Joe Paterno's Alma Mater Is Beginning To Whitewash His Name

The purging of Joe Paterno's name in the wake of the Freeh Report is now going beyond Penn State. Brown University, where Paterno played quarterback and cornerback from 1946-49 before graduating in 1950, has removed his name from the title of its head football coaching position and from the name of an award its athletic department gives each year to the school's outstanding freshman male athlete.

Brown had initially decided to review naming the award for Paterno last November, after the release of the grand jury's summary of the charges against Jerry Sandusky. The school presented the award this spring without Paterno's name on it, and this is what it recently said in a statement, according to GoLocalProv.com:

"Now that the Freeh report has been released, the University will make a decision about the naming of the award in future years," the university said.

And it may not stop there, according to what Mike Wall, a Brown football alumnus and a board member of the Brown Hall of Fame, told GoLocalProv.com:

Paterno is also a 1977 inductee in the Brown Hall of Fame which may also come under review. "I really think everything's on the table now in terms of his legacy at Brown," Wall said.

Clarification (1:11 p.m.): WJAR, a television station in Providence, R.I., first reported on Brown's decision on Thursday, after which the school issued its statement on Friday. Today, Brown made the removal of Paterno's name from the award permanent.

[ GoLocalProv]