Joe Paterno Fired, Effective Immediately

Hibrid Nation

Joe Paterno was fired, effective immediately, by the Penn State Board of Trustees:

Penn State trustees fired football coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier amid the growing furor over how the school handled sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach.

The massive shakeup Wednesday night came hours after Paterno announced that he planned to retire at the end of his 46th season.

But the outcry following the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on molestation charges proved too much for the board to ignore.

One key question has been why Paterno and other top school officials didn't go to police in 2002 after being told a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assaulting a boy in a school shower.

Paterno says he should have done more. Spanier has said he was not told the details of the attack.

Jerry Sandusky ran an overnight football camp at Penn State Behrend for six years after Penn State officials prohibited him from bringing youth onto the main campus.

Absolutely the right move.