Quick question. Does Nike still make the black coaching shoes that JoePa used to wear? If so, where
- Thread starter Sooner Lion
- Start date
Closest I could find online.
https://www.nike.com/t/sb-gts-return-skate-shoe-RVrzg5/CD4990-001
https://www.nike.com/t/sb-gts-return-skate-shoe-RVrzg5/CD4990-001
Nike Cortez Basic Shoe. Nike.com
Find the Nike Cortez Basic Shoe at Nike.com. Free delivery and returns.
www.nike.com
If you try and look for Turf baseball shoes there are some that they make that look very close.
They were called Air Diamond. I had a few pairs of them when I coached.
More importantly, where can one get a pair of the whale pants like Joe used to wear?!
Murray's Toggery Shop
Family owned clothing store since 1945 - Home of the original Nantucket Reds™
www.nantucketreds.com
Those are easy, sort of: Murray's Toggery on Nantucket:
Whale pants
They did make them in khaki. You'd have to call for availability.
Sweet...Murray's Toggery Shop
Family owned clothing store since 1945 - Home of the original Nantucket Reds™
Read this thread and went looking for picture of cubby with those shoes in them. Back by the laundry area in the Lasch (as of early 2000's) there were simple wooden storage bin made of plywood. One with each coach's name under it. Marked "Paterno" there was a pair of black NIke cleats. Took the picture, but cannot locate it.
Wouldn't matter, I have yet to figure out how to post a picture here.
OL
Wouldn't matter, I have yet to figure out how to post a picture here.
OL
That is correct. Nike hasn’t made them for years. They stopped making them while Joe was still coaching but made some for him.
A skate shoe? JoePa is rolling over in his grave! LOL seriously, they look similar. They just need the flap that covers the laces.Closest I could find online.
https://www.nike.com/t/sb-gts-return-skate-shoe-RVrzg5/CD4990-001
Nike Cortez Basic Shoe. Nike.com
Find the Nike Cortez Basic Shoe at Nike.com. Free delivery and returns.www.nike.com
Nike Air Diamond Trainer Turf Baseball/Softball Coaches Shoe
When searching for a shoe designed with today’s athlete in mind look no further than the Air Diamond Trainer. A leather upper with removable tongue flap ensures superior fit and comfort. The Nike Air Diamond Trainer baseball shoe features a full-length phylon midsole with heel Air-sole unit that...
www.hotbatsports.com
Not the exact “model” but close enough for government work.
edit: since the Air Paterno “air commanders” were discontinued.
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Death of Joe Paterno created deep void for Penn Staters
Deep in the recesses of the Lasch Football Building at Penn State University, a rectangular box sits alone. Brad
www.post-gazette.com
ask spider what he did with the last box?
That's the exact pair I was talking about.Nike Air Diamond Trainer Turf Baseball/Softball Coaches Shoe
When searching for a shoe designed with today’s athlete in mind look no further than the Air Diamond Trainer. A leather upper with removable tongue flap ensures superior fit and comfort. The Nike Air Diamond Trainer baseball shoe features a full-length phylon midsole with heel Air-sole unit that...www.hotbatsports.com
Not the exact “model” but close enough for government work.
edit: since the Air Paterno “air commanders” were discontinued.
That is an important article; and, not for the shoes. There are some great quotes in there from faculty and others. If posters here have not read that article recently or at all, they should. Knowing there are people out there that see the whole Sandusky mess as it impacted Paterno gives a little bit of hope for those of us who love Penn State.Death of Joe Paterno created deep void for Penn Staters
Deep in the recesses of the Lasch Football Building at Penn State University, a rectangular box sits alone. Brad
ask spider what he did with the last box?
Completely agree. For those who are click-averse, here's the text:
Death of Joe Paterno created deep void for Penn Staters
Split alumni base, demands on coach fester uncertainty
January 29, 2012 10:00 AM
By J. Brady McCollough Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Deep in the recesses of the Lasch Football Building at Penn State University, a rectangular box sits alone.
Brad "Spider" Caldwell led a visitor there Friday morning, up the stairs of a loading dock, through a hallway to a large equipment room and into an opening on the left.
"Come on back," he said.
To the back of the alcove Mr. Caldwell went and took a right at the final wooden shelf, where he pointed out an orange-and-black shoebox with a tiny, white label.
"JOE PATERNO," it said in black printer ink.
"This would have been the last pair," Mr. Caldwell said.
Mr. Paterno, the iconic football coach who died last Sunday at 85 of complications due to lung cancer, never got to wear those black Nike Air Commanders onto the field at Beaver Stadium.
During a troubling and divisive time for Penn State, the university's students, faculty and alumni have been able to agree on one thing: The void of Mr. Paterno's death will take years to fill.
And the ultimate challenge facing Penn State -- healing a fractured alumni base in the aftermath of the child sex abuse scandal involving former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky and the resulting firing of Mr. Paterno by the school's board of trustees in November -- is all the more daunting without him.
