Blue White Illustrated

A new Penn State football book by Lou Prato with a forward by Adam Taliaferro The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions Price: $14.95 plus shipping Published by Triumph Books (soft cover) Autographed copies available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-954-5171 Autographed copies of Lou's book We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions are still available via louprato@comcast.net or through Lou Prato & Associates at 814-272-1853. Price: $19.95 plus tax where applicable and shipping convinced he was going to get the job," Coyle said. "Harter was kind of luke- warm about the position. "At the last minute, Bob Scannell called the committee in and said, 'We're going to hire Dick Harter.' Apparently, Bob got on the telephone and talked to Dick long and hard and he agreed to come. The committee supported him, but it was really Scannell's decision." Harter never lived up to expectations, and his autocratic coaching style and ag- gressive personality eventually helped lead to his departure for the NBA after the 1982-83 season. By the time Harter left, the Penn State administration had separated the athlet- ic department from the College of Health, Physical Education and Recre- ation after some behind-the-scenes manipulation by Paterno. Paterno served for two years as athletic director, but by Harter's last season, the longtime football coach had stepped down from the administrative position to focus on football. His successor, Jim Tarman, spearheaded the search for Harter's re- placement, forming a search committee that included Paterno and future athlet- ic director Tim Curley, then Tarman's assistant. Coyle was the committee chairman, and this is when Pitino entered the pic- ture. He had been the head coach at Boston University since 1978, after four years as an assistant at Hawaii and Syra- cuse. "This time we wanted a head coach who had had some success in an aca- demically challenging environment," Coyle said, "and would recruit people who would graduate from Penn State. … We had a lot of recommendations. "I was very impressed with Pitino's in- terview. He was well prepared. His pitch was that Penn State was in an area in which you could attract some great tal- ent. He said he knew Penn State had a history of trying to get some of the best recruits and for us to look at his record because he had always done a good job of developing talent, people just under the wire. Give him two years, he said, and he could develop them into first-class players and team members. He knew his X's and O's and had a good grip on Penn State. "There was a concern by a couple [of people] on the committee [that] Pitino would not fit into the culture at Penn State and would not put enough empha- sis on academics, and we had just bombed with Harter on all that. We felt we had a better choice in Bruce Parkhill [of William & Mary], who grew up in State College, knew the culture and got some pretty good recommendations." Pitino has said publicly in recent years that Paterno offered him the position, telling a news conference in Louisville last New Year's Day he even "went to [Paterno's] house," but he turned down the job. Coyle said Pitino did go to Paterno's house, but he is unaware of any official offer from Paterno: "I don't remember Paterno pushing super hard for Pitino, and he didn't seem upset with the Parkhill selection." So, Parkhill, the Lock Haven graduate with an 89-75 record in six seasons as head coach at William & Mary, was hired. Twelve years later, Parkhill, who never liked recruiting, seemed to have Penn State on the verge of being com- petitive in the tough Big Ten Conference when he unexpectedly resigned in Sep- tember 1995. Two of his assistants, Jerry Dunn and Ed DeChellis, both good re- cruiters, followed with minor successes, but they left without the Lions rising into the top flight of the Big Ten. And now, with Patrick Chambers, an- other "Philly guy," still working to get the Lions to the next level, Penn State's loyal basketball fans are wondering if the past two or three recruiting classes can finally break through and reach the holy grail. Perhaps the words of Rick Pitino and John Bach sum it all up. Pitino: "The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game, are the most important facets of it." Bach: "Recruiting is an essential part of basketball. A coach must recruit or die." ■

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