Young sports reporters, who have only known and covered Penn State football coach Joe Paterno for the past decade or so, don't have the full flavor of the man. I know, writing a statement like that makes me officially old. I used to hate it when I was younger, and some old newspaper greybeard would tell me, "You should have known him during his prime."

I was fresh out of college when Woody Hayes, the legendary Ohio State football coach, slugged a player from the opposing team after it became apparent the Buckeyes would lose their bowl game in 1978. That would be the last game Hayes ever coached, and when an old sportswriter tried to tell me what a great coach and great man Woody had been, I turned around and walked away.

Now Paterno is no Hayes. Yes, he rages at his assistant coaches and at sideline sports announcers who try to bug him as he heads to the lockerroom at halftime, but the soon-to-be 80-year-old Paterno has not let his anger get the best of him. Mostly, he rails against injustice, such as the bogus rule that enabled Wisconsin to twice kick the ball out of bounds to use up the clock at the end of the first half in Saturday's game.

Yes, you could say that first-year Wisconsin coach Bret Bielama was smart to take advantage of the rules. But only from a technical standpoint. Paterno was incensed because, to his way of thinking, Bielama had violated the spirit of the rule. Anyway, you can bet the rule will be changed before next season. It's too bad the referees didn't step in and throw a flag on Wisconsin for delay of game.

A few minutes later, TV football broadcaster Craig James called Paterno "an old fart" during his report at halftime Saturday. But after the coach suffered a broken leg, James returned to the air to apologize profusely.

To be sure, Paterno is crabby, but he's still the same coach who charted his own course in the 1960's. That's when coaching giants such as Alabama's Bear Bryant kept his players in luxurious football dormitories on campus, and treated them more like prized football specimens than college students. Football players at major universities are not typical students, but Paterno went out of his way to help assimilate them into campus life at Penn State.

Paterno and his wife, Sue, would kick off major fund drives for Penn State building projects, such as a new library, with a gift of $1 million or more. It's ironic, I think, that now as he closes in on his 80th birthday, that he would be thought of as an old lion, instead of the breath of fresh air he was when he took over Penn State's program in 1966. But, I suppose, that's what happens when the aging process takes over.

It's good to see that PSU's fans still love Paterno. AP reports that a bronze statue of the coach outside Beaver Stadium had a bandage wrapped around its left leg, and sign hanging around the neck that read: "Get well soon!! We (heart) JoePa!!"

Paterno's broken leg and subsequent surgery might seem like an odd topic for today's blog, but I've aready received six calls today from readers, asking how Joe's surgery went. "It's the biggest story in Pennsylvania," one fan said. And who am I to dispute him?

-- Kevin Cuneo