Penn State Riots over Coach Fired in Sex Abuse Scandal

The end of the Joe Paterno era at Penn State spurned violence in the streets of State College last night.

In other sports-riot-related news, 2,000 angry Penn State supporters rocked the sleepy college town of State College, Pennsylvania, after the school's legendary football coach, Joe Paterno, was fired for not doing enough to stop his former defensive co-ordinator from allegedly sexually abusing boys. The scandal over Jerry Sandusky's behaviour a decade ago has blown up in recent days as details of the charges he's facing for allegedly molesting six boys over 15 years emerge. Paterno said he would retire at the end of this season, but the university administration declared yesterday that that wasn't soon enough, firing the 84-year-old coach and university president Graham Spanier yesterday. An impromptu rally in support of Paterno – the guy is essentially God at Penn State and across much of Pennsylvania – quickly turned violent last night, though, as supporters started pelting a photographer with rocks and flipped over a news van before police broke up the mess with pepper spray and batons.