STATE COLLEGE – On Saturday, Penn State will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first game that Joe Paterno coached at Penn State. There will be a special observance at the Penn State-Temple game. One of Joe Paterno’s first Penn State football players was two-time All-American Ted Kwalick, who was a telephone guest on WKOK’s Steve Jones Show Tuesday.
Kwalick said, “I think Joe was very driven, but, then again, I think he wanted to establish the program with the emphasis on academics. He wanted to win with honor and win with not having a bunch of guys who are just there to take a spot to play football. That was a tough thing to do. Joe Paterno did a lot of great things for Penn State.”
And Kwalick said being part of the Penn State football program was a special time in his life, “I was very fortunate to be a part of the group of guys, that we all played for each other. It’s really the definition of what a team is. We lifted each other up. If somebody made a mistake that was fine. We got over it and we never got down on anybody about making mistakes.”
And what he learned from Joe Paterno carried over into his life, “So many people today are afraid to make mistakes. My philosophy on failure is be afraid to make a mistake and learn from it. I really think that you just do your best and you try your best.”
Kwalick was an All-American in 1967 and 1968. He went on to play in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders. You can hear more from Penn State players and coaches throughout the week on WKOK, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Joe Paterno’s first game as head football coach at Penn State.
