STATE COLLEGE, Pa.?? When Mike McQueary went to Penn State Coach Joe Paterno?s house on the morning of March 2, 2002, he was a graduate assistant ? the lowest rung on the coaching ladder beneath Paterno. Still, McQueary, 28 years old and a football lifer, had aspirations of one day becoming a head coach, maybe even at Penn State.
A former quarterback for Paterno, he had once been a fan attraction for his shock of bright orange hair and his State College roots. Popular and known for an easygoing, collegial manner, he was beginning the baby steps toward his dream job.
Nine years later, what McQueary told Paterno at that meeting ? he had seen a former senior football coach molesting a young boy in the football building?s showers ? has figured prominently in the most ignominious episode in university history.
On Wednesday night, Paterno, who had hoped to remain as coach for the final three games of the season, was fired. Graham B. Spanier, the highly regarded and long-serving president of Penn State, was removed. Penn State?s athletic director has already been charged by the authorities. The campus is in turmoil. And there is a football game Saturday that could determine the team?s season.
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In an ugly episode that has torn at the soul of a proud university, set off criminal investigations and ended the career of one of the sport?s most accomplished and revered coaches, McQueary has occupied among the strangest of positions: he could be the star witness in the coming criminal cases against senior officials at the university; he has become the target for widespread criticism for not having acted more decisively himself nine years ago; and he could well be on the sideline Saturday for the game against Nebraska, helping execute a game plan devised by the coach he once dreamed he might succeed. A Penn State victory would leave it in position to reach a major bowl game.
Jerry Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator under Paterno, has been charged with sexually abusing eight young boys over a 15-year-period. According to findings laid out by state investigators, only two Penn State employees were known to have witnessed Sandusky committing a sex crime: a janitor, who now has dementia and is not competent to testify, and McQueary.
?It?s not that he?s not willing,? John J. McQueary, his father, said about his son?s public silence. ?I think it?s eating him up not to be able to tell his side, but he?s under investigation by the grand jury. He?ll make it. He?s a tough kid.?
McQueary?s parents, John and Anne, moved the family to State College when Mike was 6 and immediately bought season tickets for Nittany Lions football games. A former medical corpsman with the Navy?s special warfare operations, John became a physician assistant, and later, the chief operating officer of a large medical and surgical group in State College. He was also a renowned coach in the State College area himself in youth sports.
When Mike turned 13, his father talked the Penn State quarterback, John Shaffer, into coming by Mike?s birthday party to throw a football with him. As a gift, Shaffer threw Mike a new football as he left the party.
Tom Cestone, who lives on the cul-de-sac where the McQuearys raised their family, said his principal recollection of Mike was that he was always playing football in the yard. ?He was a fiery kid,? Cestone said.
Video: Penn State fires Paterno, school president (on this page)Another neighbor, 87-year-old Virginia Walker, said she also recalled Mike playing football with friends. ?He comes from a close family, a nice family,? she said. ?He?s a real decent kid, and he?s always been somewhat of a leader.?
In high school, McQueary was a star, and as a senior he led the State College Area High football team to a 13-1 record.
?He set high standards for himself and he was stellar in his attitude, his principles and his goals,? said Ron Pavlechko, who was the State College Area football coach for 19 years and later became the school?s athletic director.
McQueary?s final high school game was a loss in the state Class AAAA semifinal, the only game Paterno saw McQueary play in high school. Years later, McQueary said he thought he won Paterno?s support for a football scholarship in that hard-fought defeat.
?I think that was the game where he said, ?This kid?s all right, at least he?s tough,? ? McQueary said of Paterno in an interview with The Philadelphia Daily News in 1997.
Pavlechko, who played football at Penn State, said he thought McQueary stayed home for other reasons. ?Around here, a lot of kids look at Penn State as the epitome of their goals,? Pavlechko said.
For four years at Penn State, McQueary was known only as the big redheaded kid who held a clipboard on the sideline. He redshirted his freshman year, then played behind Kerry Collins for a year and Wally Richardson for two. He remained a positive influence, teammates said, despite the lack of playing time. Each Thanksgiving, he invited teammates who could not go home to his family?s house. Football players are hefty eaters, and John and Anne McQueary?s home became known for its mammoth annual feast.
McQueary finally got his chance to start as a senior in 1997, with Penn State opening the season ranked No. 1. He set a team record for passing yards in his first game, and Penn State won its first seven games. The Nittany Lions stumbled to a 9-3 final record, although McQueary?s final home game was a 35-10 win in which he threw three touchdown passes.
?If I could have dreamt it, it couldn?t have been better,? McQueary said after the game.
Undrafted by the N.F.L., he kicked around pro training camps without landing a roster spot until, in 1999, he returned to Penn State to help with recruiting. Working toward a master?s degree in education administration, he joined the coaching staff the next season as a graduate assistant.
But on Friday, March 1, 2002, in an episode that those close to McQueary say left him shocked and confused ? and that would return to haunt his life and the fortunes of his university years later ? he entered the locker room in Penn State?s Lasch Football Building at about 9:30 p.m. to put a new pair of shoes in his locker and pick up some recruiting tapes, according to the report of the grand jury that investigated the allegations involving Sandusky. Coaches commonly keep late hours but not so much in the off-season months, like March. Besides, the lights were not on in the offices, but toward the locker room. That is not usual. And a shower was running.
According to the report, McQueary heard ?rhythmic, slapping sounds,? which he believed to be those of sexual activity. He walked to his locker, opened it and put his sneakers inside. He then turned his head and looked into the shower.
He has said under oath that he saw Sandusky raping what appeared to be a 10-year-old boy. He immediately left, met with his father and determined he would report the incident to Paterno, according to prosecutors. A person familiar with his account said McQueary did not spare the details when he met with Paterno. Nor did he when he met with the university?s athletic director and another senior administrator, the man in charge of Penn State?s campus police.
Weeks later, according to state prosecutors, those officials told McQueary that Sandusky had been barred from bringing children onto campus.
To date, it is unclear whether McQueary was satisfied or outraged. But there is no evidence that he did anything else to see Sandusky more meaningfully investigated or punished.
What he did do was continue his climb up the ranks of Paterno?s coaching staff.
By 2004, he was named the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator in a staff shakeup after a dreadful 3-9 season. He replaced Jay Paterno, Joe?s son, as recruiting coordinator, and when the 2005 team went 11-1, a boost in the program?s recruited talent was lauded for the turnaround.
Over time, still so visible on the sideline because of his red hair, McQueary came to be known as the coach Paterno yelled at when things went wrong. He was often at Paterno?s side, relaying plays called from the coaches? box upstairs to the quarterback on the field.
?Everyone wants to know what Coach is saying to me when he?s yelling at me,? McQueary, who is married with a young daughter, told a Pennsylvania newspaper in August. ?It?s really everything under the sun. It?s something different every time. Coach has a knack for saying things or thinking about things during the course of a game that some of us aren?t thinking about. It?s like anything you do in life. If you?re not emotional, animated or intense about it, then why do it??
At about that time, in an interview with The New York Times Magazine, McQueary said he dreamed of one day coaching the Nittany Lions, then added, ?But Joe will probably outlive me.?
In the last few months, after injuries to Paterno, who is 84, relegated him to watch games from the coaches? box, he chose to communicate with one coach on the sideline via a headset: McQueary, his long-time-ago graduate assistant.
Lynn Zinser contributed reporting from New York.
This article, "An Aspiring Coach in the Middle of a Scandal," first appeared in The New York Times.
Copyright ? 2011 The New York Times
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45243509/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/
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