Pennysylvania: Joe Paterno, a highly successful football coach at a university in the United States, who was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal last year, died on Sunday.
He was 85.
The long-time Pennsylvania State University coach won more games than anyone else in major college football, building his programme on the credo "Success with Honour" - and he found both.
Paterno arrived in State College in 1950, as an assistant to Rip Engle, his former coach at Brown.
Sixteen years later, Paterno was in charge.
The man known as "JoePa" won 409 games and took the Nittany Lions to 37 bowl games and two national championships.
More than 250 of the players he coached went on to the National Football League.
Paterno roamed the sidelines for 46 seasons, his thick-rimmed glasses, windbreaker and jet-black sneakers as familiar as the Nittany Lions' blue and white uniforms.
The reputation he built looked even more impressive because he insisted that on-field success not come at the expense of high graduation rates.
But late in 2011, in the middle of his 46th season, the legend was shattered.
Paterno was engulfed in a child sex abuse scandal when a former trusted assistant, Jerry Sandusky, was accused of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year span, sometimes in the football building.
"I didn't know which way to go ... and rather than get in there and make a mistake," he said in an interview with the Washington Post.
Sandusky, the former assistant coach expected to succeed Paterno before retiring in 1999, was charged with sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years.
Outrage built quickly when the state's top cop said the coach hadn't fulfilled a moral obligation to go to the authorities when a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, told Paterno he saw Sandusky with a young boy in the showers of the football complex in 2002.
Paterno waited a day before alerting school officials and never went to the police.
On the morning of 9 November, Paterno said he would retire following the 2011 season.
He also said he was "absolutely devastated" by the abuse case.
"It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
But the university trustees faced a crisis, and in an emergency meeting that night, they fired Paterno, effective immediately.
Paterno's son Scott said on 18 November 2011 that his father was being treated for lung cancer.
The cancer was diagnosed during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness.
A few weeks after that revelation, Paterno also broke his pelvis after a fall but did not need surgery.
Paterno had been in the hospital since 13 January for observation for what his family had called minor complications from his cancer treatments.
The hospital said Paterno was surrounded by family members, who have requested privacy.
His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled."
To say Paterno is a beloved figure in State College is an understatement.
Fans and team supporters believe his legacy will live on as a positive symbol for Penn State.
He was 85.
The long-time Pennsylvania State University coach won more games than anyone else in major college football, building his programme on the credo "Success with Honour" - and he found both.
Sixteen years later, Paterno was in charge.
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More than 250 of the players he coached went on to the National Football League.
Paterno roamed the sidelines for 46 seasons, his thick-rimmed glasses, windbreaker and jet-black sneakers as familiar as the Nittany Lions' blue and white uniforms.
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But late in 2011, in the middle of his 46th season, the legend was shattered.
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"I didn't know which way to go ... and rather than get in there and make a mistake," he said in an interview with the Washington Post.
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Outrage built quickly when the state's top cop said the coach hadn't fulfilled a moral obligation to go to the authorities when a graduate assistant, Mike McQueary, told Paterno he saw Sandusky with a young boy in the showers of the football complex in 2002.
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On the morning of 9 November, Paterno said he would retire following the 2011 season.
He also said he was "absolutely devastated" by the abuse case.
"It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."
But the university trustees faced a crisis, and in an emergency meeting that night, they fired Paterno, effective immediately.
Paterno's son Scott said on 18 November 2011 that his father was being treated for lung cancer.
The cancer was diagnosed during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness.
A few weeks after that revelation, Paterno also broke his pelvis after a fall but did not need surgery.
Paterno had been in the hospital since 13 January for observation for what his family had called minor complications from his cancer treatments.
The hospital said Paterno was surrounded by family members, who have requested privacy.
His family released a statement Sunday morning to announce his death: "His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled."
To say Paterno is a beloved figure in State College is an understatement.
Fans and team supporters believe his legacy will live on as a positive symbol for Penn State.
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