(Reuters) – Penn State students and supporters laid flowers and lit candles on Monday as they mourned the death of Joe Paterno, who won more games than any other U.S. major college football coach but saw his legacy tarnished by a child sexual abuse scandal at the school.
Paterno, 85, died of lung cancer on Sunday, two months after being fired after a former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was charged with serial child sex abuse. University trustees filed Paterno because he failed to tell police what he had been told about the alleged abuse.
“You have no choice. You have to get through it,” Penn State senior Steve Atz, 21, said. He had a friend shave the initials “JP” on the back of his head.
Mourners placed hundreds of flower arrangements and lit candles at a bronze statue of Paterno outside the football stadium.
President Barack Obama reached out to Paterno’s widow, Sue, and his son Jay, to offer his condolences. During the conversation, Obama “recalled fond memories of when he first met Paterno,” the White House said in a statement.
Public viewings were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with a private family funeral service set for Wednesday afternoon.
A public memorial service was scheduled for Thursday afternoon at a concert hall on campus.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett ordered flags flown at half staff at state facilities, and Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Sam Smith, a Penn State graduate, asked for a moment of silence at the state House of Representatives.
Paterno won a record 409 games over 46 years with a motto of “Success With Honor,” earning him adoration from fans of the successful and profitable program. Many supporters assailed the university board of trustees for firing him in November.
But critics faulted Paterno for his relative inaction on hearing an accusation that Sandusky sexually abused a young boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002.
Sandusky, 67, who has maintained his innocence, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his purported victims. The court placed him under house arrest.
“You can’t let one person define us,” Lauren Hottowe, 20, a junior, said of Sandusky.
(Additional reporting by Mark Shade; Editing by Daniel Trotta, Paul Thomasch and Peter Cooney)