Big Ten strips Paterno name off league champion trophy
REUTERS
Reuters US Online Report Domestic News
Nov 14, 2011 14:49 EST
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Big Ten stripped legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno’s name on Monday from the conference championship trophy in fallout from a scandal over alleged child sex abuse involving an assistant coach.
“We believe that it would be inappropriate to keep Joe Paterno’s name on the trophy at this time,” Commissioner Jim Delany said in a statement. “The trophy and its namesake are intended to be celebratory and aspirational, not controversial.”
The conference said the decision was made “in light of the series of events” including the grand jury indictments and ongoing investigations by the grand jury and U.S. Education Department as well as Paterno’s firing.
Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually abusing eight young boys over a 15-year period, including several incidents on campus. Paterno and the Penn State president were fired on Wednesday.
Paterno, 84, said he was informed of an incident involving Sandusky in 2002 and passed the information up the chain of command to the university’s athletic director. But he did not call the police.
The trophy to be awarded at the conference’s first football championship game on December 3 had been named for Paterno and Amos Alonzo Stagg, who built the University of Chicago into a football powerhouse from the 1890s to the 1930s.
The trophy now will be named the Stagg Championship Trophy, the Big Ten said. The University of Chicago was a founding member of the Big Ten.
(Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Source: Reuters US Online Report Domestic News
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