In 2003 Episode at Penn State, a Distant Echo of Scandal

The sex-abuse scandal unfolding this week at Penn State was a reminder of an episode at the university nearly a decade ago, when a football player was allowed to compete in a bowl game even though he had admitted a month earlier in a campus judicial proceeding that he sexually assaulted a student. The player, Anwar M. Phillips, was suspended for two semesters, but university officials said he was technically eligible to play in the game—the 2003 Capital One Bowl, in which Penn State lost to Auburn, 13-9—because his suspension did not begin until the spring term. Joe Paterno, then as now the head football coach, declined to answer questions about the case at the time. But he did refer to it at a news conference in March 2003. “Down the line, if out of 125 kids, once in a while something happens none of us are glad about, it happens,” he said. “If I could change it, I’d change it.”