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Topic: Joe Paterno

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Joseph Vincent "Joe" Paterno (born December 21, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York) is a college football coach, and is currently the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions, a position he has held since 1966. Paterno, nicknamed "JoePa", holds the record for the most victories by an FBS football coach, has coached more bowl game wins than any other coach in college football history and is the first FBS coach to reach 400 victories. Paterno is one of three active coaches inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as coaches (along with Chris Ault and John Gagliardi).

In 1944, Paterno graduated from the now defunct Brooklyn Preparatory School. He attended Brown University; his tuition was paid for by Busy Arnold. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Upsilon chapter). He played quarterback and cornerback, and currently shares, with Greg Parker, the career record for interceptions at 14. Paterno graduated with the Brown University Class of 1950. Although his father asked "For God's sake, what did you go to college for?" after hearing of his career choice, Paterno joined his college coach Rip Engle as an assistant coach at Penn State in 1950; Engle had coached five seasons, 1944–1949, at Brown.

Paterno is in his 61st season on the Penn State coaching staff as of 2010, holding the record for most seasons for any football coach at any university. The 2009 season was Paterno’s 44th as head coach of the Nittany Lions, passing Amos Alonzo Stagg for the most years as head coach at a single institution in Division 1. Paterno has been on Penn State's coaching staff for 691 of their 1,222 games, 56.5% of all games played by the program dating back to its inception in 1887.

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It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joe Paterno."