WRLTHD: Joe Paterno Beset By Several Health Issues Since 2006

photo's by Ray Tharaldson

story by Mike Poorman

The revelation by Joe Paterno’s son Scott that the recently fired Penn State football coach has treatable lung cancer is the latest in a spate of ailments that have beset the elder Paterno.

Paterno, who turns 85 on Dec. 21, has been battling a variety of ailments – many of them injuries attained on the football field – over the past six seasons.

Prior to the cancer discovery, the most recent occurred at the start of summer drills in August 2011.

During practice inside Penn State’s Holuba Hall on Aug. 7, Paterno was accidently blindsided by 5-foot-7, 157-pound receiver Devon Smith. He suffered shoulder and pelvis injuries and was hospitalized for a day. No surgery was required.

He returned to practice three days after the accident, but for most of the next several weeks spent practice in a golf cart. He appeared before the media on Aug. 10 with his right arm in a sling and seated in a cart labeled No. 1.

The effects of the injuries lasted through August and into November. For over a month he moved with the aid of a walker and then with a cane. In the nine games Paterno coached in 2011, he spent only six out of a total of 36 quarters on the field during a game.

BEGINNING IN 2006

Dating back to 2006, when he was 79, Paterno’s injuries and maladies included a broken leg, a busted hip and severe intestinal problems. They have caused him to miss a regular-season game following surgery in 2006, and to coach several games from the press box over two different seasons.

In 2006, in an away game in Madison against Wisconsin, Paterno was chopped down along the sideline when Badgers linebacker DeAndre Levy tackled Penn State tight end Andrew Quarless, and then Levy's helmet rolled into Paterno's knee. The top of Paterno's shin was broken and he also sustained two ligament injuries.

Paterno, then 79, missed the next game, a home contest against Temple, following surgery. He was in the Beaver Stadium press box for the 2006 regular season finale against Michigan State.

In 2008, during a preseason practice, Paterno, then 81, was demonstrating to his players how to perform an onside kick and he severely hurt his hip in the process. He spent much of that season coaching from the press box, while conducting practice in a golf cart. Much of the time, he walked with the aid of a cane.

Paterno had hip surgery the day after the final 2008 regular-season game, and coached along the sidelines in Penn State's Rose Bowl appearance 39 days later.

Then came myriad intestinal problems in 2010, which left Paterno looking frail and a bit dazed at the Big Ten Conference's Media Days last summer in Chicago. That came on the heels of a summer where Paterno spent much of his time close to home. He cancelled a number of alumni and booster events due to intestinal problems exacerbated by bad reactions to medication. Although he started the 2010 football season in apparently poor health, his appearance and countenance improved greatly as the year went on.

ROBUST TO START 2011

When on July 29 Paterno returned to Chicago on for the 2011 Big Ten Media Days, what a difference a year made. The Nittany Lion coach was tan and appeared robust: "I feel a lot better than I did a year ago," he told the assembled media, again and again.

He spent much this past summer getting into shape for the 2011 campaign, walking from 30 to 35 miles a week, and was a constant sight on the Penn State campus and around State College.

At that time, Paterno said although he is in the final year of his three-year contract with Penn State, he had no plans to retire after the 2011 season.

"Right now, I'm looking at four-five more years," said Paterno, adding with a shrug: "I may be optimistic; I don't know."