title: Slag

text: During the process of smelting iron, ferrous slag is created, but dominated by calcium and silicon compositions. Through this process, ferrous slag can be broken down into blast furnace slag (produced from iron oxides of molten iron), then steel slag (forms when steel scrap and molten iron combined). The major phases of ferrous slag contain calcium-rich olivine-group silicates and melilite-group silicates.


title: Slag

text: Slag from steel mills in ferrous smelting is designed to minimize iron loss, which gives out the significant amount of iron, following by oxides of calcium, silicon, magnesium, and aluminium. As the slag is cooled down by water, several chemical reactions from a temperature of around (such as oxidization) taken place within the slag.


title: Slag

text: Based on a case study at the Hopewell National Historical Site in Berks and Chester counties, Pennsylvania, USA, ferrous slag usually contains lower concentration of various types of trace elements than non-ferrous slag. However, some of them, such as arsenic (As), iron, and manganese, can accumulate in groundwater and surface water to levels that can exceed environmental guidelines.


title: Slag

text: Non-ferrous slag is produced from non-ferrous metals of natural ores. Non-ferrous slag can be characterized into copper, lead, and zinc slags due to the ores' compositions, and they have more potential to impact the environment negatively than ferrous slag. The smelting of copper, lead and bauxite in non-ferrous smelting, for instance, is designed to remove the iron and silica that often occurs with those ores, and separates them as iron-silicate-based slags.


title: Slag

text: Copper slag, the waste product of smelting copper ores, was studied in an abandoned Penn Mine in California, USA. For six to eight months per year, this region is flooded and become a reservoir for drinking water and irrigation. Samples collected from the reservoir showed the higher concentration of cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) that exceeded regulatory guidelines.


title: Slag

text: Slags can serve other purposes, such as assisting in the temperature control of the smelting, and minimizing any re-oxidation of the final liquid metal product before the molten metal is removed from the furnace and used to make solid metal. In some smelting processes, such as ilmenite smelting to produce titanium dioxide, the slag can be the valuable product.


title: Slag

text: During the Bronze Age of the Mediterranean area there were a vast number of differential metallurgical processes in use. A slag by-product of such workings was a colorful, glassy material found on the surfaces of slag from ancient copper foundries. It was primarily blue or green and was formerly chipped away and melted down to make glassware products and jewelry. It was also ground into powder to add to glazes for use in ceramics. Some of the earliest such uses for the by-products of slag have been found in ancient Egypt.


title: Slag

text: Historically, the re-smelting of iron ore slag was common practice, as improved smelting techniques permitted greater iron yields—in some cases exceeding that which was originally achieved. During the early 20th century, iron ore slag was also ground to a powder and used to make agate glass, also known as slag glass.


title: Slag

text: Utilization of slags in the construction industry dates back to the 1800s, where BF slags were used to build roads, and railroad ballast. During this time, it was also used as an aggregate and have begun being integrated into the cement industry as a geopolymer.


title: Slag

text: Today, ground granulated blast furnace slags (GGBFS) are used in combination with Portland cement (PC) to create "slag cement." GGBFS react with portlandite (Ca(OH)), which is formed during cement hydration, via the pozzolanic reaction to produce cementitious properties that primarily contribute to the later strength gain of concrete. This leads to concrete with reduced permeability and better durability. Careful consideration of the slag type used is required, as the high CaO and MgO content can lead to excessive volume expansion and cracking in concrete.


title: Slag

text: These hydraulic properties have also been used for soil stabilization in roads and railroads constructions.


title: Slag

text: Slag is used in the manufacture of high-performance concretes, especially those used in the construction of bridges and coastal features, where its low permeability and greater resistance to chlorides and sulfates can help to reduce corrosive action and deterioration of the structure.


title: Slag

text: Slag is also used as aggregate in asphalt concrete for paving roads. A 2022 study in Finland found that road surfaces containing ferrochrome slag release a highly abrasive dust that has caused car parts to wear at significantly greater than normal rates.


title: Slag

text: Dissolution of slags generate alkalinity that can be used to precipitate out metals, sulfates, and excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) in wastewater treatment. Similarly, ferrous slags have been used as soil conditioners to rebalance soil pH and fertilizers as sources of calcium and magnesium.


title: Slag

text: Because of the slowly released phosphate content in phosphorus-containing slag, and because of its liming effect, it is valued as fertilizer in gardens and farms in steel making areas. However, the most important application is construction.


title: Slag

text: Slags have one of the highest carbonation potential among the industrial alkaline waste due their high CaO and MgO content, inspiring further studies to test its feasibility in CO capture and storage (CCS) methods (e.g., direct aqueous sequestration, dry gas-solid carbonation among others). Across these CCS methods, slags can be transformed into precipitated calcium carbonates to be used in the plastic, and concrete industries and leached for metals to be used in the electronic industries.


title: Slag

text: However, high physical and chemical variability across different types of slags results in performance and yield inconsistencies. Moreover, stoichiometric-based calculation of the carbonation potential can lead to overestimation that can further obfuscate the material's true potential. To this end, some have proposed performing a series of experiments testing the reactivity of a specific slag material (i.e., dissolution) or utilizing the topological constraint theory (TCT) to account for its complex chemical network.


title: Slag

text: Slags are transported along with slag tailings to "slag dumps," where they are exposed to weathering, with the possibility of leaching of toxic elements and hyperalkaline runoffs into the soil and water, endangering the local ecological communities. Leaching concerns are typically around non-ferrous or base metal slags, which tend to have higher concentrations of toxic elements. However, ferrous and ferroalloy slags may also have them, which raises concerns about highly weathered slag dumps and upcycled materials.


title: Slag

text: Dissolution of slags can produce highly alkaline groundwater with pH values above 12. The calcium silicates (CaSiO) in slags react with water to produce calcium hydroxide ions that leads to a higher concentration of hydroxide (OH-) in ground water. This alkalinity promotes the mineralization of dissolved (from the atmosphere) to produce calcite (CaCO), which can accumulate to as thick as 20 cm. This can also lead to the dissolution of other metals in slag, such as iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and molybdenum (Mo), which become insoluble in water and mobile as particulate matter. The most effective method to detoxify alkaline ground water discharge is air sparging.


title: Slag

text: Fine slags and slag dusts generated from milling slags to be recycled into the smelting process or upcycled in a different industry can be carried by the wind, affecting a larger ecosystem. It can be ingested, posing a direct health risk to the communities near the plant, mines, and disposal sites.


title: Slag

text: According to the 2019 International Energy Agency (IEA) report, the iron and steel industry directly contributed 2.6 Gt to global CO emissions and accounted for 7% of global energy demand. The IEA report and the WSA project a continual increase in demand in the coming years prompting greater efforts to move toward a circular economy.


title: Lox

text: Lox is a fillet of brined salmon, that is not smoked. Lox is frequently served on a bagel with cream cheese, and often garnished with tomato, sliced onion, cucumbers, and capers.


title: Lox

text: The American English word "lox" is derived from the Proto-Indo-European language, pronounced much as it is today. The word "lox" today has cognates in numerous Germanic languages. For example, cured salmon in Scandinavian countries is known by different versions of the name gravlax or gravad laks. ("Lax" or "laks" means "salmon" in the Scandinavian languages.) Its wide distribution likely means it existed in its current form in a Proto-Indo-European language.


