Legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, fired in November after 46 years as head coach in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving an assistant, died on Sunday, the family said in a statement. Paterno, 85, disclosed on November 18 that he had treatable lung cancer. He has been in and out of the hospital since then for treatment with radiation and chemotherapy, and after he fell at home in December and broke his pelvis.
University trustees ousted Paterno, the winningest coach in major college football history, for failing to tell police what had been passed on to him about a sex abuse allegation against assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.