It didn’t take long for one lifelong Penn State fan to try and fill the space — literally and figuratively — left by the statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium following its removal on Sunday.
Vincent Tedesco, a 1964 graduate of Penn State and State College resident, caught word of the statue’s removal on Sunday morning. The announcement spurred Tedesco to drive to the stadium and sit in a lawn chair nearby with a life-size cardboard cutout of Paterno.
“We are going to try to make this permanent,” Tedesco, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a candidate for PSU’s board of trustees, told the Centre Daily Times. “I’m going to be out here as long as I can be out here. I’m hoping to get enough people interested that we start pulling shifts. Right now, it’s just peaceful protest.”
The Monday Centre Daily Times story for which Tedesco was interviewed quoted others who still support Paterno and/or expressed disappointment for the school removing the statue so hastily and in relative secrecy.
We respect Tedesco’s right to his own opinion but we don’t see how sitting outside Beaver Stadium in a lawn chair with a cardboard cutout accomplishes anything.
Photo via Centre Daily Times
