Paterno led Syracuse to Pasqualoni
If it weren’t for Joe Paterno’s recommendation, Paul Pasqualoni may have never spent 14 years as Syracuse head coach.
In 1987, then-SU head coach Dick MacPherson called Paterno to ask him about Pasqualoni, who played for Paterno at Penn State and later served as an assistant on his staff. And as much as it hurt to cross the rivalry lines, MacPherson wanted to hire him.
Paterno recounted the phone conversation during his weekly teleconference with the media this week:
‘(MacPherson) called me up and said, ‘What do you know about this guy Pasqualoni?” Paterno said. ‘If you know Dick, he’s not a guy that minces words.
‘Paul had played for us and been a (graduate assistant). So I said, ‘What do you want to know about him?’
‘He said, ‘I’m thinking about hiring him as my linebackers coach. God almighty! Do you know how tough it is for me to want to hire a guy that went to Penn State?’
‘I said, ‘Why in God’s name did you call me, MacPherson? If you can get him, get him.’
‘So we played them that year, I went down on the field before the game and I said, ‘How’s my boy Pasqualoni doing?’
‘He said, ‘Boy, he’s something. I’m glad you didn’t talk me out of him.”
Pasqualoni, of course, succeeded MacPherson as Syracuse head coach when MacPherson became head coach of the New England Patriots in 1991. Pasqualoni never coached against Paterno at Syracuse, but finished as the second-winningest coach in school history with a 107-59-1 record before he was fired in 2004. Pasqualoni is now the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.
During the rivalry, MacPherson and Paterno despised one another on the field, but both say now they had a great relationship.
‘I’ve always been very fond of Dick,’ Paterno said.
‘You can’t say anything bad about Joe Paterno as a coach because he’s done so much,’ MacPherson said. ‘I think it’s fantastic that they’re coming in because he firmly believes the people we had should be together.’
MacPherson remembered an exchange he had with Pasqualoni, during his first season as linebackers coach, as the Orangemen trounced Penn State in the Carrier Dome.
‘There were six minutes to go in the third quarter. I said to Paul Pasqualoni, who played for Joe, ‘Could you ever believe you’d be coaching on the other side and be ahead of Penn State, 41-0?” MacPherson said. ‘I mean, everybody on our team was shocked. So you can imagine how much Penn State was shocked.’
Published on September 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm
