The Lion In Autumn: A Season with Joe Paterno and Penn State Football [Hardcover]

Frank Fitzpatrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2005

A legendary coach, a struggling team, and a storm of controversy: An award- winning sportswriter takes you inside a tumultuous season of Penn State football, in the bestselling tradition of A Season on the Brink.

In his fifty years of coaching football at Penn State, Joe Paterno has become one of the most popular figures in American sports. Only one other coach has won more football games than Paterno; his team has won more bowl games than any other; and he does it all the way it was meant to be done, with his players succeeding in the classroom as well as on the field and in the pro ranks. Along the way, Paterno has transformed a once obscure agricultural college into a huge research university in the Big Ten, whose endowment now exceeds $1 billion, tens of millions of which "JoePa" has personally helped to raise. But lately the tide seems to have turned in Happy Valley. Since 2000, Paterno’s Nittany Lions have lost more games than they’ve won, and accusations of off-the-field crimes have tarnished his program’s reputation.

Award-winning sports reporter Frank Fitzgerald followed Joe Paterno and his Nittany Lions through the 2004 season, from fundraisers in State College to the sidelines at Beaver Stadium. The Lion in Autumn delivers the complete story of this frustrating, tormenting, and ultimately exhilarating turning-point season and the history that led up to it. This is the chronicle of fifty phenomenal years—including the dynasties of undefeated and national championship teams that came before—and a riveting fight to reclaim a legacy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

While the title of this book may be overstated, its subtitle is certainly understated: veteran sports writer Fitzpatrick's account is more a biography of Paterno-and thus a biography of Penn State football as it is known today-related through the ups and downs of the 2004 season, the team's fourth consecutive losing season. Chapters effortlessly breeze from anecdotes from Paterno's boyhood to the Nittany Lions glory days of the 1980s to the action on the field in 2004, united by a central problem facing Paterno and the Penn State community: what do you do when a legend falters? Now in his eighties and after a long stretch of winning seasons earned by a unique combination of gridiron savvy and personal, educational and spiritual guidance (an Ivy League graduate, Paterno is known to recite Shakespeare at pep rallies), "JoePa" hadn't mustered a winning season-much less a strong bowl berth or championship-in four years, and several star players had been involved in behavior scandals. Could the school and the rabid alumni community continue to support Paterno now that the bar was set so high? Fitzpatrick doesn't portend to answer these questions, but readers will find hints of optimism in his portrait of Paterno and the inner workings of college football.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Penn State football coach Joe Paterno (two national championships, four coach-of-the-year awards, 31 bowl appearances) is arguably the most successful, if not the best, coach in the game--which gives a certain contrasting drama to the dismal record his teams have put up over the last five seasons. Fitzpatrick, a Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter,covered the Nittany Lions all last season, transcribing Paterno's almost-fanatical obsession to find a way to win, the building storm of criticism Paterno received from alumni and sportswriters, the players' ups and downs, and even the modicum of salvation the team achieved at season's end. Although thorough and engaging enough, Fitzpatrick's account doesn't have the pop and pull of, say, Warren St. John's fine Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (2004), hich followed the Alabama Crimson Tide's 1999 season. Still, Paterno's rich story continues to play itself out, and The Lion in Autumn will enable any reader to appreciate that story in this and future Paterno seasons. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Gotham (September 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159240149X
• ISBN-13: 978-1592401499
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Satisfying "Must Read" For Any Penn-Stater, November 16, 2005

By 

TAS - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lion In Autumn: A Season with Joe Paterno and Penn State Football (Hardcover)

As a Penn State freshman and one who grew up hearing of Joe Paterno only infrequently, this book was a satisfying and appropriate introduction to the living legend Head Coach of Penn State football. On the forieth anniversary of his position as Head Coach, and his 55th year as a Penn State coach, it is fitting that Fitzpatrick's book be published now.

With the Nittany Lions back in position to possibly even play in the Rose Bowl (and even if not the Rose Bowl, definitely some type of bowl game), assuming Penn State beats Michigan State this weekend to capture our second Big Ten title and Bowl Championship Series bid. With "Happy Valley" happy again and our Nittany Lions ranked #4 in the nation with what should have been a perfect 10-0 season thus far, had it not been for poor officiating in the Oct. 15 game at Michigan, this text highlights Paterno's career up to this point for anyone interested - and everyone in State College should be.

Although this is not an "official" biography and even though the author failed to secure more than one personal meeting with Paterno himself, the book is still a fascinating read due to the vast amount of background material Fitzpatrick was able to glean off various other sources and accounts.

It's a fast, fascinating and if nothing else, satisfying read. Pick up your copy now if you haven't already. Joe Paterno is still king of Penn State football, even as he turns 79 this December. It's time people got to know the man of character, morals and determination again.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Synopsis of Joe Paterno and College Football, May 12, 2006

By 

Adam J. Loewy (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lion In Autumn: A Season with Joe Paterno and Penn State Football (Hardcover)

I hesitated picking up this book because even though it was published only one year ago, it is arguably outdated since Penn State football finally bounced back and had a very good year. That said, I am glad I read it because the book goes beyond the marketed "A Season with Penn State" storyline and provides a very good historical synopsis of Joe Paterno and his role in the history of college football.

Since Paterno has been around so long, people tend to forget his importance in the development of college football. Once he retires, he will undoubtedly be remembered in the same breath as Bear Bryant, Knute Rockne, Daryl Royal, Bud Wilkinson and the other Legends (with a capital "L") of college football.

This book provides interesting insights into his personal history and the development of Penn State University, which Paterno literally transformed from a backwater agricultural school into a well-known and successful state school. I doubt any coach in college sports history has been more important to his school's development than Paterno has been to Penn State.

The parts about the actual season are fairly boring, since PSU was horrible the year Fitzpatrick followed them but it is worth picking up if you are a fan of college football history.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Favorite for Penn State Football Fans, October 28, 2005

By 

C. Hutton "book maven" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lion In Autumn: A Season with Joe Paterno and Penn State Football (Hardcover)

It is fall : time for college football, books about college football and biographies about legendary dead coaches like "The Last Coach: A Life of Paul Bear Bryant" by Allen Barra. An exception is "The Lion In Autumn" about a legendary living coach, Joe Paterno. Entering his 40th season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, Coach Paterno began as an assistant in 1950 and succeeded Rip Engle after his retirement following the 1965 season.

Mr. Fitzpatrick covers in passing a half century of coaching at a single institition while focusing on the disastrous 4-7 campaign last year. The author is a sportswriter at the Phildelphia Inquirer who covered the 2004 season from afar (in a buried footnote, he acknowledges that he spoke personally to Coach Paterno only once). Mr. Fitzpatrick synthesizes existing source materials into this book which is a quick read.

This account is not the definative story of Joe Paterno (which would be hard as the Nittany Lions has rebounded into a top 20 team once again) but merely an introduction to the man. The definative biography of the man who has won two national championships in major upsets (1982 against Georgia & Hershall Walker and 1986 against Miami & Vinny Testaverde) would be twice as long as "The Lion In Autumn" and is yet to be written.