Paterno was born December 21, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Florence de LaSalle Cafiero, a homemaker, and Angelo Lafayette Paterno, a law clerk. His family was of Italian ancestry. He spoke throughout his life with a marked Brooklyn accent. In 1944, Paterno graduated from Brooklyn Preparatory School.

Joe Paterno holds an official NCAA total of 18 bowl victories. He holds the NCAA record for total bowl appearances with 37. He had a bowl record of 24 wins, 12 losses, and 1 tie following a defeat in the 2011 Outback Bowl. Paterno was the first coach with the distinction of having won each of the four major bowls--Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar--as well as the Cotton Bowl Classic, at least once. Penn State won at least 3 bowl games in each of the 4 decades that Paterno coached the entire decade, from 1970 thru 2009.  Paterno led Penn State to two national championships (1982 and 1986) and five undefeated, untied seasons (1968, 1969, 1973, 1986, and 1994). Four of his unbeaten teams (1968, 1969, 1973, and 1994) won major bowl games and were not awarded a national championship.  Under Paterno, Penn State won the Orange Bowl (1968, 1969, 1973 and 2005), the Cotton Bowl (1972 and 1974), the Fiesta Bowl (1977, 1980, 1981, 1986, 1991, and 1996), the Liberty Bowl (1979), the Sugar Bowl (1982), the Aloha Bowl (1983), the Holiday Bowl (1989), the Citrus Bowl (1993 and 2010), the Rose Bowl (1994), the Outback Bowl (1995, 1998 and 2006) and the Alamo Bowl (1999 and 2007).  After Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993, the Nittany Lions under Paterno won the Big Ten championship three times (1994, 2005 and 2008), with the last two of those still awaiting official restoration to the record. Paterno had 29 finishes in the Top 10 national rankings.

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