title: Lox

text: Other similar brined and smoked fish products include chubs, sable, smoked sturgeon, smoked whitefish, and kippered herring. These delicacies are popular in delis and gourmet stores, particularly in Northeastern US cities that received significant Jewish, Eastern European and Russian immigration, such as New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Leroy Gordon "Gordo" Cooper Jr. (March 6, 1927 – October 4, 2004) was an American aerospace engineer, test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, and the youngest of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury, the first human space program of the United States. Cooper learned to fly as a child, and after service in the United States Marine Corps during World War II, he was commissioned into the United States Air Force in 1949. After service as a fighter pilot, he qualified as a test pilot in 1956, and was selected as an astronaut in 1959.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In 1963 Cooper piloted the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9. During that 34-hour mission he became the first American to spend an entire day in space, the first to sleep in space, and the last American launched on an entirely solo orbital mission. Despite a series of severe equipment failures, he managed to successfully complete the mission under manual control, guiding his spacecraft, which he named "Faith 7", to a splashdown just ahead of the recovery ship. Cooper became the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight when he flew as Command Pilot of Gemini 5 in 1965. Along with Pilot Pete Conrad, he set a new space endurance record by traveling in 190 hours and 56 minutes—just short of eight days—showing that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from the Earth to the Moon and back.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper liked to race cars and boats, and entered the $28,000 Salton City boat race, and the Southwest Championship Drag Boat races in 1965, and the 1967 Orange Bowl Regatta with fire fighter Red Adair. In 1968, he entered the 24 Hours of Daytona, but NASA management ordered him to withdraw due to the dangers involved. After serving as backup commander of the Apollo 10 mission, he was superseded by Alan Shepard, and retired from NASA and the Air Force with the rank of colonel in 1970.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. was born on March 6, 1927, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the only child of Leroy Gordon Cooper Sr. and his wife Hattie Lee Herd. His mother was a school teacher. His father enlisted in the United States Navy during World War I, and served on the presidential yacht . After the war, Cooper Sr. completed his high school education; Hattie Lee was one of his teachers, although she was only two years older than him. He joined the Oklahoma National Guard, flying a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, despite never having formal military pilot training. He graduated from college and law school, and became a state district judge. He was called to active duty during World War II, and served in the Pacific theater in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He transferred to United States Air Force (USAF) after it was formed in 1947, and was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii Territory. He retired from the USAF with the rank of colonel in 1957.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper attended Jefferson Elementary School and Shawnee High School, where he was on the football and track teams. During his senior high school year, he played at halfback in the state football championship. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America, where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. His parents owned a Command-Aire 3C3 biplane, and he learned to fly at a young age. He unofficially soloed when he was 12 years old, and earned his pilot's license in a Piper J-3 Cub when he was 16. His family moved to Murray, Kentucky, when his father was called back into service, and he graduated from Murray High School in June 1945.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: After Cooper learned that the United States Army and Navy flying schools were not taking any more candidates, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He left for Parris Island as soon as he graduated from high school, but World War II ended before he saw overseas service. He was assigned to the Naval Academy Preparatory School as an alternate for an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, but the primary appointee was accepted, and Cooper was assigned to guard duty in Washington, D.C. He was serving with the Presidential Honor Guard when he was discharged from the Marine Corps in 1946.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper went to Hawaii to live with his parents. He started attending the University of Hawaii, and bought his own J-3 Cub. There he met his first wife, Trudy B. Olson (1927–1994) of Seattle, through the local flying club. She was active in flying, and would later become the only wife of a Mercury astronaut to have a private pilot license. They were married on August 29, 1947, in Honolulu, when both were 20 years old. They had two daughters.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: At college, Cooper was active in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), which led to his being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in June 1949. He was able to transfer his commission to the United States Air Force in September 1949. He received flight training at Perrin Air Force Base, Texas and Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, in the T-6 Texan.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: On completion of his flight training in 1950, Cooper was posted to Landstuhl Air Base, West Germany, where he flew F-84 Thunderjets and F-86 Sabres for four years. He became a flight commander of the 525th Fighter Bomber Squadron. While in Germany, he attended the European Extension of the University of Maryland. He returned to the United States in 1954, and studied for two years at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Ohio. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering there on August 28, 1956.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: While at AFIT, Cooper met Gus Grissom, a fellow USAF officer, and the two became good friends. They were involved in an accident on takeoff from Lowry Field on June 23, 1956, when the Lockheed T-33 Cooper was piloting suddenly lost power. He aborted the takeoff, but the landing gear collapsed and the aircraft skidded erratically for , and crashed at the end of the runway, bursting into flames. Cooper and Grissom escaped unscathed, although the aircraft was a total loss.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper and Grissom attended the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School (Class 56D) at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1956. After graduation Cooper was posted to the Flight Test Engineering Division at Edwards, where he served as a test pilot and project manager testing the F-102A and F-106B. He also flew the T-28, T-37, F-86, F-100 and F-104. By the time he left Edwards, he had logged more than 2,000 hours of flight time, of which 1,600 hours were in jet aircraft.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In January 1959, Cooper received unexpected orders to report to Washington, D.C. There was no indication what it was about, but his commanding officer, Major General Marcus F. Cooper (no relation) recalled an announcement in the newspaper saying that a contract had been awarded to McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, Missouri, to build a space capsule, and advised Cooper not to volunteer for astronaut training. On February 2, 1959, Cooper attended a NASA briefing on Project Mercury and the part astronauts would play in it. Cooper went through the selection process with another 109 pilots, and was not surprised when he was accepted as the youngest of the first seven American astronauts.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: During the selection interviews, Cooper had been asked about his domestic relationship, and had lied, saying that he and Trudy had a good, stable marriage. In fact, they had separated four months before, and she was living with their daughters in San Diego while he occupied a bachelor's quarters at Edwards. Aware that NASA wanted to project an image of its astronauts as loving family men, and that his story would not stand up to scrutiny, he drove down to San Diego to see Trudy at the first opportunity. Lured by the prospect of a great adventure for herself and her daughters, she agreed to go along with the charade and pretend that they were a happily married couple.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: The identities of the Mercury Seven were announced at a press conference at Dolley Madison House in Washington, D.C., on April 9, 1959: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. Each was assigned a different portion of the project along with other special assignments. Cooper specialized in the Redstone rocket, which would be used for the first, sub-orbital spaceflights. He also chaired the Emergency Egress Committee, responsible for working out emergency launch pad escape procedures, and engaged Bo Randall to develop a personal survival knife for astronauts to carry.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: The astronauts drew their salaries as military officers, and an important component of that was flight pay. In Cooper's case, it amounted to $145 a month (). NASA saw no reason to provide the astronauts with aircraft, so they had to fly to meetings around the country on commercial airlines. To continue earning their flight pay, Grissom and Slayton would go out on the weekend to Langley Air Force Base, and attempt to put in the required four hours a month, competing for T-33 aircraft with senior deskbound colonels and generals. Cooper traveled to McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base in Tennessee, where a friend let him fly higher-performance F-104B jets. This came up when Cooper had lunch with William Hines, a reporter for "The Washington Star", and was duly reported in the paper. Cooper then discussed the issue with Congressman James G. Fulton. The matter was taken up by the House Committee on Science and Astronautics. Within weeks the astronauts had priority access to USAF F-102s, something that Cooper considered a "hot plane", but which could still take off from and land at short civilian airfields; but it did not make Cooper popular with senior NASA management.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: After General Motors executive Ed Cole presented Shepard with a brand-new Chevrolet Corvette, Jim Rathmann, a racing car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1960, and was a Chevrolet dealer in Melbourne, Florida, convinced Cole to turn this into an ongoing marketing campaign. Henceforth, astronauts would be able to lease brand-new Corvettes for a dollar a year. All of the Mercury Seven but Glenn soon took up the offer. Cooper, Grissom and Shepard were soon racing their Corvettes around Cape Canaveral, with the police ignoring their exploits. From a marketing perspective, it was very successful, and helped the highly priced Corvette become established as a desirable brand. Cooper held licenses with the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). He also enjoyed racing speedboats.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper served as capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for NASA's first sub-orbital spaceflight, by Alan Shepard in Mercury-Redstone 3, and Scott Carpenter's orbital flight on Mercury-Atlas 7, and was backup pilot for Wally Schirra in Mercury-Atlas 8.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was designated for the next mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 (). Apart from the grounded Slayton, he was the only one of the Mercury Seven who had not yet flown in space. Cooper's selection was publicly announced on November 14, 1962, with Shepard designated as his backup.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Project Mercury had begun with a goal of ultimately flying an 18-orbit, mission, known as the manned one-day mission. On November 9, senior staff at the Manned Spacecraft Center decided to fly a mission as . Project Mercury still remained years behind the Soviet Union's space program, which had already flown a mission in Vostok 3. When Atlas , the booster designated for , first emerged from the factory in San Diego on January 30, 1963, it failed to pass inspection and was returned to the factory. For Schirra's  mission, 20 modifications had been made to the Mercury spacecraft; for Cooper's , 183 changes were made. Cooper decided to name his spacecraft, Mercury Spacecraft No. 20, "Faith 7". NASA public affairs officers could see the newspaper headlines if the spacecraft were lost at sea: "NASA loses Faith".


title: Gordon Cooper

text: After an argument with NASA Deputy Administrator Walter C. Williams over last-minute changes to his pressure suit to insert a new medical probe, Cooper was nearly replaced by Shepard. This was followed by Cooper buzzing Hangar S at Cape Canaveral in an and lighting the afterburner. Williams told Slayton he was prepared to replace Cooper with Shepard. They decided not to, but not to let Cooper know immediately. Instead, Slayton told Cooper that Williams was looking to ground whoever buzzed Hangar S. According to Cooper, Slayton later told him that President John F. Kennedy had intervened to prevent his removal.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was launched into space on May 15, 1963, aboard the "Faith 7" spacecraft, for what turned out to be the last of the Project Mercury missions. Because would orbit over nearly every part of Earth from 33 degrees north to 33 degrees south, a total of 28 ships, 171 aircraft, and 18,000 servicemen were assigned to support the mission. He orbited the Earth 22 times and logged more time in space than all five previous Mercury astronauts combined: 34 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds. Cooper achieved an altitude of at apogee. He was the first American astronaut to sleep, not only in orbit, but on the launch pad during a countdown.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: There were several mission-threatening technical problems toward the end of "Faith 7"s flight. During the 19th orbit, the capsule had a power failure. Carbon dioxide levels began rising, both in Cooper's suit and in the cabin, and the cabin temperature climbed to over . The clock and then the gyroscopes failed, but the radio, which was connected directly to the battery, remained working, and allowed Cooper to communicate with the mission controllers. Like all Mercury flights, was designed for fully automatic control, a controversial engineering decision which reduced the role of an astronaut to that of a passenger, and prompted Chuck Yeager to describe Mercury astronauts as "Spam in a can". "This flight would put an end to all that nonsense," Cooper later wrote. "My electronics were shot and a had the stick."


