Paterno began life as a child of the Depression. He nearly had to leave high school because the tuition of $20 a month was such a burden for his family. In 1944, Paterno graduated from Brooklyn Prep and headed to Brown University to study and play football. There, he was a capable but unspectacular quarterback and also played cornerback. He currently still shares, along with Greg Parker, the Brown University record for career interceptions with 14.[1] It was at Brown that he honed his skills as a leader, allowing him to go into coaching after graduation in 1950, joining Hall of Famer Rip Engle at Penn State as an assistant coach. Paterno thought his stint as an assistant coach would be brief, before going to law school. He never went to law school and instead became one of the most famous and recognizable coaches of any sport in the United States.

Upon Engle's retirement in 1965, Paterno was named coach of the Nittany Lions for the 1966 season. That year his team went 5-5, but the following season he led the Lions to 8 wins and an appearance in the Gator Bowl. Two years later, in 1968, Paterno had his first undefeated season, and repeated that achievement in 1969. From 1973 to 1983, Penn State went to a bowl game every year. With a victory in the 1995 Rose Bowl, Paterno became the first coach ever to win all four current major bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta; Paterno has also won the Cotton Bowl which was previously in this category).

Although the 1968, 1969 and 1973 teams went undefeated, it was not until 1978 that Paterno would coach in his first national championship game. The 1978 Nittany Lions cruised through the 1978 regular season at 11-0, but lost to Bear Bryant's University of Alabama team 14-7 in the Sugar Bowl. In that game, the Crimson Tide stuffed 4 runs by Mike Guman up the middle at the goal line, in one of the most famous goal-line stands in college football history. Penn State's unimaginative goal-line play calling garnered much criticism. Paterno has said that he always has regretted the play calling. In his autobiography, Paterno recalled how he personally felt a desire to pass for the touchdown, but he instead listened to other coaches, who felt that, if the Lions couldn't run for the yard in four downs, they didn't deserve the national championship.

Paterno claimed his first national championship in 1982, with a 27-23 Sugar Bowl victory over a Georgia team led by Heisman Trophy winning running back Herschel Walker. Although Paterno has a reputation as a run-oriented coach, his 1982 team, led by future first-round draft picks quarterback Todd Blackledge, running back Curt Warner and wide receiver Kenny Jackson, was the first team to win a national championship with more passing yards than rushing yards over the course of a season. The only loss during the 1982 campaign was again to the University of Alabama. The following season, a struggling Penn State team staged a major upset in Beaver Stadium on national television by beating the number 3 ranked Crimson Tide, but only after Bryant had retired.

Paterno's Lions went 11-0 during the 1985 campaign and played for the national championship that season in the 1986 Orange Bowl against Barry Switzer's Oklahoma Sooners. Penn State took the opening kickoff and marched down the field to take a 7-0 lead against the vaunted Sooner defense. But thereafter the Lions' offense could do virtually nothing, turning the ball over again and again. The Lions' defense, led by All-American linebacker Shane Conlin, played valiantly but could not hold up against the Sooner wishbone, as OU won 25-10 and won the national championship.
Statue of Joe Paterno near Beaver Stadium.

In December of 1986, Paterno was named by Sports Illustrated as their "Sportsman of the Year". He was the first college coach to be so honored. His team subsequently went on to win a national championship that season by defeating the University of Miami (Florida) in the Fiesta Bowl by a score of 14-10.

Penn State football has the plainest and, at the same time, one of the most easily recognized uniforms in American sports, and this is not by accident. Paterno does not like flashiness and does not believe in putting players' names on their jerseys (in recent years, the "no name" jersey has made a modest comeback at some schools)--his philosophy is to emphasize the team over individual players. Consequently, Paterno does not permit school-sponsored Heisman marketing campaigns, which became common place during the 1990s, especially among non-traditional football power schools with a Heisman candidate. Some people believe that Penn State's failure to hype and promote Larry Johnson, Jr.'s Heisman campaign in 2002 had more to do with Johnson's failure to take home the Heisman Trophy than any media bias against Penn State.