when i “met” joe after the ‘05 football’s eve. we were walking down Curtain Road, and 2.5s on bikes came through, making way for this beat up S10. It zooms by and there’s Joe in the passenger seat. i hauled ass up to the truck (whilst moving) and shook Joe’s hand and said good luck. i still haven’t washed my hand.

thats pretty cool he came to your office, and its a great experience to meet a man with such zest for life and his occupation

It’s actually the third time I’ve met him. Once I actually went to his house after a Michigan State game. He used to entertain after day home games and through my dads work (same company) we got to go over there. I was pretty young at the time and I remember being absolutely star struck with all of the memorabilia around and such. We got to really talk to him that time. He’s such a great man.

This has potential to be a pretty cool thread.

him per se. But when I attended Penn State Football camp in High School I sat in the front row for his talk to the camp. He walked in like 2 feet from me and had his hands in his pockets and just smiled and nodded at me. Not a trace of arrogance in his auroa. Jerry Sandusky was my Hall Advisor for camp. He was pretty nice.

My fiance was walking toward the Lion Shrine with her family on a snowy State Colege day when JoePa pulls up, rolls down the window and asks why they are walking around in the snow and be careful not to catch a cold.

Classic JoePa

I was stuck in State College in the summer of ‘06, working at the Office of Physical Plant in the engineering department as an intern while trying to wrap up the two 1.5 credit classes I needed to graduate. With not much to do since all my friends had already graduated and/or moved back home for the summer, I usually did the alcoholic thing and got drunk by myself in my apartment that had no AC.

One Saturday I headed up North Atherton to the liquor store across from Wal-Mart to reload my supplies. With my hands full of rum and vodka bottles, I headed for the checkout. The ding of the bell on the door made me instinctively shoot a glance at who had just walked in. I did a double-take, and pulled a “stupid face” as JoePa met my gaze and walked right past me to the wine section. I didn’t manage a ‘hello’ or any other words because it all happened so fast and because it was just so…bizarre. Like seeing Sasquatch at the HUB. I’d seen him from way up in the stands and on TV, I just never thought I’d see the old guy in the liquor store at 1 in the afternoon of a shitty summer Saturday.

It really just made me feel like my college career at PSU was complete. I only wish I could’ve shaken out of my stupor and asked him to kindly fire his son.

my wife and i were driving down Bigler in our SUV minding our own business when Joe knocked on our car window and subsequently berrated my wife….

jk

After the basketball team lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament (in the early 1990’s, it was the first trip in like 50 years, they beat UCLA in the first round, the Freddie Barnes, Ed Fogel team) my Dad and I met the team at the State College Airport late on a Saturday night. My Dad knew Bruce Parkhill pretty well, and while Coach Parkhill was talking to us Coach Paterno interrupted the conversation to say hello and congratulations.

The second time, in 1994, he came through my express line at the Giant Supermarket. He signed his receipt and gave it me, I still have it.

My JoePa experience was thanks to a Buckeye fan. I grew up in Ohio with my parents being big Ohio State fans. I got to go on a lot of road trips with the Buckeye boosters when I was younger and one happened to be an Penn State game. I was the only Penn State fan on three busloads of people so I got to meet a lot of people wondering how a kid could become a Penn State fan in the middle of all buckeyes.

Well one of the guys I met happened to be an ex-PSU player from Columbus who wanted to play for OSU but didn’t get a chance so had to “settle” for PSU (I told him it was the best thing that ever happened to him I think he might of agreed). Well we talked for a while at dinner one night of the trip and he ended up asking my what day my birthday was on. I never knew why but the next time my birthday came around I got 2 cards in the mail. One signed by the former player wishing me a happy birthday and another one that was Penn State themed and signed by JoePa himself. It still is one of my prized possessions and that was a good 12 or 13 years ago.

BTW Penn State won the football game and I got to boast the entire way back to Ohio. Great trip!

My senior year, I used to do a lot of mountain biking – go through the woods at the end of McKee Street to a trail which ran to Toftree’s, the deer pens, and beyond. The Paternos live in the last house on McKee St and rumor had it that Joe used to walk in the woods at Sunset Park. One fall day after a football win, I actually ran into Joe (not literally, b/c I’m not a TE) on the trail. I didn’t know what to say, so I mumbled something like “Great game, coach” and he said “Thanks” and we went on our own ways, me stoked beyond belief (him, probably not so much). I rode those trails alot since then, but never spotted him again.

The first time i met Joe was this years game against Ohio State. I’m a student and braved the 4 days, camping out, sleeping in the rain and throwing a football around probably 8 hours out of the day. on Friday it was a nice sunny day and i was sitting at my tent studying when i looked over my left shoulder and there was Joe, standing there with a box of pizza and walking around the tents with 2 other kids. When i saw this i told my buddy that Joe was here and he said “shut the hell up!” So i threw my shoes on and went over and introduced myself to him and told him how much of a fan i am and yadda yadda. He said thank you and asked me how i was doing in school and well the rest is actually a blur. I was in the military for 6 years and have met a lot of high profile people, but something about meeting Joe Paterno makes me nervous as hell. I’m also working on a Penn State tattoo and have a large tattoo already and i’m trying to get Joe to sign my arm so i can get it tattooed on me. When i rolled up my arm and asked Joe to sign it he said in his screechy voice… “no no no, if i sign your arm, then i have to sign everyones arm” well after that i said thanks for coming out and visiting us and he was swarmed by the media. There was another time where i and a friend went trick or treating to his house and i was dressed like him but thats another long story that i’m not sure people would be interested in hearing haha WE ARE!!! PENN STATE!!!

These are soo cool. I’ve never met him, and am really jealous. Thanks everybody for sharing.

I recommend we all recommend this post so it stays on the front page. This could be neat to see people add to.

i was eleven years old and wanted Joe’s autograph worse than anything…but of course pops wasn’t going to spring for that…ebay wasn’t around in 1993. so he told me to write a letter to joe. so i wrote down on loose leaf paper (man i thought i’d never have to say those two words again) that im a huge fan, dad went there, season ticket holder, first game i was 3 weeks old, yadda yadda yadda. i included a small wallet sized picture with the letter and sent it off to State College in hopes of Joe reading my 11 year old, page long scribble.

Well, he did, and he sent back my letter (not the picture tho) and on my letter he wrote “thank you for you and your family’s interest in Penn State and our football program”. He also included an 8 X 10 photo of him on the field at the Beav with his autograph.

i still have the letter, which is behind the framed autograph picture. That experience, along with the undefeated season, just months later, solidified me as a lifelong Penn State Football fan.

Man, we should’ve had an undisputed title that year…

I’ve only got 2 JoePa stories and neither are as cool as the ones shared here but: In ZMill’s senior year I went to the Blue & White game and hung out at the tailgate of one of the player’s families. The player knew that I was looking for some autographs for my son so he asked me if I had something to sign. I gave him a shirt that I bought for my son and he took it. Later on in the day he came back with it and it was signed by a bunch of the players including Poz, Mills, Tamba, and the like. At the very bottom the biggest signature of all just like John Hancock was Joe Paterno. My son and I were pretty excited!

The other situation occurred after the 2005 OSU game. I was walking down the street after the game with the rest of the crowd and all of a sudden a blue Jeep Liberty pulls up behind us trying to get by. After looking in the window I realized Joe was in the backseat. Pretty cool.

to meet JoePa. This may make my story quite lame. In the mid 90’s, I was ill. A college friend was going to a fundraising banquet and asked if he could have something to get signed for me. I gave him the only program I had available. I expected he was going to have a couple of players sign it. I got auto’s from Kijana Carter, Kerry Collins, Kyle Brady and a few others. My friend only showed me a couple of the signatures.

After recovering from being sick, I was leafing through the program. I got to a large photo of Joe that had his autograph. Just like mentioned in previous posts, It was as large as John Hancock’s with a get well salutation. I was impressed that as many times he is asked for autographs, he took the time to personalize it in some way.

It is actually the pic on my avatar, for THON. And he donated the original to THON to auction off and he had two prints of it made. My brother has one and I have one, and Joe signed all three items and so I now have a three by two and a half painting of Joes shoes autographed.

Also my best friends dad nearly ran him over in his truck one day on Atherton, Joe was walking along and my buddies dad skidded on the icy roads…It would have been VERY BAD. Bartman bad for my buddies dad.

From 1999-2002, I was stationed in SEC country. All day, every day was “Auburn-Alabama, Auburn-Alabama.” When I wanted to go to a sports bar to watch PSU play, they would always put me in a corner with the smallest TV in the place.

When it came time to leave in October of 2002 (we were heading overseas), a friend of mine organized a going away luncheon. So, we all met at the golf course, and he gets up to say a couple of words…oh, and he is a huge Tennessee fan.

He proceeds to tell me that he had called the sports info department at Penn State and said that he knew of a dedicated Blue and White supporter who had suffered 3 years in Alabama and was on his way to Turkey—where watching PSU football would be difficult. He wondered if he could get JoePa to sign something. Well, he was told by the department that Joe never signed anything during the football season.

On the morning of the lunch, a box showed up at his door. It contained a signed photo of Joe. Best gift ever.

Also met Joe in 1993 when our ROTC detachment was doing fundraising at the stadium for Hurricane Andrew relief…