IZZO REMEMBERS PATERNO: The first time Izzo went to a Big Ten meeting as MSU’s coach, Joe Paterno helped him.
“He really took me under his wing,” Izzo said. “He knew I loved football. He also knew I was Italian.”
Izzo said he was saddened Sunday when he heard the former Penn State football coach had died of complications from lung cancer. Paterno was fired in November, amid a child sex-abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
Izzo said he loved Paterno and that the two talked occasionally. Paterno would come watch MSU play when the Spar-tans visited State College, Pa. And he called Izzo when he made the Final Four.
“Can’t say I had a great relationship with him … but (we were) in Chicago a couple times together, and he’d take you out to eat,” Izzo said. “I could listen to stories until 4 in the morning. Some of them were about guys that I idolized that I thought were a lot older than him.”
Izzo said he knew the past few months were tumultuous for Paterno and his family.
“I sure hope we admire and respect him for his body of work, because what he did for so many coaches … I don’t know a coach that didn’t like him. That’s impossible.
“I don’t know if we will ever know what went on, but Joe Paterno, it almost seemed like he was the one involved in it, and he wasn’t. But I know this, if I had a son that could play for a guy … (or if) I could work for a guy … he would definitely be at the top of that list.”
article excerpt from Detroit Free Press writer Shawn Windsor
