Penn State to open ‘Paterno Family Football Experience Room’ in Beaver Stadium museum

Fourteen years after taking down Joe Paterno’s statue outside Beaver Stadium, Penn State is poised later this week to open a Paterno exhibit inside the stadium’s all-sports museum.

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According to a surprise news release Tuesday from Penn State Athletics, PSU’s All-Sports Museum — inside the football stadium — will publicly unveil its new “Paterno Family Football Experience Room” on Thursday morning. The permanent experience will be housed in a newly renovated room that will include “historic artifacts, interactive displays and multimedia storytelling” on the history of Nittany Lions football.

The room will also include Paterno’s original office desk and workspace, personal artifacts and a timeline documenting his Penn State legacy.

Although the room is named after the Paterno family, at least partly due to an anonymous donor who made a significant-but-undisclosed contribution toward it, the room will not be limited to JoePa. The news release also made mention of interactive football history, trophies and honors, recognition of the program’s team captains and Hall of Famers, fan traditions, current coach Matt Campbell, and more.

“Penn State Football’s history belongs to generations of student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters who helped build this program,” athletic director Pat Kraft said in a written statement. “This room gives us an opportunity to preserve that history, present it thoughtfully and create an experience that connects the proud tradition of Penn State Football with its future.”

The room will publicly open at 10 a.m. Thursday, and it will remain open until 8 p.m. that day — later than usual due to the universitywide “Night at the Museums” event, where on-campus museums embrace extended hours. Typically, the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m. Sunday and closed Mondays. Hours can vary on game weekends.

For Saturday’s home opener vs. Marshall, the museum is expected to be open from 10 a.m. to noon. And, for those attending the game, it will also be open from the second quarter through the third quarter.

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The sudden announcement comes more than six years after the university and Paterno family publicly resolved their “outstanding issues” in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The university did not formally exonerate Paterno — whom the board of trustees unceremoniously fired — but acknowledged it does not share many of the opinions from reports and statements such as the Freeh Report, which implied Paterno tried to conceal the Sandusky allegations.

Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator at Penn State, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse involving multiple young boys. He was arrested in November 2011 and, within days, Paterno was fired.

Paterno died in January 2012. Criminal charges were never brought against him.

Penn State has had a complicated relationship with the Paternos ever since. The university immediately sought to distance itself in some ways, such as renaming the on-campus shop called Joegie’s and taking down the bronze Paterno statue outside the stadium. But it also refused to completely erase him, too, choosing to keep the name of the Pattee and Paterno Library.

The university and athletic department’s stance toward Paterno has appeared to soften over the years. Paterno was formally honored in 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his first game, the Paterno family publicly resolved its issues with the university in 2020, and Joe Paterno’s widow Sue was seen in the university president’s gameday suite in 2022.

Still, the location of the 900-pound statue has never been publicly revealed. And it hasn’t been publicly seen in 14 years.

But soon, a short walk from its old location will give Penn State fans a deeper look at Paterno’s career — at his exhibit within Beaver Stadium at Penn State’s All-Sports Museum.

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