The Fairborn Paper

The entire Penda Sports department, which consists of Bryant and myself, had been media credentialed to cover the two-day event that is looked upon as the unofficial kickoff to the college football season. Bryant, being an aggressive seat-finder, got us the first two seats on the middle aisle, in the second row. That's right. Second row! He said we did not want to look amateur by sitting in the front. The second row was fine with me. We were literally sitting about fifteen feet from the podium where all of the head coaches gave their fifteen minute “meet the press” statements. Of course, the show-stopper was the great, Joe Paterno. Bryant and myself, like most sports fans, have the utmost respect for the legend. We are not even remotely fans of Penn State, but their coach was larger-than-life.

Joe Paterno, Joe Pa as he is affectionately called, had been roaming the sidelines at Penn State since the Truman administration. At the Media Days, he was charismatic, funny, and seemed, quite frankly, a little bothered about the whole process. After all, he was 84 years old at the time, and it seemed to wear on him. He looked spent. However, being the professional that he was, he knew it came with the territory of being the head coach of one of the most recognizable college football programs in the nation.

That was not the first time that I had seen Joe Pa up close and personal. The previous fall, the Nittany Lions had come to Ohio State to play the Buckeyes. I went on the field during warm-ups when then Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel and Joe Pa met for a chat at midfield. Also, the ramp that the visiting team uses leading from their locker room, has much less congestion than the OSU side. So, I was the first to see Penn State come on and off the field. In the post game press conferences, I chose to go to Penn State's, just to see Joe Pa up close. So, I sat on the floor in the front row.

The rumor around college football was that there was a possibility Paterno would retire after that season. So, I wanted every opportunity to get as close to him as possible. Of course, I saved the game day program, in case it was Joe Pa's last Ohio State- Penn State clash. It turns out it was. Ironically, it was also Tressel's.

So, when Bryant and I were walking down the hallway and out pops Paterno with another man quickly escorting him, we watched him walk farther away from us. Bryant and I stood in awestruck silence, like two children watching a deer in the field. We started following the coach, half curious where he was going, and the other half just trying to feast our eyes on the legend for as long as we could. We were now almost directly behind him when the escort started hurriedly leading him up the stairway. Just like that, they stopped, turned around, and came back down, still in an obvious rush.

What would you do in a moment like this? Freeze? Run? Stutter? Cry? Leave him alone? I actually surprised myself  a little bit.

“Coach, can we please get a picture, real quick?” I said to him as I shook his frail, bony hand.  

He grumbled, “Sure, what's this for?”

“I'm Casey Matteson and this is Bryant Billing from the Springfield Paper in Ohio,” I explained, knowing darn well he had no idea what that was and had probably never heard of it.

The rest is history. Bryant snapped the picture, I thanked him and out of respect for the man's time, we did not bother to ask if Bryant could get one with him. In hindsight, we wished we would have tried. However, we thought. There was always next year.

Rest in Peace, Joe Pa. Rest in Peace.