JoePa

40th season as Penn State head coach and 56th year as a member of the PSU coaching staff, Paterno has been on the sideline for 616 Penn State games. His 40 years in Happy Valley rank second only to Amos Alonzo Stagg?s 41 seasons as head coach at the University of Chicago.


The South Florida game will be the 616th game Joe Paterno has coached in since joining the Nittany Lions? staff in 1950.

In his 56th season as a member of the Penn State staff, Paterno followed Rip Engle from
Brown to Penn State after graduating in 1950 and was involved in 155 games as an assistant coach from 1950-65. He was promoted to head coach in 1966.

Paterno has missed just two games in his career. As an assistant coach, he missed the 1955 game at Army when his father, Angelo, died. As head coach in 1977, Joe and Sue Paterno?s son, David, was involved in a serious trampoline accident the day before the Lions? game at Syracuse and Paterno did not attend the contest.

Paterno?s first game on the Penn State staff was Sept. 30, 1950, a 34-14 win vs. Georgetown. The Nittany Lions have earned a 447-164-7 record with Paterno on the staff, with their 73.0 winning percentage fourth-best nationally since 1950.