A career marked with distinction, glorious accomplishments and immeasurable contributions to The Pennsylvania State University, reached two more significant milestones during the 2007 campaign.

Last fall marked Joe Paterno's 42nd season pacing the sidelines as head coach of the Nittany Lions, eclipsing another college football legend, Amos Alonzo Stagg, for longevity at one institution among major college coaches. Stagg was a head coach for 57 years, including 41 at the University of Chicago.

In December, Paterno earned further distinction with his induction into the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame. The five-time National Coach of the Year was selected for induction in 2006, and was set to join two more legendary coaches - Bobby Bowden and John Gagliardi - as the first active coaches or players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Coach Paterno's induction, though, was deferred until this year, as the injuries he sustained during a sideline collision in a November game at Wisconsin prevented him from traveling to the 2006 event.

Paterno and Bowden, who rank No. 1-2 in victories among major college coaches, received the prestigious Gold Medal, the National Football Foundation's highest honor, at the 2006 Hall of Fame Dinner via a video presentation.

"I have mixed feelings because there were so many people that are not with me any more who made it possible for me," stated Paterno during the December 4, 2007 induction ceremony. "How good has it been? What we share in football; there's never been a greater game. We've been involved in the greatest game, the greatest experience anybody could hope for. Great teammates. Guys you could trust. Guys you loved. Guys you would go to war with tomorrow. We're so lucky...we're so lucky. If we lose what we have in football, we'll lose an awful lot in this country and we've got to remember that."

In a fitting end to a memorable year, the Nittany Lions' victory over Texas A&M in the Valero Alamo Bowl was Paterno's 500th game as head coach.

For 58 years and 656 games, Paterno has passionately served the Penn State football program and the university with principle, distinction and success with honor. After 16 years as an assistant coach, he was rewarded in 1966 with the head coaching responsibilities surrendered by the retiring Rip Engle, his college coach at Brown who appointed him to the Penn State staff in 1950 as a brash 23-year-old. He is older now, and wiser, but no less enthusiastic and no less dynamic. He is, simply put, the most successful coach in the history of college football -- a fact that was validated during the 2001 season when he moved past Paul "Bear" Bryant to become the leader in career wins by a major college coach.

He also is one of the most admired figures in college athletics, an acknowledged icon whose influence extends well beyond the white chalk lines of the football field.

Paterno has faced every situation imaginable on the gridiron and has used his preparation, experience and understanding of the game he loves to respond and keep the Penn State program among the nation's elite for more than 40 years.

The 2007 edition of the Nittany Lions featured another top 10 defense with five first team All-Big Ten selections, a 1,000-yard running back for the fourth time in six years, the first Penn State quarterback to throw for more than 2,000 yards twice and three narrow losses. The victory over the Aggies lifted Penn State to No. 25 in the final USA Today Coaches poll, marking the 33rd time Paterno has guided his team to a Top 25 finish.

Penn State earned its third January bowl appearance in five years during the 2006 campaign and defeated Tennessee, 20-10, in the Outback Bowl. The four teams that defeated Penn State earned a combined record of 45-7.

It came as no surprise that less than two weeks after undergoing surgery on his left leg in November 2006, Paterno was back in Beaver Stadium, observing his team from the coaches' booth for the regular season finale against Michigan State. He has missed just three games of a possible 656 Penn State contests over 58 seasons.

The 2005 Nittany Lions are a squad the legendary coach also will remember fondly. The players and coaches passionately toiled every day after the previous season to return Penn State to the national championship picture. The Nittany Lions earned an 11-1 record, captured the Big Ten Championship and a thrilling triple overtime decision over Bowden's Florida State squad in the FedEx Orange Bowl.

The 11-win season represented another milestone, as Penn State earned at least 10 victories under Paterno in a fifth different decade and for the 19th time overall. The Nittany Lions were No. 3 in the polls, earning their 13th Top 5 finish under the veteran coach, and 21st finish in the Top 10.

For his leadership in restoring the Nittany Lions to the nation's elite, Paterno was recognized with numerous National Coach of the Year honors in 2005, capped by an unprecedented fifth selection by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). He also earned national honors from the Associated Press, Bobby Dodd, Home Depot/ESPN, Maxwell Football Club (George Munger), Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., The Sporting News and the Walter Camp Football Foundation.

A member of the Nittany Lions' coaching staff spanning the administrations of 11 U.S. presidents (starting with Harry Truman), Paterno passed Bryant on October 27, 2001 when the Lions secured his 324th victory by rallying from a 27-9 deficit to defeat Ohio State, 29-27, in the greatest Beaver Stadium comeback under the legendary coach.

Paterno has posted a 372-125-3 mark in 42 seasons as head coach and ranks second in career wins among major college coaches and fourth all-time. Only Bowden, with 373, has more victories among major college coaches. Paterno's winning percentage of 74.7 is third-best among active Division I-A coaches (10 or more years) and he is second all-time in games coached (500) among major college coaches.

Paterno is the all-time leader among coaches in bowl appearances (34) and post-season triumphs (23). His overall postseason record of 23-10-1 gives him a winning percentage of 69.1, good for No. 2 among coaches with at least 12 bowl visits. The Nittany Lions are 16-6 in New Year's games under Paterno and 12-4 in contests that comprise the Bowl Championship Series.

Since Paterno took over in 1966, Penn State has had 74 first-team All-Americans, with senior linebacker Dan Connor earning first team honors in 2007 for the second consecutive season. Over the same span, the Lions have counted 15 Hall of Fame Scholar-Athletes, 27 first-team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans®, (36 overall) and 18 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship winners. Penn State has had at least one Academic All-American® in each of the past six years, including junior tackle Gerald Cadogan in 2007.

