Big Ten takes Paterno name off trophy

[November 15, 2011]  PARK RIDGE (AP) -- The Big Ten has taken Joe Paterno's name off the Big Ten's football championship trophy.

League commissioner Jim Delany said Monday that it is "inappropriate" to keep Paterno's name on the trophy that will be awarded Dec. 3 after the first Big Ten title game.

Penn State fired Paterno, its longtime head coach, last week and investigations are under way into allegations of child sex-abuse involving a former assistant for the Nittany Lions.

The trophy had been named the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy. Amos Alonzo Stagg won 319 games in 57 years, most at the University of Chicago. Paterno's 409 wins are the most by a major college coach.

The trophy will now be called the Stagg Championship Trophy.

Penn State (8-2, 5-1 Big Ten ) and Michigan State (8-2, 5-1) lead their respective divisions and will advance to the title game in Indianapolis if they win the rest of their games.

Robert Stagg of Grand Rapids, Mich., a great grandson of Amos Alonzo Stagg, said last week his family was honored to have the Stagg name on the trophy whatever happened with Paterno's name.

Tickets to the championship game already have been printed and they include an image of the trophy and the name Stagg-Paterno. Big Ten spokesman Scott Chipman said many of the tickets have been shipped and the conference will not reprint the remaining tickets.

[Associated Press]

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