Futcher: "Live and move on..."
I caught up with Katie Futcher last week in Orlando at the LPGA’s season-ending CME Group Titleholders for a Golf.com Q&A. Katie, the LPGA’s only Penn Stater, is a huge football fan (she was actually at Joe Paterno’s last home game with a group of friends) who holds a ton of school pride (her website says her favorite colors are PSU’s navy blue and white).
Naturally, she was crushed when news broke of the scandal surrounding the university and football team, and understandably, she was initially reluctant to chat about the whole awful thing — since it’d been quite emotional and she’d rehashed it a gazillion times already — but once she she did, she was very candid, insightful and interesting.
Here’s an excerpt:
What was your experience at Penn State like?
Are you really going to ask me about this?Yeah, I really am.
Okay. Penn State, it’s hard to describe. Penn State to me is my home, if not like a physical address, it’s my second home. I would never change where I went to school. It became such a part of me, as it does probably for everybody who goes to university, but it is such a big part of who I am, and I would not change going there for the world. I had the best time, I had the best coach, I learned so much, I matured. It was the best time of my life.What was your reaction when you heard about the scandal with Joe Paterno, Jerry Sandusky and other members of the athletic department?
Yeah, I was devastated. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, it was ‑‑ last week was possibly the worst week of ‑‑ in my life maybe, because I’ve not really experienced too many people in my family dying, but it was ‑‑ to watch my university go through that, it was really, really hard, and it’s really hard to ‑‑ if you don’t understand it or if you didn’t go there ‑‑ every other Penn Stater, we have tears in our eyes when we talk to each other. It’s a huge deal.
Most of us have a special attachment to our university and the great people we meet while attending school. I do understand how the Penn Staters feel about their school and JoePa, but I have to say the “I feel sorry for Joe” comment bothers me. And I’m not just talking about Katie, but every person I hear in an interview saying it. I get that JoePa has been perceived has a hero to so many people forever, however this changes everything. In my mind, any kid that was raped after JoePa was made aware of this monster — JoePa is partly the blame. JoePa chose to protect the reputation of his friend (Sandusky), instead of the well being of kids. This is inexcusable. Sandusky is a pedophile and JoePa is at best — a BIG FRAUD.
I don’t believe how anyone can sympathize with Paterno and talk like he’s a victim. It sickens me to know that people are trying to justify taking his side because of his record. He could’ve put an end to the whole thing right there but he enabled the rapist instead. There’s a special place in hell for Paterno and his crews. I hope he beats his cancer not because I wish him well. He gets off too easily if he gets to die right now while the victims have to live with it for the rest of their long lives. I want him to live and think about this for the rest of his pathetic life.
Paterno did a great deal of good at Penn State and, it appears, truly loved the students. But if things are as bad as it appears, his humanitarian record will be erased by this scandal and his inaction. But I can understand why students who loved him are slow to accept his moral failure here. To them, it seems impossible to believe about Paterno. But if the evidence is there….
@Frankie. I would not say JoePa is a big fraud. He certainly made a selfish, short sighted and wrong, in my opinion, decision. But that doesn’t make him a BIG FRAUD, in my opinion. His life body of work counts too, in my opinion. What it does make him is a real person, perhaps not the way people want to see him. He certainly is not a victim. Move forward and look for the systemic issues and take care of those kids.
Good to see that everyone is jumping to conclusions on Paterno before getting all the facts. Yes this happened under his watch and given that fact, it means that he should no longer coach, but all this piling on sickens me. People just love kicking a guy when he’s down. It’s getting to the point that if you defend Paterno in any way, you are for child abuse.
And by the way, no mention of Jerry Sandusky. There, I said it — Jerry Sandusky. He’s the monster who perpetrated all this on the victims. Again, Jerry Sandusky.
@Gannon: You scold people for jumping to conclusions on Paterno and then in the very next paragraph jump to your own conclusions on Sandusky. As evil as he seems, he is entitled for this to be decided by the court system, not the media or a blog crowd. Up here in the great state of Washington, we had a case in the mid-90′s where over 40 parents were arrested for child abuse. Reputations were destroyed, children were taken from homes, lives changed forever. And in the end, not a single allegation was true. More recently the Duke Lacrosse team was tried and convicted by the public and media and we all know how that turned out.
IF Sandusky did what is alleged he will rightfully die in Prison. And IF Paterno knew the facts of what is alleged and chose to place the reputations of his coaches, program and University above the well-being of the children, then he will rightfully die broke and scorned with his reputation forever tarnished.
The mere thought of Sandusky makes my skin crawl, but you can’t cry for the legal system to play out on JoePa, but convict Sandusky before that happens.
@Gannon. FACT- Paterno KNEW, and what did he do? NOTHING. If you’re defending him, YES, you are defending accessory to rape. Since Paterno is not being sued for it yet, he deserves everything he gets right now. You should be delighted that SOB won’t be around long enough for the legal justice to get to him, and only the family will be paying for the sins of the father.
It will be tough for Penn Staters to process what’s happened. They idolized Paterno (something I’ll never quite understand anyway) and now they have to come to grips with the fact that their idol turned a blind eye to a rapist on his staff, allowing a lot of other kids to be abused. Ultimately they will have to square his coaching achievements with the fact that he had a huge moral failing.
@Sahlee Joe — Good point. My apologies — I should have thrown in the word “allegedly.”
If Paterno is proven to have known exactly what happened, and actively made an attempt to cover it up, then he deserves whatever he gets. Right now, the report states that he told University Police, among others, when he McQueary told him whatever he told him. The degree to which he “followed up,” if any, it not yet known, though many in the media and blogosphere somehow think that they do. There also is no evidence at this point of an active attempt to cover it up.
Good points on the Duke thing. My reaction when they cancelled the season was “they’d better be right, because those players won’t have their season back.”
wow Gannon, you’re good. You would be a great defense lawyer if you’re not already. so how do you explain Paterno transferring his estate to his wife for a dollar few months before the the crapper hit the fan?
Paterno doesn’t need evidence of active attempts to cover this up to be guilty. Legally, sure. But, morally? Not required, and it’s really weird that’s people’s defense of Paterno. Legal and moral do not mean the same thing. They often overlap, but are easily confused.
Look at it this way — Paterno was the most powerful person in the area (all of PA?). Probably even more so than the police! McQueary informed this highly influential person of the horrors, and he did nothing. That’s shameful, horrible behaviour on his behalf, and he was very clearly morally wrong. Disdain directed at Paterno should not be a surprise.
(And if you’re wondering: legally, it is NOT accessory to rape; failure to prevent a crime does not usually qualify as a criminal act. Covering the crime up after the fact might be, though.)
It took me the better part of a week to really think about what Sandusky seems to have done. Once I started to focus in on what seems to have taken place and what it might have been like for a 9 or 10 year old, the thought of all that pain and fear is horrific. Whoever tried to turn their back on what was happening really needs to be held accountable. Many people must have had suspicions for years.
This disgusting POS knew his buddy sodomized little boys and did nothing, I hope someone rapes his grandkids