Penn State is bringing Joe Paterno back into the public eye at Beaver Stadium, and it’s doing it inside the stadium’s All-Sports Museum.
The university announced Tuesday that it will open the new “Paterno Family Football Experience Room” on Thursday morning, a permanent exhibit built in a newly renovated space that will feature “historic artifacts, interactive displays and multimedia storytelling” tied to the history of Nittany Lions football.
The room will include Paterno’s original office desk and workspace, along with personal artifacts and a timeline of his Penn State legacy. But the display won’t stop there. The release also said it will cover interactive football history, trophies and honors, recognition of team captains and Hall of Famers, fan traditions, current coach Matt Campbell, and more.
Athletic director Pat Kraft framed the project as a broader look at the program’s past and future.
“Penn State Football’s history belongs to generations of student-athletes, coaches, staff and supporters who helped build this program,” athletic director Pat Kraft said in a written statement. “This room gives us an opportunity to preserve that history, present it thoughtfully and create an experience that connects the proud tradition of Penn State Football with its future.”
The timing is notable. Penn State took down Paterno’s statue outside Beaver Stadium 14 years ago, and the statue’s location has never been publicly revealed. It has not been publicly seen in those 14 years, but fans will now be able to view a new exhibit honoring his career just a short walk from where it once stood.
The museum will open at 10 a.m. Thursday and stay open until 8 p.m. that night because of the universitywide “ Night at the Museums ” event.
Under normal hours, the museum operates from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.
Sunday, and is closed Mondays, though game weekends can change that schedule.
For Saturday’s home opener against Marshall, the museum is expected to be open from 10 a.m. to noon. It will also be open for game attendees from the second quarter through the third quarter.
The exhibit arrives more than six years after Penn State and the Paterno family said they had resolved their “outstanding issues” in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. The university did not formally exonerate Paterno, who was fired by the board of trustees, but it said it did not agree with many of the opinions in reports and statements such as the Freeh Report, which implied he tried to conceal the Sandusky allegations.
Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive coordinator, was convicted in 2012 of 45 counts of child sexual abuse involving multiple young boys. He was arrested in November 2011, and Paterno was fired within days.
Paterno died in January 2012, and criminal charges were never brought against him.
Since then, Penn State’s relationship with the Paterno name has remained complicated. The school moved quickly in some areas, renaming the on-campus shop Joegie’s and removing the bronze Paterno statue outside the stadium. At the same time, it left other reminders intact, including the name of Pattee and Paterno Library.
In recent years, the university’s stance has appeared to shift. Paterno was formally honored in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of his first game, the Paterno family resolved its issues with the university in 2020, and Sue Paterno was seen in the university president’s gameday suite in 2022.
Now, Penn State is adding a new chapter to that complicated history with a room devoted to Paterno and the broader story of Penn State football.
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