Its a busy day, but I had to extend Birthday Greetings to a drop dead gorgeous gal and a real man. Happy Birthday Jenna and Franco (and Sam Gash too).
Sam Gash....(48 today)
Gash told detroitlions.com that he's 100 percent certain he wouldn't be where he is today if it wasn't for Paterno the man - not the football coach.
"Paterno and coach Jim Caldwell, who recruited me, came down to Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1987 and told my mom they'd make sure I graduated and got out okay," Gash remembered of the first time he met Paterno in his living room at a high school senior.
But when Gash first got to Penn State, it seemed his whole world started falling apart.
"There was a point in time within a couple months that my dad passed," Gash said. "My grandma passed a couple months later and the Saturday before the first game of the season, I broke my leg and was on IR for that year."
Gash said at that point he was a "wayward child" and without football to lean on, he didn't know how he was going to get through the rough patch in his life.
"That's when coach Paterno became invaluable," Gash said. "There were things he did and steps he took with me to make sure, mentally, I was good.
"He was a father figure to me. My father wasn't very instrumental in my life and coach Paterno filled that void. Coach Paterno became that guy."
Gash said he was one of the first people to talk to Paterno after he was let go by the university.
"He got the letter the night before and I called his house about 6:30 in the morning the next day," he said. "I talked to Sue for awhile, and she was broke up, and then I talked to Joe. I just told him regardless of what happened, in my mind, his legacy would never be tarnished.
"I told him the impact he made on me and I tried to individualize it because I didn't want his focus on the whole scope of things. I told him, to me, he'd always be the greatest college coach that ever lived."
Sam Gash....(48 today)
Gash told detroitlions.com that he's 100 percent certain he wouldn't be where he is today if it wasn't for Paterno the man - not the football coach.
"Paterno and coach Jim Caldwell, who recruited me, came down to Hendersonville, North Carolina in 1987 and told my mom they'd make sure I graduated and got out okay," Gash remembered of the first time he met Paterno in his living room at a high school senior.
But when Gash first got to Penn State, it seemed his whole world started falling apart.
"There was a point in time within a couple months that my dad passed," Gash said. "My grandma passed a couple months later and the Saturday before the first game of the season, I broke my leg and was on IR for that year."
Gash said at that point he was a "wayward child" and without football to lean on, he didn't know how he was going to get through the rough patch in his life.
"That's when coach Paterno became invaluable," Gash said. "There were things he did and steps he took with me to make sure, mentally, I was good.
"He was a father figure to me. My father wasn't very instrumental in my life and coach Paterno filled that void. Coach Paterno became that guy."
Gash said he was one of the first people to talk to Paterno after he was let go by the university.
"He got the letter the night before and I called his house about 6:30 in the morning the next day," he said. "I talked to Sue for awhile, and she was broke up, and then I talked to Joe. I just told him regardless of what happened, in my mind, his legacy would never be tarnished.
"I told him the impact he made on me and I tried to individualize it because I didn't want his focus on the whole scope of things. I told him, to me, he'd always be the greatest college coach that ever lived."
Last edited:
