspective. We used to talk about success with honor. We were happy when football players graduated and didn’t leave early for the NFL. We didn’t need a national championship, just a winning record and a bowl game to keep us happy.

No more. Now we want it all. And when we do we want it? NOW!

Look no farther than the arrival of the new coach, Matt Campbell, and the shoutout to fans from the athletic director, Pat Kraft, on Sunday. “Let’s go win a national championship.” And when he introduced Campbell to the press the next day, he said: “We got the guy — we really got the guy and the guy who is going to lead us to a national championship and bring us back to the best program in the country.” Talk about setting the bar high. Talk about setting someone up for failure. How soon does Kraft expect a national championship? How soon do fans expect one? And what kind of pressure does this put on the players?

In my long career, I have attended a lot of workshops on teaching writing and photography, not to win awards but to be a better teacher, writer or photographer. Our individual athletes should have the same goals — to be the best.

Let us reflect on the Paterno years. Most of them were winning years. That’s the standard for the new coach. And if he does win a national championship, it’s gravy.

And, yes, my English department can beat your English department. So there.

R Thomas Berner is a professor emeritus of journalism and American studies at Penn State.