Joe Pa's Spectacles Creating A Spectacle

Penn State coach Joe Paterno has vision surgery, ditches old glasses
Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Penn State coach Joe Paterno may not need his trademark thick-rimmed glasses any more.

A team spokesman said Thursday the 83-year-old Hall of Famer had vision surgery last month after the Capital One Bowl.

JoePa attended a medical charity function earlier Thursday. He told Fight On State, a Web site that covers Penn State football, that he had been having trouble reading the last six months, so he visited a Philadelphia eye doctor he had known for decades.

Paterno says he still feels funny without glasses, so he had a set made with similar frames but much thinner lenses. He wore those glasses to the charity event.

Paterno had long been known for pacing the sideline during games wearing rolled-up khakis and his smoky, Coke bottle-thick glasses.



Who would have thoight in a week where the NCAA has suggested it will ban writing on players' eye black, the biggest story about eyes this week would be about Joe Paterno? Joe Pa's glasses are his trademark. Joe Pa without the horn rims are like Bear Bryant without the checkered fedora or Jim Tressel without the sweater vest or Mike Leach without the hangover. I know Paterno doesn't need the glasses anymore but he's got to go back to those frames. The new glasses just aren't doing it for me.