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Turning to his understanding of star patterns, Cooper took manual control of the tiny capsule and successfully estimated the correct pitch for re-entry into the atmosphere. Precision was needed in the calculation; small errors in timing or orientation could produce large errors in the landing point. Cooper drew lines on the capsule window to help him check his orientation before firing the re-entry rockets. "So I used my wrist watch for time," he later recalled, "my eyeballs out the window for . Then I fired my retrorockets at the right time and landed right by the carrier."


title: Gordon Cooper

text: "Faith 7" splashed down ahead of the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier . "Faith 7" was hoisted on board by a helicopter with Cooper still inside. Once on deck he used the explosive bolts to blow open the hatch. Postflight inspections and analyses studied the causes and nature of the electrical problems that had plagued the final hours of the flight, but no fault was found with the performance of the pilot.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: On May 22, New York City gave Cooper a ticker-tape parade witnessed by more than four million spectators. The parade concluded with a congratulatory luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria attended by 1,900 people, where dignitaries such as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and former president Herbert Hoover made speeches honoring Cooper.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: MA-9 was the last of the Project Mercury flights. Walt Williams and others wanted to follow up with a three-day Mercury-Atlas 10 (MA-10) mission, but NASA HQ had already announced that there would be no MA-10 if MA-9 was successful. Shepard in particular was eager to fly the mission, for which he had been designated. He even attempted to enlist the support of President Kennedy. An official decision that there would be no MA-10 was made by NASA Administrator James E. Webb on June 22, 1963. Had the mission been approved, Shepard might not have flown it, as he was grounded in October 1963, and MA-10 might well have been flown by Cooper, who was his backup.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In January 1964 the press reported that the Democratic Party of Oklahoma discussed running Cooper for the United States Senate.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Project Mercury was followed by Project Gemini, which took its name from the fact that it carried two men instead of just one. Slayton designated Cooper as commander of Gemini 5, an eight-day, 120-orbit mission. Cooper's assignment was officially announced on February 8, 1965. Pete Conrad, one of the nine astronauts selected in 1962 was designated as his co-pilot, with Neil Armstrong and Elliot See as their respective backups. On July 22, Cooper and Conrad went through a rehearsal of a double launch of Gemini atop a Titan II booster from Launch Complex 19 and an Atlas-Agena target vehicle from Launch Complex 14. At the end of the successful test, the erector could not be raised, and the two astronauts had to be retrieved with a cherry picker, an escape device that Cooper had devised for Project Mercury and insisted be retained for Gemini.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper and Conrad wanted to name their spacecraft "Lady Bird" after Lady Bird Johnson, the First Lady of the United States, but Webb turned down their request; he wanted to "depersonalize" the space program. Cooper and Conrad then came up with the idea of a mission patch, similar to the organizational emblems worn by military units. The patch was intended to commemorate all the hundreds of people directly involved, not just the astronauts. Cooper and Conrad chose an embroidered cloth patch sporting the names of the two crew members, a Conestoga wagon, and the slogan "8 Days or Bust" which referred to the expected mission duration. Webb ultimately approved the design, but insisted on the removal of the slogan from the official version of the patch, feeling it placed too much emphasis on the mission length and not the experiments, and fearing the public might see the mission as a failure if it did not last the full duration. The patch was worn on the right breast of the astronauts' uniforms below their nameplates and opposite the NASA emblems worn on the left.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: The mission was postponed from August 9 to 19 to give Cooper and Conrad more time to train, and was then delayed for two days due to a storm. Gemini 5 was launched at 09:00 on August 21, 1965. The Titan II booster placed them in a orbit. Cooper's biggest concern was the fuel cell. To make it last eight days, Cooper intended to operate it at a low pressure, but when it started to dip too low the Flight Controllers advised him to switch on the oxygen heater. It eventually stabilized at —lower than it had ever been operated at before. While MA-9 had become uncomfortably warm, Gemini 5 became cold. There were also problems with the Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System thrusters, which became erratic, and two of them failed completely.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Gemini 5 was originally intended to practice orbital rendezvous with an Agena target vehicle, but this had been deferred to a later mission owing to problems with the Agena. Nonetheless, Cooper practiced bringing his spacecraft to a predetermined location in space. This raised confidence for achieving rendezvous with an actual spacecraft on subsequent missions, and ultimately in lunar orbit. Cooper and Conrad were able to carry out all but one of the scheduled experiments, most of which were related to orbital photography.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: The mission was cut short by the appearance of Hurricane Betsy in the planned recovery area. Cooper fired the retrorockets on the 120th orbit. Splashdown was short of the target. A computer error had set the Earth's rotation at 360 degrees per day whereas it is actually 360.98. The difference was significant in a spacecraft. The error would have been larger had Cooper not recognized the problem when the reentry gauge indicated that they were too high, and attempted to compensate by increasing the bank angle from 53 to 90 degrees to the left to increase the drag. Helicopters plucked them from the sea and took them to the recovery ship, the aircraft carrier .


title: Gordon Cooper

text: The two astronauts established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of in 190 hours and 56 minutes—just short of eight days—showing that astronauts could survive in space for the length of time necessary to go from the Earth to the Moon and back. Cooper became the first astronaut to make a second orbital flight.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper served as backup Command Pilot for Gemini 12, the last of the Gemini missions, with Gene Cernan as his pilot.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In November 1964, Cooper entered the $28,000 Salton City boat race with racehorse owner Ogden Phipps and racing car driver Chuck Daigh. They were in fourth place when a cracked motor forced them to withdraw. The next year Cooper and Grissom had an entry in the race, but were disqualified after failing to make a mandatory meeting. Cooper competed in the Southwest Championship Drag Boat races at La Porte, Texas, later in 1965, and in the 1967 Orange Bowl Regatta with fire fighter Red Adair. In 1968, he entered the 24 Hours of Daytona with Charles Buckley, the NASA chief of security at the Kennedy Space Center. The night before the race, NASA management ordered him to withdraw due to the dangers involved. Cooper upset NASA management by quipping to the press that "NASA wants astronauts to be tiddlywinks players."


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was selected as backup Commander for the May 1969 Apollo 10 mission. This placed him in line for the position of Commander of Apollo 13, according to the usual crew rotation procedure established by Slayton as Director of Flight Crew Operations. However, when Shepard, the Chief of the Astronaut Office, returned to flight status in May 1969, Slayton replaced Cooper with Shepard as Commander of this crew. This mission subsequently became Apollo 14 to give Shepard more time to train. Loss of this command placed Cooper further down the flight rotation, meaning he would not fly until one of the later flights, if ever.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Slayton alleged that Cooper had developed a lax attitude towards training during the Gemini program; for the Gemini 5 mission, other astronauts had to coax him into the simulator. However, according to Walter Cunningham, Cooper and Scott Carpenter were the only Mercury astronauts who consistently attended geology classes. Slayton later asserted that he never intended to rotate Cooper to another mission, and assigned him to the Apollo 10 backup crew simply because of a lack of qualified astronauts with command experience at the time. Slayton noted that Cooper had a slim chance of receiving the Apollo 13 command if he did an outstanding job as backup commander of Apollo 10, but Slayton felt that Cooper did not.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Dismayed by his stalled astronaut career, Cooper retired from NASA and the USAF on July 31, 1970, with the rank of colonel, having flown 222 hours in space. Soon after he divorced Trudy, he married Suzan Taylor, a schoolteacher, in 1972. They had two daughters: Colleen Taylor, born in 1979; and Elizabeth Jo, born in 1980. They remained married until his death in 2004.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: After leaving NASA, Cooper served on several corporate boards and as technical consultant for more than a dozen companies in fields ranging from high performance boat design to energy, construction, and aircraft design. Between 1962 and 1967, he was president of Performance Unlimited, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of racing and marine engines, and fiberglass boats. He was president of GCR, which designed, tested and raced championship cars, conducted tire tests for race cars, and worked on installation of turbine engines on cars. He served on the board of Teletest, which designed and installed advanced telemetry systems; Doubloon, which designed and built treasure hunting equipment; and Cosmos, which conducted archeological exploration projects.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: As part owner and race project manager of the Profile Race Team from 1968 to 1970, Cooper designed and raced high performance boats. Between 1968 and 1974 he served as a technical consultant at Republic Corp., and General Motors, Ford and Chrysler Motor Companies, where he was a consultant on design and construction of various automotive components. He was also a technical consultant for Canaveral International, Inc., for which he developed technical products and served in public relations on its land development projects, and served on the board of directors of APECO, Campcom LowCom, and Crafttech.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was president of his own consulting firm, Gordon Cooper & Associates, Inc., which was involved in technical projects ranging from airline and aerospace fields to land and hotel development. From 1973 to 1975, he worked for The Walt Disney Company as the vice president of research and development for Epcot. In 1989, he became the chief executive of Galaxy Group, Inc., a company which designed and improved small airplanes.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In Cooper's autobiography, "Leap of Faith", co-authored with Bruce Henderson, he recounted his experiences with the Air Force and NASA, along with his efforts to expose an alleged UFO conspiracy theory. In his review of the book, space historian Robert Pearlman wrote: "While no one can argue with someone's experiences, in the case of Cooper's own sightings, I found some difficulty understanding how someone so connected with ground breaking technology and science could easily embrace ideas such as extraterrestrial visits with little more than anecdotal evidence."


