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Report: Group hopes to build new Joe Paterno statue in downtown State College

Report: Group hopes to build new Joe Paterno statue in downtown State College

The statue outside Beaver Stadium of late Penn State coach Joe Paterno was taken down in July 2012 in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Now, a group of Penn Staters hopes to erect another statue of Paterno in November 2015, this time outside a restaurant in downtown State College.

According to Onward State, the bronze statue will be designed by Zenos Frudakis and will depict Paterno sitting on a bench holding “Aeneid,” one of his favorite classics.

“There’s been some level of frustration among Penn Staters with what happened with the statue at the stadium,” Ted Sebastianelli, one of the project’s organizers, told Onward State. “We wanted to come up with a way to honor Joe for all that he did for the State College community. It wasn’t just the university he impacted – it was the whole town.”

Sebastianelli is a candidate for the Penn State Board of Trustees and a former president of the Penn State Football Letterman’s Club. He said there were plans to include a statue of Sue Paterno seated next to her husband, but she was not interested.

The project, which the Paterno family has no involvement with, is currently called “Joe’s Bench,” but the name will be changed to “Reflections” when completed.

To complete the project, the organizers will use Kickstarter to raise funds. Sebastianelli said that the estimated cost will be “about $300,000.”

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Sam Cooper

is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!