Last week, John Luciew of the Harrisburg Patriot-News wrote this excellent article about “The biggest scandal in college sports history.”

“Across time and through pain, their journey will culminate this week in a Centre County courtroom.

“Years, and in some cases more than a decade, have passed since eight boys came to meet Jerry Sandusky, the legendary football coach and State College community pillar. They met him through his children’s charity, The Second Mile.

“Two other alleged victims remain unidentified to the court. But prosecutors say their alleged abuse at the hands of the former Penn State defensive coordinator was witnessed by others.

“They, too, will be part of the 10 cases and 52 criminal counts at issue in the trial, their stories to be told by others in their absence.

“Until now, all of the alleged victims have been nameless and faceless. Their identities relegated to numbers assigned in the grand jury indictment that detonated like a bomb last November.

“Almost immediately, the case expanded well beyond the alleged victims and their stories. Even beyond Jerry Sandusky himself.

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky on the sidelines. – JOHN C. WHITEHEAD, The Patriot-News/file

“In football-crazed State College, the allegations of child sex abuse inside the sanctuary of the Penn State football locker room turned campus culture on its head. And it quickly cost top university officials their jobs.

“Blowback from the charges led to the sudden firings of legendary head coach Joe Paterno, who died in January, and longtime Penn State President Graham Spanier.

“Both top-ranking officials lost their jobs for lapses in action and judgment related to an alleged incident of child rape inside the football locker room in 2001. In the end, university trustees and some law enforcement officials characterized the two leaders’ mishandling of the case as moral failures.

“In the wake of such titanic shifts in the once-untouchable football program and in view of the wider damage wrought to Penn State’s heretofore unassailable Penn State reputation, angry students took to State College streets in a riot.

“Football crowds let loose with unabashed tears and palpable sorrow in the once-boisterous Beaver Stadium stands.

“And a gutwrenching, soul-searching reckoning gripped the entire campus and the wider Penn State community for weeks on end.

“In short, it became the biggest scandal in college sports history.” Click here to read this Harrisburg Patriot-News article in its entirety.