Crews Tear Down Wall That Was Behind Joe Paterno Statue

A day after the NCAA announced sanctions against Penn State, the wall that stood behind Joe Paterno’s statue was demolished.

A day after the NCAA announced sanctions against Penn State, the wall that stood behind Joe Paterno’s statue was demolished.

Construction workers took down the wall, a backdrop which memorialized the school’s winning years of football.

“It seems like it’s symbolic of moving past a phase of the university that had some negative impact,” said Penn State student Brad Carlson.

On Monday the NCAA stunned many on campus with a $60 million sanction, a ban on post season games for four years and erasing the record of winning games since 1998 in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. One parent visiting the campus with his daughter believes time will change the record.

“I imagine in a few years maybe the things that JoePa has done will come back to the surface and he’ll get his wins back when people come to their senses,” said the man.

While NBC10 spoke to one visibly emotional alum who took pictures as the wall came down, most of the students we spoke to this morning talked about moving forward.

“We were talking about what we should do about it and what they should do to replace it,” said Penn State student Peter Robinson. “A lot of people are saying we should either replace it with some kind of knoll or replace it with something more indicative of our university like a lion statue.”
 

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