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper claimed to have seen his first UFO while flying over West Germany in 1951, although he denied reports he had seen a UFO during his Mercury flight. On May 3, 1957, when Cooper was at Edwards, he had a crew set up an Askania Cinetheodolite precision landing system on a dry lake bed. This cinetheodolite system could take pictures at thirty frames per second as an aircraft landed. The crew consisted of James Bittick and Jack Gettys, who began work at the site just before 08:00, with both still and motion picture cameras. According to Cooper's accounts, when they returned later that morning they reported that they had seen a "strange-looking, saucer-like" aircraft that did not make a sound either on landing or take-off.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper recalled that these men, who saw experimental aircraft on a regular basis as part of their job, were clearly unnerved. They explained how the saucer hovered over them, landed away using three extended landing gears, and then took off as they approached for a closer look. He called a special Pentagon number to call to report such incidents, and was instructed to have their film developed, but to make no prints of it, and send it in to the Pentagon right away in a locked courier pouch.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: As Cooper had not been instructed to "not" look at the negatives before sending them, he did. Cooper claimed that the quality of the photography was excellent, and what he saw was exactly what Bittick and Gettys had described to him. He expected that there would be a follow-up investigation, since an aircraft of unknown origin had landed at a classified military installation, but never heard about the incident again. He was never able to track down what happened to those photos, and assumed they ended up going to the Air Force's official UFO investigation, Project Blue Book, which was based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper claimed until his death that the U.S. government was indeed covering up information about UFOs. He pointed out that there were hundreds of reports made by his fellow pilots, many coming from military jet pilots sent to respond to radar or visual sightings. In his memoirs, Cooper wrote he had seen unexplained aircraft several times during his career, and that hundreds of reports had been made. In 1978 he testified before the UN on the topic. Throughout his later life Cooper repeatedly expressed in interviews that he had seen UFOs, and described his recollections for the 2003 documentary "Out of the Blue".


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper died at age 77 from heart failure at his home in Ventura, California, on October 4, 2004. Cooper was the last American to have flown a solo mission in space until, on June 21, 2004, Mike Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne to an altitude of on its first spaceflight.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: A portion of Cooper's ashes (along with those of "Star Trek" actor James Doohan and 206 others) was launched from New Mexico on April 29, 2007, on a sub-orbital memorial flight by a privately owned UP Aerospace SpaceLoft XL sounding rocket. The capsule carrying the ashes fell back toward Earth as planned; it was lost in mountainous landscape. The search was obstructed by bad weather, but after a few weeks the capsule was found, and the ashes it carried were returned to the families. The ashes were then launched on the "Explorers" orbital mission on August 3, 2008, but were lost when the Falcon 1 rocket failed two minutes into the flight.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: On May 22, 2012, another portion of Cooper's ashes was among those of 308 people included on the SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 that was bound for the International Space Station. This flight, using the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon capsule, was uncrewed. The second stage and the burial canister remained in the initial orbit that the Dragon C2+ was inserted into, and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere a month later.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper received many awards, including the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the Collier Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, the DeMolay Legion of Honor, the John F. Kennedy Trophy, the Iven C. Kincheloe Award, the Air Force Association Trophy, the John J. Montgomery Award, the General Thomas D. White Trophy, the University of Hawaii Regents Medal, the Columbus Medal, and the Silver Antelope Award. He received an honorary D.Sc. from Oklahoma State University in 1967.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: He was one of five Oklahoman astronauts inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame in 1980. He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1981, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on May 11, 1990.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the American Astronautical Society, Scottish Rite and York Rite Masons, Shriners, the Royal Order of Jesters, the Rotary Club, Order of Daedalians, Confederate Air Force, Adventurers' Club of Los Angeles, and Boy Scouts of America. He was a Master Mason (member of Carbondale Lodge # 82 in Carbondale, Colorado), and was given the honorary 33rd Degree by the Scottish Rite Masonic body.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper's Mercury astronaut career and appealing personality were depicted in the 1983 film "The Right Stuff", in which he was portrayed by Dennis Quaid. Cooper worked closely with the production company, and every line uttered by Quaid was reportedly attributable to Cooper's recollection. Quaid met with Cooper before the casting call and learned his mannerisms. Quaid had his hair cut and dyed to match Cooper's appearance in the 1950s and 1960s.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper was later portrayed by Robert C. Treveiler in the 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon", and by Bret Harrison in the 2015 ABC TV series "The Astronaut Wives Club". That year, he was also portrayed by Colin Hanks in the Season 3 episode "Oklahoma" of "Drunk History", written by Laura Steinel, which retold the story of his Mercury-Atlas 9 flight.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: While he was in space, Cooper recorded dark spots he noticed in the waters of the Caribbean. He believed these anomalies may be the locations of shipwrecks. The 2017 Discovery Channel docu-series "Cooper's Treasure" followed by Darrell Miklos as he searched through Cooper's files to discover the location of the suspected shipwrecks.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: Cooper appeared as himself in an episode of the television series "CHiPs", and during the early 1980s made regular call-in appearances on chat shows hosted by David Letterman, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas. The "Thunderbirds" character Gordon Tracy was named after him. He was also a major contributor to the book "In the Shadow of the Moon" (published after his death), which offered his final published thoughts on his life and career.


title: Gordon Cooper

text: In 2019, National Geographic began filming a television series based on Tom Wolfe's 1979 book "The Right Stuff". Colin O'Donoghue is portraying Gordon Cooper. While the series was set to air in spring of 2020, the first two episodes aired on October 9, 2020, on subscription service Disney+.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The Penn State child sex abuse scandal concerned allegations and subsequent convictions of child sexual abuse committed by Jerry Sandusky, an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team, over a period of at least fifteen years. The scandal began to emerge publicly in March 2011 and broke in early November 2011 when Sandusky was indicted on 52 counts of child molestation, stemming from incidents that occurred between 1994 and 2009. Sandusky was ultimately convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse on June 22, 2012, and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Additionally, three Penn State officials school president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges. The Penn State Board of Trustees commissioned an independent investigation by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, whose report stated that Penn State's longtime head football coach Joe Paterno, along with Spanier, Curley and Schultz, had known about allegations of child abuse by Sandusky as early as 1998, had shown "total and consistent disregard...for the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims", and "empowered" Sandusky to continue his acts of abuse by failing to disclose them. Shortly after the scandal broke, Spanier resigned. The Board of Trustees terminated the contracts of Paterno and Curley.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: As a result of the scandal, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) imposed sanctions on the Penn State football program: a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions, and a vacation of all victories from 1998 to 2011. These sanctions were considered to be among the most severe ever imposed on an NCAA member school. NCAA President Mark Emmert stated that the sanctions were levied "not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people." The Big Ten Conference subsequently imposed an additional $13 million fine.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The Paterno family retained former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to conduct a review of the Freeh report, which concluded that the report constituted a "rush to injustice" that could not be relied upon and that Freeh's evidence fell "far short" of showing that Joe Paterno attempted to conceal the scandal, but rather that "the contrary is true". In January 2013, state senator Jake Corman and state treasurer Rob McCord sued the NCAA, seeking to overturn the Penn State sanctions on the basis that Freeh had been actively collaborating with the organization and that due process had not been followed. In November 2014, Corman released emails showing "regular and substantive" contact between Freeh's investigators and the NCAA, suggesting that Freeh's conclusions were orchestrated. As part of a settlement, the NCAA restored the 111 wins to Paterno's record on January 16, 2015.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On March 25, 2017, Curley, Schultz, and Spanier pleaded or were found guilty of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment. All conspiracy charges against Curley and Schultz were dropped, and Spanier was acquitted of conspiracy, the charges central to Louis Freeh's allegation of a cover-up. In June 2017, all three were sentenced to jail terms, fines, and probation for the misdemeanors. Spanier was sentenced to four to twelve months in jail, a $7,500 fine, and two years of probation. Spanier's misdemeanor conviction was overturned by the federal district court, but reinstated by the court of appeals in December 2020.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Jerry Sandusky was an assistant coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team from 1969 to 1999. For the last 23 of those years, Sandusky was the team's defensive coordinator. In 1977, he founded The Second Mile in State College, Pennsylvania, a charity formed to help disadvantaged youth.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: In Pennsylvania, a grand jury only "recommends" criminal charges. It hears all of the available evidence but does not have authority to indict the accused. In the case of Sandusky, the grand jury investigation began in 2009 under commonwealth attorney general and later-governor Tom Corbett. The grand jury subpoenaed records from both Penn State and The Second Mile, and heard testimony from Victim 1 (Aaron Fisher), Mike McQueary, Joe Paterno, Tim Curley, Gary Schultz, Victim 7, Graham Spanier, Victim 4, and Ronald Petrosky (Penn State janitor). This grand jury did not recommend indictment.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Commonwealth attorney general Linda L. Kelly prepared a presentment which included credibility determinations about the testimonies received before the first grand jury for the second grand jury. This second grand jury heard testimony from Victim 3, Victim 5, and Victim 6. Kelly said that during the investigation there was an "uncooperative atmosphere" from some Penn State officials.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The investigation was initiated in the spring of 2008 after Aaron Fisher (identified in court papers as "Victim 1"), then a freshman at Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, reported that Sandusky had been molesting him since age 12. Fisher met Sandusky through The Second Mile in the mid-2000s, when Sandusky began making advances toward Fisher which involved "inappropriate touching". At the time of the alleged actions, Sandusky was volunteering as an assistant football coach at Central Mountain High School, where these assaults took place.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant and later assistant coach at Penn State, testified that on approximately February 9, 2001, he had been inside the Lasch Football Building, located on Penn State's University Park campus, when he witnessed a naked Sandusky standing directly behind a boy whose hands were up on the wall in the men's shower room. McQueary, distraught, left the building and called his father John, who told Mike to come over to his house right away and talk to him. While Mike was on the way to his father's, John called Dr. Jonathan Dranov, his boss and family friend, seeking his advice. As President of Centre Medical and Surgical Associates, Dranov was a mandated reporter in the state of Pennsylvania. Dranov testified that he questioned Mike three times about what he saw, and each time Mike kept going back to what he witnessed. Because there was no clear crime witnessed by Mike, Dranov and John recommended he talk to head football coach Joe Paterno.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On Saturday morning, Mike McQueary called Paterno to arrange a meeting, and the two met at Paterno's home later that same morning. McQueary testified he gave a rough report of what he had seen but that, out of respect, he did not share more graphic details. Paterno left for Pittsburgh to attend an awards ceremony shortly after meeting with McQueary and did not return to State College until late Saturday night or Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, Paterno called then-athletic director Tim Curley regarding the incident. Curley, along with then-university vice president Gary Schultz, both went to Paterno's home, where Paterno told them about McQueary's story and advised them to speak directly to McQueary themselves to get the full details. In his grand jury testimony, Paterno said that he was told about Sandusky "fondling or doing something of a sexual nature" to the victim.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On Monday, Curley and Schultz reported the incident to Graham Spanier, who was president of Penn State at the time. Spanier told them to meet with the graduate assistant, which he was not told to be McQueary. Nine or ten days later (the exact date is unknown), McQueary received a phone call from Curley regarding the incident and set up a meeting with Curley and Schultz in the Bryce Jordan Center, either that same afternoon or the next day, to go over the details of what had happened in the shower room. Curley and Schultz both denied having been told about alleged anal intercourse. Curley denied that McQueary reported anything of a sexual nature whatsoever and described the conduct as merely "horsing around". Spanier likewise testified that he was only apprised of an incident involving Sandusky and a younger child "horsing around in the shower".


