Paterno's trips to the Lowcountry made impression
The day Joe Paterno came to St. John's High School ... well now, that was a big deal.
Paterno, Penn State's iconic football coach, traveled to Johns Island to recruit Ivory Gethers, a 6-4, 220-pound linebacker who could run 40 yards in 4.3 seconds. Gethers had written a letter to Paterno to express his interest in attending "Linebacker U," as Penn State was known.
On the big day, the public-address system at St. John's crackled with updates of Paterno's progress. "Coach Paterno has landed at the airport." Then, "Coach Paterno is in the car and on the way." And finally, "Coach Paterno is on the campus."
Gethers, now 41, remembers it well.
"It was an exciting day," said Gethers, who played at Penn State from 1989-92. "Joe was such a very humble man. It was intimidating for me, but I was so impressed. When you have a living legend come to your school and want to recruit you, it's quite an honor.
"We barely talked about football. He said there was one thing he could guarantee, that I would get an education and that I would graduate."
Paterno's visit to Johns Island opened up a pipeline of sorts between the Lowcountry and Penn State. College football's winningest coach, who died last weekend at age 85, went on to recruit six more players from Lowcountry schools, including All-America defensive end Courtney Brown of the former Macedonia High, who went on to become the No. 1 pick in the 2000 NFL draft.
Paterno's trips to the Lowcountry -- he spoke at the Palmetto Touchdown Club in 1996, when Brown was a high school senior -- left a lasting impression on those he met.
And the way his 46 years at Penn State ended -- Paterno was fired last Nov. 9 in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal, and died 74 days later of complications from lung cancer -- left an overarching sense of sadness among those he encountered.
"It's very sad," said Rodney Kinlaw, a former Stratford High School star who played running back for Penn State in 2006-07. "Coach always taught us to be loyal, and he was loyal to the university. I wish the university had been the same way to him when it came down to it."
Kinlaw, a nephew of Courtney Brown, already knew Paterno when the coach visited Stratford High nine years ago to recruit him and talk with Knights coach Ray Stackley.
"We had Bobby Bowden recruit one of our players a few years before, and Joe and Bobby were so much alike," Stackley said, referring to the former Florida State coach. "They didn't have an aura about them, but they were both icons and both so gentlemanly and easy to talk to."
Paterno, then 76, had taken a fall at the airport that day and scraped his hand and knee. But Stackley said he refused any help.
"He was a tough old codger," Stackley said. "We asked him, 'Coach, do you need something?' He wouldn't have any of it."
A couple of years later, Paterno was back in the Lowcountry at Fort Dorchester High to sign quarterback Paul Cianciolo. Cianciolo's older brother, Joe, was a linebacker and transferred from Air Force to Penn State.
"Coach Paterno was the first big-time coach to come in here," said Fort Dorchester coach Steve LaPrad. "The neatest thing about him was his energy. He acted like a 40-year-old, and he was in his 70s."
LaPrad asked Paterno to speak to a weightlifting class of 50 or so players.
"He put on a show," LaPrad said. "He had them in the palm of his hand and was funny. He talked about life and how to do right, not just about football. He had that charisma. Some coaches come through and don't want to talk to the kids or sign anything, but not Joe. He was all about selling Penn State."
Robert Biggerstaff, who retired as St. John's coach in 1998, used to work Paterno's summer camps along with Phillip Morgan, Brown's coach at Macedonia High. He recalled a story one of the Penn State assistants told him.
"Joe was raising money for a library for Penn State," Biggerstaff said. "He wrote letters to all his players and asked for donations, and one player sent him a check for $10,000. Joe sent it back and said, 'You can do better than this,' and the player sent him a check for $25,000. That's the kind of influence he had."
Perhaps none of the Lowcountry players knew Paterno as well as Gethers, who now lives in Columbia and is regional director of a pharmaceutical company. When Gethers went to graduate school after a brief pro career, Paterno wrote him a letter of recommendation. And Gethers served as president of the Penn State lettermen's club for eight years. Gethers last saw Paterno about a year ago.
"The decision to release him, that was a decision that was beyond the players' control," he said. "But the work Joe did, that has spoken for him and will continue to speak for him."
PATERNO'S PIPELINE
Lowcountry players recruited by Joe Paterno for Penn State:
Pos. Player High School Penn State*
LB Ivory Gethers St. John's 1989-92
RB Cliff Dingle Macedonia 1992-94
DE Courtney Brown Macedonia 1996-99
WR Kinta Palmer Berkeley 2003
LB Joe Cianciolo Ft. Dorchester 2005-06
RB Rodney Kinlaw Stratford 2006-07
QB Paul Cianciolo Ft. Dorchester 2008
*Years lettered
