Posted on 08/10/2014 8:03:26 AM PDT by FlJoePa
The son of the former Penn State football player had only five weeks to live.
Pete Curkendall and his wife, Renee, already were caring for an adopted girl with AIDS and cerebral palsy. Doctors then stunned them with news that their 2 1/2-year-old biological son, Joshua, had a cancerous brain tumor and almost certainly wouldn't survive.
They had just moved to the Syracuse, N.Y., area and knew hardly anyone.
At least they weren't lacking for hope and resolve. Caring for kids with special needs was a life-long plan for Renee Curkendall, as much now as it was then, 16 years ago.
More than anything, they didn't know how they would pay their bills.
They got some fundraising help from Pete's sales company and from the Lutheran church they had just joined. But Renee was forced to leave her speech therapist job to care for the kids.
The co-pay for just one of Joshua's cancer-treatment prescriptions was $400 a week. There also were uncovered costs of an experimental medical procedure to try to save his life.
"I had good insurance, but it wasn't going to pay for a stem cell transplant," Pete Curkendall said. "We were going to go bankrupt, and I didn't care. ... There was nothing we could do about it."
That's when help came most unexpectedly and mysteriously.
• • •
Curkendall was one of the more enigmatic Nittany Lions of his time.
The high school All-American was outgoing and big-hearted with a sharp wit. He was good enough to earn a spot on the depth chart as a true freshman, but he was so nonchalant about academics that it was often difficult to convince him to go to class.
For all of his talent and goodwill, he knocked heads early and often with head coach Joe Paterno. Cody Curkendall’s room is decorated with Penn State football garb including a photo of his father, Pete Curkendall, from his playing days. Pete
Another part of that was this: Blessed with natural strength and speed, Curkendall pushed himself only to do what was needed, never more.
"He was born a 400-pound bench presser and gifted athletically," said Matt Johnson, a York Catholic grad and a Curkendall teammate on the 1986 national title team.
"I think if Pete would have had the right work ethic he would have been a perennial (NFL) All-Pro, he had that much talent. But his lack of work in the classroom and lack of work in football came back to haunt him.
"Look, part of that is desire, right? But it's hard for me to criticize a guy who does what he does with his life."
Now, Curkendall, 48, and his wife, Renee, are raising five kids, all but one with severe physical, mental or emotional disabilities. Their sixth child, the adopted girl who was born with AIDS and developed cerebral palsy, is now 24 and lives on her own.
But to make all of that happen, Curkendall first had to get through Penn State.
Fuming over his expected lack of playing time, he walked out of preseason camp before his junior year in 1986, threatening to quit altogether. Though allowed to return, he never escaped the constant harping of his head coach over his grades and work ethic.
Paterno was simply "trying to push me to do my best. I got to the point where I never thought I had a fair shake," Curkendall said. "Looking back, I would have done the exact same thing he did. He was looking for a team leader, someone responsible, and I wasn't that guy."
Rather, he was this guy: Before Penn State's ninth game of that 1986 season, against mediocre Maryland, Curkendall figured he wouldn't play much with a pinched nerve in his neck. So he devoured three hot dogs and downed a 30-ounce soda in a bathroom stall during Paterno's pregame speech.
But when the starter in front of him was a last-minute injury scratch, Curkendall was suddenly forced into heavy action. He spent much of the day sucking wind against Maryland's fast-paced offense.
Even tougher, the Lions couldn't pull away. They clung to a four-point lead early in the fourth quarter, their backs against their own goal line, when the unfathomable happened. The 270-pound Curkendall stepped in front of short pass, intercepted it and then chugged nearly the entire length of the field, finally pulled down by an offensive lineman.
He made it 82 yards, tackled inside the 10. Penn State scored one play later and hung on for its 10th victory on the way to its second national title.
But things still didn't really change. Curkendall missed all of preseason camp before his senior year because of an academic issue.
• • •
The anonymous checks began showing up in the church office not long after Joshua's brain cancer diagnosis.
They came in odd amounts, a few thousand one month and maybe more the next. It eventually all added up to about $50,000.
Finally, a substitute church secretary slipped up and told Curkendall that the gifts were from the same person: Joe Paterno.
The same man who pestered and angered Curkendall to no end.
At the time, Pete's Penn State football career had been over for a decade. He and Renee were still learning their life's mission.
"On one level I was totally shocked, and on another level I was like, 'Of course, that's Joe.' Because he was always there," Pete Curkendall said.
"I didn't even look at it as the money. He gave us a year that we could stay home with our son that we thought we would never have.
"He gave us a year, and you can't repay that."
Plus, the stem cell transplant provided new life. Though Joshua is learning disabled and suffers with severe seizures, he is about to turn 19 and seems happy most of the time. Whenever meeting after that, Paterno would ask Pete Curkendall about his kids and shrug off any thank yous.
