Joe Posnanski, author of the New York Times best seller, “Paterno”, will speak at the HUB-Robeson Center’s Alumni Hall Friday Sept. 14 at 4 p.m., making his only scheduled appearance in State College.
Originally scheduled to take place in 119 Osmond building, the event was moved to the recently-made-available Alumni Hall. Despite the contrast in capacity — Alumni Hall holds 1,000 compared to Osmond’s 340 — that did not appear the sole motivation of the switch, according to Malcolm Moran, the Knight chair in Sports Journalism and Society at Penn State.
“The space in Osmond was what was available at the time when we confirmed the date,” Moran said. “When we learned that the space in Alumni became available, we have done things before in that space, it’s been well received. People seemed to like listening to speakers there, so we took advantage of the opportunity.”
Moran will moderate the free and open-to-the-public event that will allow Posnanski to discuss his book and describe the process of writing about a polarizing figure.
The book recalls the life of the late head coach Joe Paterno while deepening into his days as the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case came to light.
Moran said he hopes Alumni Hall will be packed, especially since the event falls on the eve of this weekend’s game against Navy.
“We were hoping by having at 4 o’clock the day before a game, that people coming into town for the game, also would have an interest in it,” Moran said. “The hope is there will be a cross section of students, faculty, staff, people coming into town and people that live here that might be interested.”
After an initial discussion by Moran and Posanski, the audience will have its chance to ask Posnanski questions. In fact, the event will rely heavily on interaction from the audience to make it more interesting, said Moran.
Moran encourages all students to attend this rare opportunity.
“You will get a chance to hear not only directly from the author, how his approach developed and why, but if there is some particular aspect of it that you are interested in, you can ask. As of now, that’s the only time that’s going to happen in this community,” Moran said.
To email reporter: zcn5004@psu.edu
