Movement afoot to rename Beaver Stadium after JoePa

As he’s 83 years young and about to enter his 45th season as the head coach at Penn State, there’s little doubt that Joe Paterno is inching closer (maybe) to putting a bow on his legendary, sure-fire Hall of Fame career.

After battling an intestinal issue throughout a good portion of the offseason, Coach Paterno looked as frail as he ever has during the Big Ten’s media days earlier this month, leading to intense speculation (again) that this season or next could most certainly be his last. Coach Paterno has shrugged off any talk of his health and retirement, but one man is ramping-up his year-long, grassroots campaign to honor the coach regardless of how long he continues to stalk the sidelines.

From the Allentown Morning Call:

For the past year, Allentown’s Warren Armstrong has been campaigning for Penn State to name the Beaver Stadium football field after Joe Paterno. It would be renamed as Joe Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium.

Armstrong is now turning up his efforts to get the stadium renamed, in part because this could be JoePa’s last year or two of coaching. Armstrong says he has talked to more than 600 people about the idea and virtually everyone is in favor of the idea.

First of all, which spawn of Satan amongst the more than 600 polled was against renaming the Nittany Lions’ home turf Joe Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium?

Secondly, renaming the field Coach Paterno made legendary is the least the university, its officials and their fans can do for the living embodiment of college football.

Florida State did the same thing earlier this decade, renaming their Tallahassee locale Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium in November of 2004, a full five years before Bowden announced his “retirement"; Penn State could and should do the same.

Again, it’s the least they can do.