He recorded his 409th victory on October 29, 2011; his career ended with his dismissal from the team on November 9, 2011, as a result of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.

During his career, he led the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins while turning down offers to coach National Football League (NFL) teams that included the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New England Patriots.

[5] An investigation conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh reported that Paterno concealed information relating to Sandusky's abuse of a young boy.

[33] Paterno was known for his gameday image — thick glasses, rolled-up dress slacks (by his admission, to save on cleaning bills), white socks and Brooklyn-tinged speech.

[53] A 2011 grand jury investigation reported that then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2002 (prosecutors later amended the date to 2001)[54] that he had seen Sandusky abusing a 10-year-old boy in Penn State football's shower facilities.

[58] Paterno said McQueary informed him that "he had witnessed an incident in the shower... but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report.

[66] Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said that Paterno was cooperative with prosecutors and that he met his statutory responsibility to report the 2001 incident to school administrators.

[2][76] They considered but ultimately rejected the idea of letting Paterno finish out the season, saying that growing outrage at the situation would have made it impossible for him to be effective as coach.

The report asserted that Paterno, Schultz, Spanier, and Curley "concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities.

Freeh's mischaracterization of the February 27 email was widely inferred by the press to mean that Paterno had persuaded Curley (and Schultz and Spanier) not to report the incident to authorities outside the university.

This benefit will continue for the balance of your lifetime," and "For a period of ten years commencing July 1, 1999 and subject to renewal upon concurrence of both parties you will be given an office and a phone in the East Area Locker room complex ..." The agreement was signed by Curley and Schultz along with Sandusky on June 29, 1999.

[99] On July 14, 2012, The New York Times reported that in January 2011, Paterno opened "surprise" negotiations to prematurely end his contract with an additional $3 million early retirement payout, prior to public knowledge of the scandal.

[106] Spanier's successor as president, Rodney Erickson, said the statue had become "a source of division and an obstacle to healing" but made a distinction between it and the Paterno Library, also on campus.

[107] On July 23, two weeks after the release of the Freeh report, the NCAA punished Penn State with some of the most severe sanctions ever handed down in the history of collegiate athletics.

[111][112][113] In a September 2013 interview with the CBS show 60 Minutes, Sandusky prosecutor Frank Fina was asked if he believed Joe Paterno was involved in the alleged cover-up.

This was criticized by Pennsylvania state Senator Jake Corman, who claimed, "There clearly is a significant amount of communication between Freeh and the NCAA that goes way beyond merely providing information.

[13] On May 30, 2013, the Paterno family and members of the Penn State community (though not the university itself) filed a lawsuit in the Centre County Court of Common Pleas in an attempt to overturn sanctions against the school.

"[128] On July 12, 2016, The New York Times reported that, in a document created in 2014, an anonymous man alleged that Sandusky had touched him inappropriately in 1976 and that he had told Paterno the next day.

Several team members from the recruiting class of 2005, including Justin King, Anthony Scirrotto, and Derrick Williams, received considerable playing time as true freshmen during the 2005–2006 season.

[134] In 2010, Paterno and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka suggested that concussions and other injuries in the NFL and college football might be reduced if face masks were eliminated.

Paterno saw Tony Johnson catch a pass for a first down with both feet in bounds on the stadium's video replay board, but the play was ruled an incompletion.

[137] Just weeks later, in the final minute of the Michigan game, the same wide receiver, Johnson, made a catch that would have given Penn State a first down and put them in range for a game-winning field goal.

[140] After the announcement of his appointment as head coach in 1966, Paterno set out to conduct what he called a "Grand Experiment" in melding athletics and academics in the collegiate environment, an idea that he had learned during his years at Brown.

[141] As a result, Penn State's players have consistently demonstrated above-average academic success compared to Division I-A schools nationwide.

[151] In 2004, his son Scott Paterno, an attorney, won the Republican primary for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district but lost in the November general election to Democratic incumbent Tim Holden.

"[153] While serving as an assistant coach, Paterno met freshman coed Suzanne Pohland at the campus library;[154] she was a Latrobe native 13 years his junior and an English literature honors student.

On November 18, 2011, just nine days after his dismissal from Penn State, Paterno's son Scott reported that his father had a treatable form of lung cancer.

[163][164] His death resulted in tributes from prominent leaders in the U.S., including former President George H. W. Bush, who called Paterno "an outstanding American who was respected not only on the field of play but in life generally—and he was, without a doubt, a true icon in the world of sports.

"[165] Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said of Paterno, "His legacy as the winningest coach in major college football and his generosity to Penn State as an institution and to his players, stand as monuments to his life.

However, on July 23, 2012, the NCAA officially vacated 111 of Paterno's wins based on the findings of the Freeh report regarding his involvement in the Penn State sex abuse scandal.