"Hey, just keep doing what you're doing. Don't worry about it," he would say.
"You tell me if you need something, you let me know ..."
Only after Curkendall and his wife began raising special needs children did he understand what Paterno was trying to teach him years before about work ethic and goal focusing.
"This is a guy, I gave nothing to," Curkendall said. "I had great time at Penn State, but I did nothing in the classroom, to my own detriment, and he still wanted to give."
Jay Paterno told a version of the story at his father's memorial service 2 1/2 years ago. A couple of weeks ago, Sue Paterno talked about it on the phone.
Helping the Curkendalls was "just the right thing to do. You don't stop and think, 'Why?' It's, 'We have to help, period, and we can't be there personally to do it,'" she said.
"To me, a gift is better if no one knows about it."
Pete Curkendall still makes it back for one Penn State home game each fall. He hangs out with former teammates, many with similar revelations of lessons learned years after leaving Penn State.
Most, though, didn't make his kind of life leap. Doctors predicted that all but one of their kids would die within a handful of weeks or months, maybe a year or two.
Each has blasted through those barriers under the care of their parents.
"What (Pete Curkendall) did, that's what you want (players) to become," Sue Paterno said. "It's one big family, and it's a good family."
Cody Curkendall, 8, tries a move on his dad, Pete, a former Penn State football player, as the two horse around at their home in Liverpool, N.Y., in May. Although Pete Curkendall clashed with former coach Joe Paterno during his playing days, Paterno stepped in to help when Pete's son, Joshua, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. (Kate Penn — Daily Record/Sunday News)
Thanks
How many boys’ lives were ruined because JOEPA didn’t speak up about a serial child molester?
I don’t follow college football that much nor do I have any association with Penn State but even I realize that the Joe Paterno scandal story is more than a bit of media pile-on (OK a ton of pile-on!) In my opinion the media was following the “Victims of Abuse” party line and reacting against a perceived giant when they found a chink in the halo.
If Coach Paterno had not been such a fixture at Penn State for so many years, if he did not have such a reputation for graduating his players, for being such a good role model, the scandal would not have been so great! Is it / was it fair? No, but it is what sold newspapers and airtime and made his last years on earth miserable. Now we get these stories and I hope that people will see that, weighed in full, Joe Paterno is still the class of his, and most other, generations!
"How many boys’ lives were ruined because JOEPA didn’t speak up about a serial child molester?"
” Joe Paterno is still the class of his, and most other, generations!”
Some class. One word from Joe would have save numerous boys from a sexual predator. Joe’s testimony .... “I had other things to do.”
Joe Bodani trots out a JoePa puff piece every few weeks.
Probably relieved Joe to help when he could since his knowledge of child sex abuse was making him feel rotten.
People don’t explode and die from guilt when they are not guilty.
Joe Paterno turned down a million dollar offer to coach the Patriots in the 70’s when a million was a lot more money. He turned it down because he would rather have an ‘influence’ on an 18 year-olds life when he’s away from home for the first time. It said a lot about him.
“He turned it down because he would rather have an ‘influence’ on an 18 year-olds life when he’s away from home for the first time.”
What did he do about the young boys getting ‘spanked’ in his PSU showers?
“When informed about Sandusky, who was no longer employed in the program, JoePa followed legal and university protocol and passed the information up the administrative chain of command. “
Yep. They all met and decided not to reveal JS’s ‘activities to the proper authorities. Result .... JS kept on molesting and JOE was one of the enablers!
Don’t bother. Trolls that would thread hijack a story about a family that cares for disabled children can’t really be reasoned with.
“Don’t bother. Trolls that would thread hijack a story about a family that cares for disabled children can’t really be reasoned with.”
Apparently Joe didn’t care about the boys JS was molesting.
Do you remember the mom’s testimony about the boy JS would take out of school for his enjoyment?
“I had forgotten the details”
I had pretty much forgotten about the whole thing but now the Paterno family and Paternobots have choses to whitewash it all.
Needless to say Jay Paterno has a lawsuit against PSU so this is about money also.
People that keep propping up a secret of child sex abuse for many years through the power that was Penn State football are the unreasoned.
Your JoePa was an enabler who defended his university to his death. Little Boys across state lines to bowl games is not outside of his knowledge. Little Boys being sodomized by coaches that worked for him was not outside of his knowledge.
Joe Paterno is an enabler of child sex abuse. Pride over Providence.
Let it go.
Oh yeah, it was all the media piling on ole Joe. He did nothing wrong, nothing at all, nope.
Excuse me while I puke
Please just delete this thread. I thought it was a nice story about a good-hearted family that some may enjoy reading.
Others took it as an opportunity to hijack the thread and simply troll Joe Paterno.
It’s not fair to the Curkendalls - to tarnish all they have done, and their great story w/ some of these vile comments.
Thanks in advance.
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