Those issues were put aside this past week as thousands mourned Mr. Paterno at a public viewing Tuesday and Wednesday and a memorial service Thursday. Friday was the beginning of the rest of Penn State's life, and Mr. Caldwell drove to work at 5 a.m. thinking about how it would be his job -- and that of many others -- to further Mr. Paterno's "Grand Experiment" of nurturing players who equally strived for learning and winning.
"I was so charged up," Mr. Caldwell said.
Mr. Caldwell, like many Penn Staters, came here as a student because of Mr. Paterno. Arriving from the small town of Clearfield, Clearfield County, in 1983, he was a student manager his freshman year and has been working in the equipment room ever since.
About five years ago, Nike stopped making Air Commanders, with the white swoosh on the back and the sides and the flap. Mr. Caldwell, Penn State's longtime equipment manager, had several pairs of Air Commanders specially made.
To extend the life of Mr. Paterno's trademark sneakers, Mr. Caldwell and his team of student managers started a tradition. They would paint the size 10 1/2 shoes before each game with shoe or fingernail polish to make sure the colors would pop. One manager would handle the duty until the Nittany Lions lost, when another manager would take over the next week out of superstition.
It was, like most of the chores Mr. Caldwell and his staff performed for Mr. Paterno, a labor of love.
"There will only ever be one Coach Paterno," Mr. Caldwell said. "I can't believe I was a small part of his legacy."
Assessing one man's impact
When Mr. Paterno took over as Penn State's head coach in 1966, Fran Fisher was beginning his first season as a color commentator for the Nittany Lions' radio broadcasts. Now retired but still considered the voice of Penn State, he is one of the only people left who can remember this place before Mr. Paterno grabbed the reins from Rip Engle.
Mr. Fisher, 88, said he knows that nostalgia can taint objectivity, but he simply can't be anything but subjective about his friend Mr. Paterno, who "brought a certain amount of fame to the cow college," Mr. Fisher said.
Penn State began as The Farmers' High School in 1855 on 200 acres of farm land surrounded by the Nittany and Penn Valleys. The school's eighth president, Edwin Sparks, once remarked that the school was "equally inaccessible from all parts of the state."
According to author Michael Bezilla's "Penn State: An Illustrated History," the school's academic reputation until after World War II was as a "hick school." In 1925, Penn State president John Thomas left the school for Rutgers University because of his frustration in securing financial backing for academic programs.
In 1956, the Association of Research Libraries rejected Penn State's application while accepting Purdue University, Rutgers and the University of Florida. Only 1.5 percent of Penn State's budget went to its libraries, while land-grant schools Ohio State and Michigan State were giving 3 percent.
In the athletic realm, Penn State also struggled to gain footing. College football had become a huge moneymaker for schools, but the Nittany Lions were hampered in the 1930s by not giving out athletic scholarships. Big-name teams like Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh were dropped from the schedule in favor of teams like Waynesburg, Western Maryland and Dickinson.
Penn State eventually would join the rest of the country in offering scholarships, and, in 1950, it hired Mr. Engle away from Brown University of the Ivy League. Mr. Engle brought along with him a Brown graduate by the name of Joseph Vincent Paterno to coach his quarterbacks.
Sixteen years later, when Mr. Paterno became coach, nobody outside of State College knew who he was. Jim Tarman, then Penn State's sports information director, had to beg media outlets to interview his 39-year-old coach.
But Mr. Tarman didn't have to ask Paul Levine, the sports editor of the student newspaper, the Daily Collegian, in 1967. That was Mr. Paterno's second season, and the Nittany Lions lost to Navy in the opener, 23-22, bringing his record to 5-6. Mr. Levine went to the typewriter to air his opinion of Mr. Paterno.
"I said he didn't quite have what it takes to be a head coach at a big university," Mr. Levine recalled.
Mr. Paterno would prove his doubters wrong, winning back-to-back Orange Bowls in 1969 and '70. Sports Illustrated profiled him during the 1968 season, bolstering Mr. Paterno's reputation as a coach who won with legitimate student-athletes.
As his program enjoyed the national stage, Mr. Paterno still tried to keep up with even the regular students he'd met along the way. Mr. Levine was in law school at the University of Miami when he received a letter from Mr. Paterno that said "Keep your goals high."
In Mr. Paterno's Happy Valley, it was routine for students to see him walking around campus. After Penn State won national championships in 1982-83 and 1986-87, his star had grown so much he couldn't go to College Avenue without being hounded.
Friends at his favorite restaurant, The Tavern, would have to sneak him in so he could have his chosen drink, a glass of Old Grand-Dad bourbon. The university and town around Mr. Paterno was getting bigger by the year, but his world was getting smaller -- especially in his final years.
"I really don't know how many close friends Joe had," Mr. Fisher said.
Mr. Paterno's day-to-day life had changed, but he'd had an impact. Students from all over the world were now coming to Penn State to better themselves.
