Report: Paterno will lose coaching job

STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Joe Paterno, who has faced growing criticism over the Penn State sexual abuse scandal, will lose the football coaching job, sources told The New York Times.

The sources, two people who had been briefed on conversations among top university officials, told the Times the Penn State board of trustees had yet to work out the exact timing of his departure but that Paterno would not be back to coach next season, ending a 46-year tenure.

The sources said discussions about how to manage the coach's departure were under way.

Paterno, 84, abruptly canceled a scheduled news conference Tuesday during which he would have faced public questions for the first time on why he didn't report to police an allegation of child sexual abuse by an assistant football coach.

The university said the cancellation was due to the "ongoing legal circumstances centered around the recent allegations and charges" and would not be rescheduled, ABC News reported.

Student groups, local newspapers and fans have called for the resignations of Paterno, who had more victories than any Division 1 coach and led the team to two national championships, and university President Graham Spanier, who also did not report the allegation to police.

In 2002, graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary allegedly saw assistant coach Gerald "Gerry" Sandusky in the showers of the football team's locker rooms sexually assaulting a boy about 10 years old. McQueary told Paterno of the incident, but the coach did not tell police and instead reported it to his boss, Athletic Director Tim Curley, then did not mention it again, a grand jury presentment said.

Paterno said in a statement Sunday he did what he "was supposed to do" by reporting the incident to Curley.

Curley and his supervisor, university Vice President Gary Schultz, were charged with not reporting the 2002 incident, as required by the state's Child Protective Services Law, and later providing false information to a grand jury, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Curley, 57, and Schultz, 62, were released Monday after an arraignment hearing. Their attorneys said they were not guilty.

Sandusky, 67, is charged with sexually assaulting at least eight boys who participated in The Second Mile, a youth organization he founded, from 1994, when he was still coaching at Penn State, through 2008 after he had retired but still used the school's facilities.

ABC News said Curley and his supervisor told Spanier Sandusky had been seen acting inappropriately with a boy in the showers and they restricted his access to campus grounds. Spanier reportedly approved, but did not contact police.

Neither state Attorney General Linda Kelly nor state police Commissioner Frank Noonan would say whether Spanier could be charged, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

"I wouldn't comment on that," Noonan said when asked whether Spanier is a target.

Noonan said he doesn't think he's "ever been associated with a case with this type of eyewitness identification of sex acts taking place where the police weren't called."

Kelly urged other possible victims of sexual assault to come forward.

"I don't think it would be beyond the realm of possibility that there are other victims that exist" she said.

Curley's lawyer, Caroline Roberto, said he "reported what he knew up the chain of command," to Spanier and to the non-profit youth group's director.

"It's unconscionable that the attorney general would level such a weak case against a man of integrity like Tim Curley," Roberto said.

Schultz's attorney, Thomas Farrell, also criticized the attorney general, saying the child-endangerment law doesn't apply in the case and noted Schultz reported the shower incident to superiors.

"He did exactly what Mr. McQueary and Mr. Paterno did," Farrell said.