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Curley then met with Sandusky and told him he was not to be using Penn State's athletic facilities with any young people, and Curley reported the incident to Jack Raykovitz, who, as the CEO of The Second Mile, was Sandusky's boss and also a mandated reporter. The Second Mile fell under the direct supervision and authority of Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare, and was a contractor of the local county office of Children and Youth Services. Raykovitz was also a highly trained professional on handling such allegations. He reported the incident to two board members of The Second Mile, Bruce Heim and Bob Poole, and told Sandusky to wear shorts in the shower in the future. Despite Penn State banning Sandusky from bringing boys onto the main campus after the McQueary incident, he was allowed to operate a summer camp through his Sandusky Associates company from 2002 to 2008 at Penn State's Behrend satellite campus near Erie, where he had daily contact with boys from fourth grade to high school.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: One child's mother reported a 1998 incident to Penn State police when her son came home with his hair wet. After an investigation by Detective Ronald Shreffler, Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar chose not to prosecute. Shreffler testified before the grand jury that the director of the campus police then told him to drop the case, and that detectives had eavesdropped on conversations during which the mother confronted Sandusky about the incident. Sandusky admitted to showering with other boys and refused to discontinue the practice. Gricar was not available to testify, as he had disappeared in 2005.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Victims also commonly reported that Sandusky would place his hand on their thighs or inside the waistband of their underpants. Two recounted oral sex with Sandusky, sometimes culminating in his ejaculation. Penn State janitor James Calhoun reportedly observed Sandusky performing oral sex on an unidentified boy in 2000, but by the time of Sandusky's trial Calhoun was in a nursing home suffering from dementia; he was deemed not competent to testify.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: At least twenty of the incidents were said to have taken place while Sandusky was still employed by Penn State.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 4, 2011, commonwealth attorney general Linda L. Kelly indicted Sandusky on forty counts of sex crimes against young boys following a three-year investigation. Sandusky was arrested on November 5 and charged with seven counts of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, as well as eight counts of corruption of minors, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child, seven counts of indecent assault, and other offenses. Penn State officially banned Sandusky from campus on November 6. He was arrested again at his residence on December 7, 2011, on additional charges of sexual abuse.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Schultz and Curley, who had been found to be not credible by the grand jury, were charged with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse. The indictment accused Curley and Schultz of not only failing to tell the police, but falsely telling the grand jury that McQueary never informed them of sexual activity. Sandusky was then released on $250,000 bail pending trial. Curley and Schultz appeared in a Harrisburg courtroom on November 7, where a judge set bail at $75,000 and required them to surrender their passports. Curley was placed on administrative leave, and Schultz resigned to go back into retirement. Spanier was criticized for issuing a statement expressing support for Curley and Schultz, while failing to express any concern for Sandusky's alleged victims.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Congressman Pat Meehan asked Education Secretary Arne Duncan to probe whether Penn State violated the Clery Act when it failed to report Sandusky's alleged actions on campus. Duncan announced an investigation into possible Clery Act violations at Penn State, saying that colleges and universities have "a legal and moral responsibility to protect children" and that Penn State's failure to report the alleged abuse would be a "tragedy". Officials in San Antonio, Texas also began investigating whether Sandusky molested one of the victims at the 1999 Alamo Bowl.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On February 24, 2012, the Harrisburg "Patriot-News" reported that U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith was conducting a federal criminal investigation into Penn State separate from the Clery Act investigation in which he subpoenaed the school for information about Spanier, Sandusky, Curley, Schultz and The Second Mile. Specifically, Smith subpoenaed information about Sandusky's travel records in relation to allegations that he had molested boys at both the 1999 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio and the 1999 Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida. Although federal authorities would have jurisdiction in the case since Sandusky was accused of taking the boys across state lines, three former prosecutors interviewed by "The Patriot-News" believed that this investigation did not appear to be focusing on Sandusky, but instead on a possible coverup by school officials.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: During Sandusky's trial, an accuser and Sandusky's wife Dottie both testified about the Alamo Bowl incident. The accuser said Sandusky was attempting to negotiate oral sex with him in a bathroom while Dottie was in the apartment, and that she came to the "edge" of the bathroom for a few words with Sandusky including, "What are you doing in there?" Dottie said Sandusky was having a disagreement, including yelling, with the boy — who she said was in the bathroom, but "clothed" — about attending a luncheon. She went on to characterize the boy as "very demanding. ... And he was very conniving. And he wanted his way, and he didn't listen a whole lot." Dottie testified when it was still uncertain whether Sandusky would testify. Though Sandusky's defense attorney Joe Amendola had said on the opening day of the trial that he would testify, Amendola ultimately rested the case without calling Sandusky to testify in his own defense.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On the evening of June 22, 2012, the jury found Sandusky guilty on 45 of the 48 counts against him. Following the announcement of the verdict, Judge John Cleland immediately revoked Sandusky's bail and ordered him to be taken into custody to await sentencing. Sandusky continued to maintain his innocence even after being convicted. His attorneys filed a notice to appeal the conviction.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Sandusky faced a maximum sentence of 442 years in prison. According to NBC News, he likely faced a minimum sentence of 60 years – at his age, effectively a life sentence. Sentencing was scheduled for October 9, 2012. At that hearing, prosecutors requested to the court that Sandusky be declared a sexually violent predator under Pennsylvania's version of Megan's Law, which would subject him to stringent reporting requirements if he is released. He would not only have to report his address to police every three months for the rest of his life, but would also have to participate in a court-approved counseling program. However, this designation would likely be symbolic since Sandusky will almost certainly die in prison. Earlier, on August 30, the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board recommended that Sandusky be declared a sexually violent predator.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On the day of sentencing, Sandusky was officially designated a sexually violent predator. He was sentenced on October 9, 2012, to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison. Judge Cleland told Sandusky that he intentionally avoided a sentence with a large number of years, saying it would be "too abstract." Nonetheless, he still felt the need to pronounce a sentence that would have the "unmistakable impact of saying 'the rest of your life' (in prison)". He is presently not slated to be released until October 9, 2042, when he will be 98 years old–all but assuring that he will die in prison.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 1, 2012, the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" and NBC News, citing sources close to the investigation, reported that Spanier would be formally charged for his alleged role related to Sandusky's crimes. Later that day, Kelly announced that as part of a superseding indictment, Spanier, Curley and Schultz had been charged with grand jury perjury, child endangerment, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice in connection with the scandal. Spanier faced eight charges, three of which were felonies. A criminal docket was filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Preliminary hearings for Curley and Schultz were held on December 16, 2011. Prosecution presented several witnesses. McQueary took the stand again and testified that, on the night of the 2001 incident, he saw a 10- to 12-year-old Caucasian boy standing upright in the shower, facing the wall, and Sandusky directly behind him, with Sandusky's hands wrapped around the boy's "waist or midsection". McQueary estimated that the boy was roughly a foot shorter than Sandusky. He further stated that he "did not see insertion nor was there any verbiage or protest, screaming or yelling" and denied ever using the words "anal" or "rape" to describe the incident to anybody.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On July 30, 2013, Spanier, Schultz, and Curley were ordered by Judge William Wenner to stand trial. On January 22, 2016, some of the charges against Curley, Schultz, and Spanier were dropped due to the violation of their rights to legal representation.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On March 24, 2017, Spanier was found guilty of one charge of child endangerment and not guilty of the second charge of child endangerment or conspiracy. Curley and Schultz had previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges and testified at Spanier's trial in exchange for all other charges, including conspiracy, being dropped. On June 2, 2017, Spanier, Schultz and Curley were sentenced to prison by Senior Judge John Boccabella. "Why no one made a phone call to the police...is beyond me. Why Mr. Sandusky was allowed to continue to use the Penn State facilities is beyond me," Boccabella said.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Spanier was sentenced to four to twelve months with two months in jail and four months house arrest, followed by two years of probation and a $7,500 fine. Spanier's conviction was subsequently overturned on appeal. Spanier's conviction was reinstated in December 2020, and he served 58 days in prison in summer 2021. Curley was sentenced to a seven to 23-month jail term, with four months of it as house arrest, followed by two years of probation and a $5,000 fine. Schultz was sentenced to a six to 23-month jail term also with four months of it as house arrest, followed by two years of probation and a $5,000 fine.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The "Patriot-News" was the first media outlet to report on the Sandusky grand jury investigation in March 2011. The story did not receive much attention outside of the immediate area, and many readers at the time assailed the newspaper for impugning the reputations of Sandusky and Penn State. After the criminal charges against Sandusky were filed in November, 2011, the paper was vindicated. In April 2012, crime reporter Sara Ganim and members of the "Patriot-News" staff were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for their coverage of the scandal.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Under Pennsylvania law of the time, any state employee who learned about suspected child abuse was required to report the incident to his immediate supervisor. In the case of the 2002 incident, McQueary reported the incident to his immediate supervisor, Paterno. In turn, Paterno reported the incident to "his" immediate supervisor, Curley, and also reported it to Schultz, to whom the University Police Department directly reported. For these reasons, Paterno and McQueary were not implicated in any criminal wrongdoing, since they did what they were legally required to do. However, once the incident came to light, Paterno was criticized for not going beyond the law to report the incident to police, or at least seeing to it that it was reported. Several advocates for victims of sexual abuse argued that Paterno should have faced charges for not going to the police himself when it was apparent Penn State officials were unwilling to act.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: After McQueary was identified as the graduate assistant who reported the 2001 incident, he was criticized for not intervening to protect Sandusky's victim (an accusation McQueary has since disputed), as well as for not reporting the incident to police himself. On November 7, Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said that though some may have fulfilled their legal obligation to report suspected abuse, "somebody has to question about what I would consider the moral requirements for a human being that knows of sexual things that are taking place with a child." Noonan added that anyone who knows about suspected abuse, "whether you're a football coach or a university president or the guy sweeping the building" has "a moral responsibility to call us." Paterno said McQueary informed him that "he had witnessed an incident in the shower ... but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report." Paterno was uncertain if being more graphic would have made a difference. "And to be frank with you I don't know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man," said Paterno. When he read the presentment after it became public, he asked his son, "What is sodomy, anyway?"


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Further, following reports of the arrests, criticism of Penn State leadership and Paterno himself included calls for their dismissal for allegedly "protecting Penn State's brand instead of a child" and allowing Sandusky to retain "emeritus" status and unfettered access to the university, despite knowledge of the allegations of sexual abuse. In an interview with New York City radio station WFAN, sports reporter Kim Jones, a Penn State alumna, stated that, "I can't believe [Paterno's] heart is that black, where he simply never thought about [Sandusky's 2001 incident] again and never thought about those poor kids who were looking for a male mentor, a strong man in their life." Former sports commentator Keith Olbermann called for Paterno to be immediately fired, saying that "he failed all of the kids—the kid kids and the player kids—he purported to be protecting." In an editorial for the "Centre Daily Times," literary critic Robert Bernard Hass, a Penn State alumnus, compared Paterno's downfall to a Greek tragedy and suggested that despite his many good deeds, pride and age contributed to his failure to report the incident to police. The "Patriot-News" published a rare full-page, front-page editorial in its November 8, 2011, edition, calling for Spanier's immediate resignation as Penn State president; it also called for this to be Paterno's last season coaching Penn State football. The same day, an editorial in the "Post-Gazette" called for the resignations of both Paterno and McQueary.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 14, Sandusky gave his first interview after being arrested. In a phone interview with NBC Sports's Bob Costas on "Rock Center with Brian Williams", Sandusky denied the allegations, though he admitted showering with boys and inadvertently touching them "without intent of sexual contact". The interview received substantial coverage in the media, particularly regarding the manner in which Sandusky answered Costas when asked if he was sexually attracted to young boys:


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The day of the interview, Sandusky's lawyer claimed that he was able to track down Victim 2 and that, according to the child, the incident did not occur as described by McQueary. However, in the days following the interview, several potential victims contacted State College lawyer Andy Shubin alleging abuse by Sandusky, with one accuser reporting an abusive encounter with Sandusky in the 1970s.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The media began to run various accounts of Penn State culture, as well as the prominence and power of football and of Paterno within it. Former Penn State employees, including a former vice president of student affairs Vickey Tripone, and former football grad assistant Matt Paknis himself a child abuse survivor who admitted he noticed but failed to report Sandusky's behavior stepped forward to critique the influence of the school's football program. Further stories detailed the loss of sponsorships, the damage to Penn State's merchandise sales, brand, student admissions, and the impact of the scandal on recent graduates.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 23, 2011, the editor of the "Patriot-News" wrote a column criticizing "The New York Times" for insufficiently protecting the identity of Victim 1. The "Times" both defended its reporting and published public editor criticism of the reporting.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On December 3, 2014, KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh reported that Sandusky received a letter from Penn State asking to renew his season ticket plan for the football team and attend a "recruiting" trip to a Penn State basketball game. The letter was reportedly sent out in error.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Jack Raykovitz, the longtime president and CEO of The Second Mile, announced his resignation on November 14. In addition, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute's Angels in Adoption program subsequently rescinded its earlier 2002 award to Sandusky for his work with The Second Mile "in light of the serious allegations against him, and to preserve the integrity of the Angels in Adoption program."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The allegations impacted personnel and operations for Penn State. Penn State responded in various ways.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 8, 2011, Spanier canceled Paterno's weekly Tuesday press conference, citing legal concerns. It was to have been the coach's first public appearance since Sandusky's arrest. Paterno later reported that Spanier canceled the press conference without providing him with an explanation. That same day, "The New York Times" reported that Penn State was planning Paterno's exit at the close of the 2011 college football season. Based on interviews with two individuals briefed on conversations among top university officials, the "Times" reported: "The Board of Trustees has yet to determine the precise timing of Mr. Paterno's exit, but it is clear that (he) will not coach another season." The following day, Associated Press reported that Paterno had decided to retire at the end of the 2011 season, saying that he didn't want to be a distraction. In a statement announcing his retirement, Paterno said, "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On the afternoon of November 9, Easton "Express-Times" reported that the Board had given Spanier an ultimatum—resign before that night's meeting or be fired. At that night's meeting, Spanier offered his immediate resignation. The Board accepted it and named provost Rodney Erickson as interim president. Several Penn State sources told StateCollege.com and the "Patriot-News" that Spanier and vice chairman John Surma mutually agreed that the best way forward for all involved would be for Spanier to resign "voluntarily and with grace." At the same meeting, the Board turned down Paterno's proposal to finish out the season and instead stripped him of his coaching duties immediately; defensive coordinator Tom Bradley was named the interim coach for the remainder of the season.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: During the week after Paterno's firing, the Big Ten Conference removed his name from the championship trophy for its conference championship game, renaming it the Stagg Championship Trophy. The inaugural game was scheduled for December 2011, and the trophy was originally named the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy after both Paterno and Amos Alonzo Stagg, a college football pioneer. In addition, the Maxwell Football Club announced that the Joseph V. Paterno Award, presented to the college football coach who did the most to develop his players both on and off the field, would be discontinued.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: An attorney retained by the families of some of Sandusky's victims criticized the decision by the Board to fire Paterno, saying, "The school let the victims down once, and I think they owed it to the victims to at least gauge how the immediate termination decision would impact them as opposed to Mr. Paterno's resignation at the end of the year." However, one of the trustees told Allentown "Morning Call" that the Board had no choice but to force Paterno to leave immediately to contain the growing outrage over the scandal. According to the trustee, the Board considered letting Paterno finish the season with Bradley as team spokesman, but ultimately decided that would still keep the focus on Paterno. The Board also did not like that Paterno released statements on his own rather than through the school, with some board members feeling he may have breached his contract. The trustee also noted that he and many of his colleagues felt Paterno either "knew about [the abuse] and swept it under the rug, or he didn't ask enough questions." The board was also angered by Spanier's statements of support for Curley and Schultz. A few months later, chairman Steve Garban and vice chairman John Surma issued a statement saying that the board felt Paterno "could not be expected to continue to effectively perform his duties" in the wake of the scandal.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On March 12, the Board of Trustees released what it described as its final statement on the ouster of Spanier and Paterno, stating that Spanier not only made unauthorized statements to the press, but failed to tell the Board all he knew about the 2001 incident. It also said that Paterno demonstrated a "failure of leadership" by not going to the police. The Board said it had every intention of sending someone to personally inform Paterno of the decision, but was unable to do so because of a large number of people surrounding his house. Rather than risk having Paterno learn about the decision via the media, the Board decided to order him to leave immediately via telephone.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: However, in late 2014 and early 2015, court depositions by trustees Kenneth Frazier and Keith Masser conflicted with the "failure of leadership" story. As stated by Masser in his deposition in state senator Jake Corman's lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), "The decision to remove Coach Paterno had nothing to do with what he had known, what he hadn't done. It was based upon the distraction of having him on the sidelines would have caused the university and the current football team harm. It had nothing to do with what Coach Paterno had done, or hadn't done." Frazier's testimony added that, given what had been reported publicly and in the grand jury presentment, he felt that Coach Paterno leading the football team onto the field would not send the right message. It was his opinion that, although the board needed to be careful to understand all the facts, the decision about relieving Paterno of his coaching duties did not depend on knowing the key facts of Paterno's alleged involvement. Rather, given the seriousness of the matter, Frazier's main concern was the public perception of the University's values if Coach Paterno were to remain as coach.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Spanier remained a tenured sociology professor at Penn State, despite being stripped of his duties as president. Likewise, Paterno remained a tenured member of the Penn State faculty, and was treated as having retired. The Board was still finalizing Paterno's retirement package at the time of his death from lung cancer two months later, on January 22, 2012. On October 16, 2012, Penn State announced it would not renew Curley's contract when it expired in June 2013.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 21, 2011, Frazier announced that Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, would lead an internal investigation into Penn State's actions. Freeh announced that the team assisting him in his investigation would include former FBI agents and federal prosecutors. As the Sandusky trial proceeded toward conviction in June 2012, it was reported that "[t]he university says that [Freeh's] report should be out this summer and will be released to the trustees and the public simultaneously without being reviewed by the school's general counsel's office".


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The Freeh report was released on July 12, 2012. Freeh concluded that Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz were complicit in "conceal[ing] Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities." According to Exhibit 2F of the report, Spanier and Schultz felt that approaching Sandusky as a first step was a more "humane" approach. Freeh's press release was critical of all four for not expressing the same feeling toward his victim. The report was also critical of Penn State's general counsel, Cynthia Baldwin. Freeh concluded that Schultz, Spanier, Curley and Paterno "failed to protect against a child sexual predator harming children for over a decade", as well as violated the Clery Act. The report also stated the four men not only made no effort to identify the victim of the 2001 incident, but alerted Sandusky to McQueary's allegations against him, thus potentially putting the victim in more danger.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: In addition, the report said that the four men "exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims by failing to inquire as to their safety and well-being." The report stated that the men knew about the 1998 incident but "empowered Sandusky to attract potential victims to the campus and football events by allowing him to have continued, unrestricted and unsupervised access to the University's facilities and affiliation with the University's prominent football program" while the investigation was underway. The report stated that Paterno was asked in January 2011 by the grand jury about inappropriate sexual conduct with young boys, other than the 2001 incident. He replied, "I do not know of it. ... I don't know. I don't remember." Spanier had granted Sandusky "emeritus" status, and the perquisites of that status, upon his retirement in 1999, to the dismay of provost Rodney Erickson and vice provost Robert Secor. In emails dated August 31, 1999, Erickson said, "Let's go ahead and grant it ["emeritus" status], if Graham has already promised it," and Secor wrote, "But we are in a bind. Apparently Graham told [Sandusky] that we would do this, he was wholly within his rights here since the policy says, 'The President may grant (or deny) Emeritus Rank on an exception basis.'" Freeh found no evidence to show that Sandusky's retirement or "emeritus" rank was related to the events at the Lasch Building. In response, Penn State's trustees announced that they accepted the report's conclusions and would implement corrective measures.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On September 13, 2012, a group of alumni and supporters, under the name of Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship, released a review of the Freeh report that was critical of their investigation and conclusions. On February 10, 2013, a report commissioned by the Paterno family was released by Richard Thornburgh, former U.S. Attorney General and former governor of Pennsylvania, maintaining that the report was "seriously flawed, both with respect to the process of [its] investigation and its findings related to Mr. Paterno". In response, Freeh called Thornburgh's report "self-serving" and said that it did not change the facts and findings of his initial investigation. On June 23, 2014, at Sandusky's pension forfeiture appeal, hearing arbiter Michael Bangs ruled that his pension be reinstated and criticized the Freeh report, stating it "was based on significant hearsay and was mostly ruled inadmissible (for the proceedings), [but] was admitted in part to show it had found Sandusky had received 71 separate payments from Penn State between 2000 and 2008". Later in a footnote, Bangs states, "The terrifically significant disparity between the finding in the Freeh report and the actual truth is disturbing. While the Freeh report found that Penn State had made 71 separate payments to [Sandusky] between 2000–2008, they were off by almost 85 percent, as the correct number was six separate payments". Bangs goes on to say that the error "calls into question the accuracy and veracity of the entire report".


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: NBC sportscaster Bob Costas said, "What Freeh did was not only gather facts but he reached a conclusion which is at least debatable from those facts and then he assigned a motivation, not only to Curley and Schultz and Spanier, but he specifically assigned a very dark motivation to Joe Paterno, which seems like it might be quite a leap. ... A reasonable person will conclude that there is some doubt here and that the other side of the story deserves to be heard."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: In January 2012, sports journalist Sally Jenkins secured an interview with Paterno shortly before his death. During the interview, she asked him his views on the Sandusky sexual molestation allegations. Her report of the interview was published January 13, 2012. In it she drew no firm conclusions about Paterno's culpability, but simply reported his words, and those of his lawyer. On July 12, 2012, in a "Washington Post" follow-up column, after the release of the "Freeh Report", Jenkins wrote: "Joe Paterno was a liar, there's no doubt about that now ... Paterno fell prey to the single most corrosive sin in sports: the belief that winning on the field makes you better and more important than other people."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: A building owner removed Sandusky's image from a mural near the university, and the Penn State Creamery renamed an ice cream flavor which had been created in his honor. On top of ousting both Paterno and Spanier, the school also placed McQueary on indefinite paid administrative leave. Steve Garban resigned from the Board of Trustees after the release of the Freeh report, the first member of the Board to do so since the scandal broke. Fisher withdrew from Central Mountain High School due to bullying, and the boy's mother has stated that the high school did not do enough to prevent the fallout.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: In January 2012, new university president Rodney Erickson traveled for a week to speak with alumni in New York, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia in an attempt to repair the university's image. At the meetings, Erickson received harsh criticism from alumni over the firing of Joe Paterno, and also received widespread criticism from the media for attempting to shift the focus away from the university.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: After the Freeh report's release, local organizations called for the removal of the Joe Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium. A small plane towed a banner over campus, reading "Take the Statue Down or We Will". After some days of mixed messages, the school removed the statue on July 22, in front of a crowd of student onlookers. The statue was reportedly put in storage. Erickson said the statue had become "a source of division and an obstacle to healing" but made a distinction between it and the Paterno Library, also on campus. The $13 million 1997 library expansion, partially funded by a $4 million gift from Paterno and his wife Sue, "remains a tribute to Joe and Sue Paterno's commitment to Penn State's student body and academic success, and it highlights the positive impacts coach Paterno had on the university... Thus I feel strongly that the library's name should remain unchanged," Erickson said in the statement.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: A few Penn State students, angered over Spanier's role in the 2001 incident as well as his statement of support for Curley and Schultz, created a Facebook page, "Fire Graham Spanier", to call on Penn State's Board of Trustees to fire him. An online petition at change.org calling for Spanier's ouster garnered over 1,700 signatures in four days.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: After Paterno's ouster was announced on live television, students and non-students protested near the Penn State campus. Sources estimate 10,000 people protested to support Paterno, with some tipping over a WTAJ news van. Some police officers used a "chemical spray" to disperse the demonstrators. Minor injuries were reported. Approximately $200,000 in damage resulted from the protest. Local police criticized the short notice from Penn State administration and the insufficient time to mobilize officers from other areas as factors exacerbating the situation. About 47 people were charged in connection with the protest, and some were subsequently sentenced to a combination of prison terms, probation, community service, and restitution.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 10, a group of Penn State alumni set up and announced ProudPSUforRAINN, a fundraiser for the anti-sexual violence network RAINN with a goal of $500,000, which was exceeded by July 10, 2012. Students also held a candlelight vigil on the lawn of Old Main. The planning for the vigil began the Monday before Paterno's firing and gained steam quickly across campus. It was shown live on news networks across the country, including CNN and ESPN. Former NFL player and sports broadcaster LaVar Arrington, a Penn State alum, spoke at the event which attracted an estimated 10,000.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 17, NCAA President Mark Emmert personally wrote Erickson to ask him how Penn State had exercised control over its athletic program in the wake of the scandal. The letter also demanded answers to four specific questions about how Penn State had complied with NCAA policies during that time. Penn State pledged full cooperation, but asked to defer its response until after the release of the Freeh report. On July 16, Emmert appeared on PBS' "Tavis Smiley" and said that with the release of the Freeh report, Penn State had "weeks, not months" to answer the questions he'd raised in the November letter. He also hinted that he had not ruled out issuing the so-called "death penalty", which would have forced Penn State to cancel at least the 2012 season. The NCAA had not handed down a death penalty to a Division I school since Southern Methodist University (SMU) was hit with it in 1987 for massive violations in its football program.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Shortly after the release of the Freeh report, the NCAA Board gave Emmert the power to take corrective and punitive action relative to Penn State, forgoing the NCAA's normal investigative protocol. On July 22, 2012, the NCAA announced that it would impose "corrective and punitive" sanctions against both the Penn State football program and the institution as a whole the next morning. In announcing the sanctions, Emmert said that, although the behavior could be called more egregious than any other seen in NCAA history, and thus a multi-year suspension was appropriate, they concluded that it was as important to drive "cultural change" at Penn State as much as it was to hold it to account. For this reason, Emmert said, the NCAA believed cancelling one or more football seasons was not appropriate, as it would cause "significant unintended harm to many who had nothing to do with this case." He also praised Erickson and newly installed Board of Trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz with taking corrective measures on their own, saying that they"have demonstrated a strong desire and determination on the part of Penn State to take the steps necessary for the university to right these severe wrongs."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The sanctions took the form of a sweeping consent decree in which Penn State accepted the findings of fact by the NCAA and waived any right to appeal the sanctions. A full release was granted to all players in the program, allowing them to transfer to another school without losing eligibility. According to ESPN's Don Van Natta, Jr., the NCAA and Penn State had already begun preliminary discussions about possible sanctions in mid-July. The "Patriot-News" reported that the NCAA formally forwarded its terms to Penn State's legal team on July 19. Discussions continued over the weekend, and the final agreement was essentially the NCAA's original proposal except for some minor concessions to Penn State. In announcing the sanctions, Emmert said that he intended the Penn State case to be "the cautionary tale of athletics overwhelming core values of the institution and losing sight of why we are really participating in these activities can occur." He also said that the sanctions were necessary to force Penn State to reform its athletic culture.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The Big Ten followed the NCAA actions, concurring with its findings by officially censuring Penn State and levying a separate fine of $13 million. In a statement, the conference stated that its intentions were "not to destroy a great university, but rather to seek justice and constructively assist a member institution with its efforts to reform." The Big Ten financial penalty came as Penn State gave up its four-year share of conference bowl revenue. The $13 million, as with the NCAA fines, will instead be donated to "help victims of child sex abuse".


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The NCAA said it was compelled to act outside the normal investigative process due to what it described as the sheer egregiousness of the misconduct detailed in the Freeh report. In the NCAA's view, Spanier, Curley, Schultz and Paterno's cover-up of Sandusky's crimes constituted "a failure of institutional and individual integrity," and thus violated basic principles of intercollegiate athletics that were over and above specific NCAA policies. Additionally, the NCAA said that since Penn State had commissioned the Freeh report and accepted its findings, further proceedings would be redundant. Emmert himself said that Freeh's investigation was far more exhaustive than any that would have been mounted by the NCAA.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Due to the deviation from normal NCAA investigative process as well as the nature of the sanctions, four trustees of the university filed an appeal of the sanctions. Board member Ryan McCombie, a 26-year U.S. Navy veteran who was elected to the Board in July 2012 by members of the school's alumni association, led the trustee appeal. A letter filed on the trustees' behalf by Paul Kelly of Jackson Lewis LLP called the sanctions "excessive and unreasonable". The letter also argued that Erickson exceeded his authority in accepting the sanctions. In addition, a group of former Penn State football players, including former starting quarterback Michael Robinson, filed their own appeal. However, a spokesman for the NCAA held that the sanctions were not subject to appeal.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The validity of the sanctions later came into question, and emails surfaced that indicated highly ranked officials within the NCAA did not believe the organization had the jurisdiction to pass down the original sanctions. Subsequent emails, brought forward under subpoena, quoted an NCAA vice-president, "I characterized our approach to PSU as a bluff when talking to Mark [Emmert, NCAA president] ... He basically agreed [because] I think he understands that if we made this an enforcement issue, we may win the immediate battle but lose the war." Another vice-president questioned the NCAA's investigation and enforcement process of Penn State, calling it "a bit of a runaway train right now," and wrote that he had concerns regarding the NCAA's jurisdiction to sanction Penn State: "I know we are banking on the fact [Penn State] is so embarrassed they will do anything."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: The NCAA later rescinded many of the sanctions against Penn State. On September 24, 2013, the NCAA announced that Penn State's scholarships would be gradually restored until the number of scholarships reached the normal 85 for the 2016–17 year, the first year after Penn State's postseason ban. A year later, on September 8, 2014, the NCAA announced that Penn State would be eligible for the 2014 postseason and all scholarships would be restored in 2015. Several months later, on January 16, 2015, the NCAA reinstated Paterno and Bradley's wins.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: At least two Penn State trustees, as well as several alumni, criticized Erickson for accepting the NCAA sanctions as quickly as he had. However, in a press conference shortly after the penalties were handed down, Erickson said that as harsh as they were, he had no choice but to accept them. According to Erickson, had Penn State not accepted the penalties, the NCAA would have gone in "another direction"—one that would have included the NCAA canceling at least the 2012 season. Erickson said that under the circumstances, "we had our backs to the wall," and he had no choice but to accept the consent decree since it was the only deal on offer. Erickson subsequently told ESPN's John Barr that Penn State was facing as long as a four-year ban from play had it not agreed to the sanctions that were ultimately imposed.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Erickson went further on July 25, saying that Emmert had personally told him on July 17—the day after Emmert's interview with Smiley—that a majority of the NCAA leadership wanted to shut down Penn State football for four years. He also said that Penn State could have faced a host of other severe penalties, including a fine several times greater than the $60 million ultimately imposed. When Erickson learned this, he immediately started talks with the NCAA, and was able to get the death penalty taken off the table. Erickson discussed his actions with the Board later that night, and the Board resolved that Erickson's actions were understandable under the circumstances.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Emmert and the NCAA Executive Committee's chairman, Oregon State president Edward John Ray, subsequently acknowledged that the NCAA had seriously considered imposing a death penalty, but denied that Penn State had been threatened with one had it not accepted the consent decree. Ray, whose committee was charged by Emmert with designing the sanctions, told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg that while there was considerable debate about whether to include a death penalty among the sanctions, "the overwhelming position of members of both the executive committee and the Division I board was to not include suspension of play." He also "categorically" denied that the NCAA had threatened Penn State with a death penalty had it not accepted the sanctions, and added that using it as a backup in case of such a rejection was "never even a point of discussion within either the executive committee or the Division I board."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: Emmert himself told ESPN's Bob Ley that the death penalty was "unequivocally on the table" as one of the possible sanctions. However, he said, Penn State's swift corrective measures after the scandal broke out in full—including forcing out Spanier and Paterno—were significant factors in ultimately taking the death penalty off the table. "Had Penn State not been as decisive as they were," Emmert said, "I don't know what the outcome would have been, but I suspect it would have been significantly worse." Emmert also repeated Ray's denial that Penn State had been threatened with a multi-year suspension had it not agreed to the penalties, saying there had been "some confusion" about those circumstances. He did say, however, that if Erickson and Penn State had not signed the consent decree, the NCAA would have launched a full-blown infractions investigation that would have had "an unknown outcome."


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: In the consent decree itself, the NCAA acknowledged that there had been some discussion about imposing a "death penalty," but noted that this severe penalty was primarily reserved for repeat violators who neither cooperated with the NCAA nor took any corrective measures once the violations came to light. However, it not only noted Penn State's swift corrective action, but also pointed out the school had never been the subject of a major infractions case before. This stood in contrast to the situation at SMU 25 years earlier; school officials at SMU knew major violations were occurring and did nothing to stop them, and the school had been under nearly constant scrutiny from the NCAA for over a decade.


title: Penn State child sex abuse scandal

text: On November 28, 2011, Fisher and his mother hired attorneys to pursue civil claims against both parties. On November 30, the first lawsuit by a victim of sexual abuse was filed against Penn State and Sandusky alleging over 100 incidents of sexual abuse; the victim was identified in the suit only as "John Doe A." A man claiming to be the previously unknown victim of the shower incident ("Victim 2") stepped forward through his lawyers in July 2012 and stated his intentions to file a lawsuit against Penn State. His lawyers, Ross Feller Casey LLP, also released a pair of voicemails from September 2011 that were purportedly left for the firm's client by Sandusky.