Paterno will remain in Brown HOF

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -- The late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno will stay in Brown University's Athletic Hall of Fame, administrators said Friday.

In a statement, the Board of Directors for the Hall said that despite the conviction of his Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky on child molestation charges, Paterno would not be removed.

The Board met last Thursday to discuss the issue and voted against it.  Paterno was inducted into the Hall of Fame in May of 1978 as a member of the Brown Class of 1950.  He quarterbacked the varsity football team of 1949, and was also recognized for his contributions to college sports.

"In choosing not to remove Paterno from the list of Brown's Hall of Fame athletes, the Board of Directors did not intend to diminish the tragic events that occurred at Penn State toward the end of Coach Paterno's career," the statement read in part.  "It sought, rather, to acknowledge the recognition of the achivements for which it elected Paterno to the Hall of Fame nearly 35 years ago."

Paterno himself was not charged in the scandal, but an independent investigation commissioned by Penn State officials concluded that Paterno knew about the molestation allegations and covered them up to avoid bad publicity.

Paterno coached at Penn State for 46 years and resigned when the scandal broke last fall.  The NCAA imposed harsh penalties on the school after the trial, stripping all of Paterno's wins between 1998 and 2011, fining the school $60 million, banning the football team from postseason play for four years, and reducing scholarships available to the school.  Paterno's statue at Penn State was also taken down.

He died in January at the age of 85.