Published: July 17, 2008 11:35 pm            

Soon-to-be Hall of Famer Paterno has plenty of ties to area

Joe Paterno will be enshrined in the National Football Foundation’s College Hall of Fame on Saturday in South Bend, Ind.

On Thursday, the legendary Penn State coach credited a few players from Cambria, Somerset and Blair counties with helping him get there.

Paterno visited Johnstown as the featured speaker at a $200 a plate fundraiser at the downtown Holiday Inn. Prior to the dinner, Paterno recalled his once-frequent recruiting trips to the region that produced future Nittany Lions stars such as Johnstown natives Jack Ham, Steve Smear and brothers Tom, Jim and Matt Bradley.

“When I was a young coach I used to recruit this area. I went by Sidman when we drove over from State College and I remembered old Adams Township (High School),” Paterno said, while meeting with reporters. “The first kid I ever talked to when I came to Penn State – (assistant coach) Bob Higgins, (head coach) Rip Engle and I came over to see a kid by the name of Tommy Yewcic at Conemaugh. Tommy was a very much sought-after kid.”

Yewcic eventually signed with Michigan State, where he quarterbacked the Spartans to a share of the national title in 1952.

“We met at the American Legion over there (in Conemaugh),” Paterno said. “Mike Yewcic was his older brother. When we walked out of the place, they had a couple offers that we were not ready to talk about. So we said we’d talk about it in the car going back home. Rip says to me, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘Geez, he’s not very big. He’s no bigger than I am. How good can he be?’ I found out a couple years later. They beat us two years in a row when he was playing quarterback at Michigan State.”

Paterno, 81, remembered other area standouts whom either played at Penn State or signed on with a rival. Altoona’s Mike Reid and John Ebersole, Windber’s Ron “Link” Younker and Portage’s Paul Hodge and Bill Beck were mentioned by Paterno.

“One of the best kids I ever, ever have been around is a guy by the name of Link Younker, who played over at Windber,” Paterno said. “All of the Johnstown kids, going back to Vince O’Bara, who was a quarterback and punter for us when Clark Shaffer was at Johnstown. Obviously, Steve Smear, Jack Ham and the Bradley kids over there at McCort. There have been a whole mess of them.

“When we go by Portage, I think of Hodge and Beck, two kids I lost to Pitt. I think of Pete Duranko who went to some little prep school at South Bend,” Paterno said, laughing, of the former Notre Dame All-American from Johnstown Catholic. “It’s been a great area. I took four or five kids out of Beaverdale one year. Can you imagine? Steve Terebus was over at Conemaugh Township. I tried to get Joe Badaczewski, but he went to Michigan State. Michigan State was tough on account of (head coach) Duffy (Daugherty). Duffy was from up there in Barnesboro.”

Paterno certainly has earned his spot in the College Hall of Fame. Entering his 43rd season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, Paterno has 372 career victories, one win fewer than all-time leader Bobby Bowden of Florida State. Under Paterno, Penn State has had two national championships, five undefeated seasons and 21 top-10 finishes.

Consistency? There have been 817 Division I coaching changes since Paterno took the head job at Penn State in 1966. Prior to that he had been an assistant coach for 16 years. He’s been at Happy Valley for 59 seasons overall.

“Rip left me a great football team,” Paterno said of Engle. “We had Reid and Smear. Ham was a guy we were working on. Ebersole, guys like that. I inherited a heck of a football team. I think Rip deliberately got out of it at that time to give me a shot at it.”

Paterno’s age and questions about a potential retirement have become annual fodder in State College. The veteran coach usually brushes aside such talk.

“I feel great,” Paterno said.

“As long as I keep the coaches together – they know each other and they play off of each other – we have a nice situation,” he said of his staff.

        

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