First published 2012
Joe Posnanski chronicles the final years of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, the most successful leader in college football history. The author gained complete access to Paterno, his family, and his private papers during the coach's last two years alive. Posnanski witnessed the national scandal that destroyed Paterno's career and led to his firing from Penn State. The book follows Paterno through this crisis and his subsequent death from lung cancer just three months later. Written with full cooperation from the Paterno family, this biography captures both the coach's legendary career and his controversial final chapter. Posnanski, named America's best sportswriter in 2012, provides an intimate portrait of a complex figure whose life ended in tragedy after decades of triumph on the football field.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, biography-memoir, 21st-century, football, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: tragedy
Setting: Penn State
Period: 2010s
402 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster