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executives in New York had decided to fly in via private jet on a Friday morning to tell the station���s general manager face-to-face he was being fired immediately because of ratings, finances and personnel unrest. Of course, that���s a nice way of telling a loyal employee he���s no longer wanted. Even though a paralyzing snowstorm was forecast for Chicago, the execs were determined to fire him that Friday because they were afraid that word would leak out prematurely and embarrass NBC. Sure enough, the storm hit, resulting in dozens of canceled and delayed passenger flights at O���Hare and Midway. But the execs didn���t turn around and somehow managed to land safely. They didn���t fly back to New York until a day later. The last time I was fired ��� shortly after a new general manager was hired in Dayton in early December 1982 ��� the corporate owners of Hearst were much kinder than those at NBC. My owners decided to delay it until I returned with my family from Penn State���s national championship game against Georgia in New Orleans. A day or so after I was back in my office, I was given the word. So much for my happy mood following Penn State���s first national title. However, they also gave me six months��� pay to help me with my unemployment while I looked for a new job. That���s a cushion you normally don���t get unless you have a contract, and I didn���t have one. As one of my hires in Dayton used to tell me, ���When one door closes, another opens.��� After interviewing for a few positions, including one in San Diego, I was hired by Northwestern���s Medill School of Journalism to supervise its radio and television newsroom in Washington. That put me within four hours of Beaver Stadium for the first time since 1969. I had only seen one Penn State home game between the time I moved to the Midwest and the fall of 1983. My wife Carole and I not only began driving to State College for home games, but because few games were being televised nationally back then, we would also get a motel room in Harrisburg to catch regional telecasts. By 1984 we were season-ticket holders, and I am sure my renewed friendship with Penn State���s athletic staff led them to recommend me to a publisher to write a book about the history of Nittany Lion football that eventually was named the Penn State Football Encyclopedia. And that first book ultimately led to my appointment as the first director of the Penn State All-Sports Museum. I often wonder if that would have happened had that Dayton door not been slammed shut in my face, or if I had taken that job in San Diego. In the television and radio world, and probably many other professions, Friday is the day the guillotine usually falls. Sometimes, it���s over a supposedly friendly lunch and sometimes it���s sudden, in the late afternoon. Whatever time of day, the erstwhile employee frequently has no time to clean out his or her office. Give us your keys and be gone. We���ll send you your personal stuff later. That may seem heartless, but employers don���t want to risk some type of retaliation by the employee, including the theft of important and confidential company information, which often happens. Even the academic world is not immune to firings, despite tenure. I have seen college deans and even presidents ousted after their contracts are up. That may be less stressful than a stunning telephone call or the arrival of corporate executives in the middle of a snowstorm. But it still hurts the ego and one���s pride. Firings are not unusual in major college football and basketball and professional sports because winning is a short-term priority. What has happened with Penn State football since January 2012 is more of a shock because the same coach was there for 46 years. That���s why many of the longtime Penn State fans who watched Paterno and his cadre of loyal assistants take the program to the pinnacle of college football were so upset with the seemingly wholesale changes in the football office. SEE PRATO PAGE 59 In this anecdotal memoir, former Penn State great Dan Radakovich tells all about his experiences as the team���s first linebackers coach and his later role as architect of the Pittsburgh Steelers��� famous ���Steel Curtain��� defensive line. Autographed by author Available through Internet at BadRadFootballNomad.com

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