Winner of the 2005 Butkus and Bednarik Awards, linebacker Paul Posluszny was selected the 2006 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American® of the Year in Division I football, becoming the fifth Nittany Lion to twice be selected a first team Academic All-American®.

Paterno's coaching portfolio includes two National Championships (1982, 1986); five undefeated, untied teams; 21 finishes in the Top Ten of the national rankings; five AFCA Coach-of-the-Year plaques, and more than 300 former players who have signed National Football League contracts, 31 of them first-round draft choices. A school record four Nittany Lions were selected in the first round of the 2003 NFL Draft and tackle Levi Brown was the No. 5 overall selection in the 2007 NFL Draft.

His teams have registered seven undefeated regular-seasons and he has had 33 teams finish in the Top 25. Penn State has won the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, emblematic of Eastern football supremacy, 22 times in Paterno's coaching run, including in 2005.

Since 1966, there have been 817 head coaching changes among Division I-A programs, an average of more than six changes per I-A institution! (Includes 18 changes after 2007 season).

Paterno is the only coach to win the four traditional New Year's Day bowl games -- the Rose, Sugar, Cotton and Orange bowls -- and he owns a 6-0 record in the Fiesta Bowl. He was selected by the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame as the first active coach to receive its Distinguished American Award. Paterno also was the 1986 Sports Illustrated "Sportsman-of-the-Year."

In 2006, Paterno was bestowed a trio of diverse honors in addition to the Hall of Fame announcement and Gold Medal presentation. He was named a Free Spirit honoree and recognized by The Freedom Forum at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In April, Paterno received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dapper Dan Charities in Pittsburgh and received the History Makers Award, presented by the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.

Paterno was recognized twice for his illustrious career in 2004. He was selected the second-best college football coach of all-time by a panel of more than 300 media, current and former football coaches, Heisman Trophy winners and members of the College Football Hall of Fame. Paterno also was chosen the nation's best college football coach of the past 25 years by an ESPN25 expert panel. He finished No. 8 overall in the listing of college and professional coaches from all sports over the past 25 years.

The American Football Coaches Association presented Paterno with its highest honor in 2002, the Amos Alonzo Stagg Award. The award honors those "whose services have been outstanding in the advancement of the best interests of football."

In 1998, he was the initial winner of the Eddie Robinson Coach-of-the-Year Award, which recognizes an active college coach who is a role model to students and players, an active member of the community and an accomplished coach.

Joe Paterno simply is an unusual football coach...and, an unusual person.

In an exceptional display of generosity and affection for Penn State, Paterno; his wife, Sue, and their five children announced a contribution of $3.5 million to the University in 1998, bringing Paterno's lifetime giving total to more than $4 million. The gift appears to be, Penn State Vice President for Development Rod Kirsch said, "the most generous ever made by a collegiate coach and his family to a university."

The Paterno gift endows faculty positions and scholarships in the College of the Liberal Arts; the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture; the University Libraries and supported two building projects -- a new interfaith spiritual center and the Penn State All-Sports Museum, both on the University Park campus. The museum opened in 2002 and the spiritual center was dedicated in 2003.

"Penn State has been very good to both Sue and me," Paterno said. "We have met some wonderful people here, we've known many students who have gone on to become outstanding leaders in their professions and in society, and all of our children have received a first-class education here. I've never felt better about Penn State and its future potential than I do right now. Sue and I want to do all we can to help the University reach that potential."

Obviously not a person of misplaced priorities, Paterno always has concentrated on seeing that his student-athletes attend class, devote the proper time to studies and graduate with a meaningful degree. He often has said he measures team success not by athletic prowess but by the number of productive citizens who make a contribution to society.

The 2007 NCAA Graduation Success Rate Report for Division I institutions revealed that the Penn State football program's 76 percent GSR was No. 3 in the nation among teams ranked in the final 2007 USA Today Coaches Top 25 and well above the national average of 67 percent. The NCAA data also showed that Penn State posted a 74 percent federal graduation rate among freshmen entering in 2000-01, second-highest among Big Ten institutions. The national Division I-A average was 55 percent.

The wisdom of Paterno's "total person" approach to football -- which addresses academic and lifestyle matters in addition to athletic prowess -- has won almost universal endorsement from the "products of the system."

"He's putting together this winning program, but meanwhile he's teaching 17-, 18-, 19-year-olds how not to screw their lives up, how important education is, how important it is to have social acumen," All-America linebacker Greg Buttle told the San Antonio Express-News in 2007. "Forget what he's done for players. He's done more for a single university than anyone else. It transcends his coaching. No. 1 to him is what he's done for Penn State University, No. 2 is what he has done for players."

"...I can tell you that virtually all of the players he's touched in fifty years as an assistant and head coach have been enriched by the experience," former quarterback Todd Blackledge said in the forward to Quotable Joe, a book of quotations by and about Paterno. "I consider myself, and I know my teammates and Penn State players past and present feel likewise, a better person for having played for Joe Paterno."

LaVar Arrington, one of the 31 NFL first-round draft choices to come through Paterno's Penn State program, was a two-time All-America selection and won the 1999 Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker as well as the Maxwell Club's Chuck Bednarik Award, presented to the top collegiate defensive player.

"If you're not a man when you get there, you'll be a man before you leave," Arrington said of his Penn State experience. "Joe has his system so that you're prepared for life. Joe trains you more mentally than physically so that nothing will rattle you."

Ex-All-America linebacker Matt Millen, the president and CEO of the Detroit Lions and a former television analyst on Fox Network telecasts of NFL games, is of the opinion "the main thing Joe gives you is perspective. He's a teacher. He does more than football stuff. He's always giving you these little speeches, and after a while you hear them so often and understand them and they're pretty true."

Joe and Sue Paterno have five children, all of whom are Penn State graduates, and 16 grandchildren.