As late as 1980, only 10 percent of the University Park campus was made up of students from other states. This fall, 39 percent of the 45,194 students were non-Pennsylvania residents, and Penn State is now ranked as a top-50 university.
Mr. Levine is just one former student touched by Mr. Paterno. The note the coach sent him hangs today in his office, where Mr. Levine has made a career in south Florida as an author of 14 mystery books.
"We will miss the man," Mr. Levine said, "we will miss the coach and the father, but what he built cannot be destroyed."
Odds 'stacked against' O'Brien
But Penn State has proven to be highly combustible the past three months.
Even the football program, which helped Mr. Paterno to a NCAA-record 409 wins in 46 seasons, has unraveled at times as it comes to grips with Mr. Sandusky's 52 counts of child sex abuse -- including one that allegedly occurred in the Lasch building in 2002.
It was that incident that got Mr. Paterno fired. He was told of Mr. Sandusky being in a shower with a boy by then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary. Mr. Paterno told his superiors, which is all that is required by law, but did not go any further. Penn State's president, Rodney Erickson, and athletic director, Dave Joyner, set up a search committee to choose Mr. Paterno's replacement after the Nov. 9 firing. The committee decided on New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, who has never been a head coach and has no connection to Penn State.
Several former players reacted negatively to the hire.
"There is a tangible standard at Penn State that this poor guy knows nothing about," former Penn State linebacker Brandon Short told USA Today. "I feel badly for him because he is clueless and will not have the support of the majority of the [Football Lettermen's Club]. This is a hornet's nest."
The players' main problem was that they weren't consulted by the committee.
This past week, Mr. O'Brien had his first chance to meet the lettermen. He spoke to many of them Tuesday, the day of Mr. Paterno's viewing, before leaving town Wednesday night.
"He's facing a tremendous challenge," said Todd Blackledge, the quarterback of Penn State's 1982-83 national championship team. "When some time has gone by from Joe's passing away and us celebrating his life, it'll be time for the Penn State football family to rally behind the new guy. Because Joe would want it that way."
The emotions have been raw for many of the players.
Darryl Washington, a linebacker on the 1986-87 national championship team that pulled off the historic upset of the highly favored Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl, compared Mr. O'Brien's role in the fractured Penn State community to that of the team that year -- a decided underdog.
"The odds are stacked against him," Mr. Washington said, "but that's what makes Penn State Penn State. We rise to those challenges."
Compounding Mr. O'Brien's challenge is the fact that he has had to continue coaching the Patriots, who play in the Super Bowl next Sunday. To this point, Mr. O'Brien and his assistant coaches have not all been in the same room together, which has made recruiting an arduous task.
Mr. Caldwell is handling the transition on the ground floor. Tuesday, he ordered pairs of Nike Air Pegasus 28 shoes, size 11- 1/2, for Mr. O'Brien.
Uncertainty pervades university
As Mr. Paterno's body rode in a hearse down College Avenue on Wednesday afternoon, Jackie Esposito watched the procession live on her computer in the Paterno Library.
Mrs. Esposito, an archivist who has worked at Penn State for 25 years, lamented the loss of a man who had done so much for her university. Mr. Paterno, an avid reader of the classics, and his wife, Sue, had made a $1 million donation to get the east wing of the library built in 1997 and raised millions more through the gifts of others.
"Libraries don't have alums," Mrs. Esposito said. "You have to depend on people recognizing the value of the library. That's what the Paternos helped create."
Big-time football coaches rarely enjoy the good graces of their university's faculty, but Mr. Paterno did.
"That's what separated Penn State and Penn State football from almost all other programs," said John Nichols, a retired professor of communications who has football season tickets. "The sense that the leader -- the longtime coach, the icon -- was on our same team."
Mr. Nichols sat on the selection committee that picked Mr. O'Brien and said he was impressed by Mr. O'Brien sharing a Brown degree with Mr. Paterno. Mr. Nichols was convinced that Mr. O'Brien would put academics first, but he didn't have any illusion that he'd just hired another Mr. Paterno.
"Joe Paterno was truly unique," Mr. Nichols said, "and I mean unique in the dictionary definition, not its common misuse. Unique in being the first and only."
The Penn State faithful adored him until the end, but Mr. Paterno and the university weren't always walking hand-in-hand. In the last decade, his players were finding themselves in legal trouble at a higher rate than the rest of the student body, and Mr. Paterno was accused of intervening in the school's discipline process to protect his players from public scrutiny.
The perception that the Nittany Lions were being treated differently went against the "Grand Experiment" -- and was one of the reasons that a growing number of alumni felt Mr. Paterno should retire.
Still, many faculty members did not agree with the board of trustees' decision to fire Mr. Paterno. That they were not consulted bothered the faculty senate enough that the organization held a "no confidence" vote Tuesday. The measure did not pass.
"The problems are ones of transparency, of openness, of engagement," said Larry Backer, a Penn State law professor and the faculty senate's chair-elect, "of bringing the stakeholders of the university into a more prominent role."
Malcolm Moran, a Knight chair in sports journalism and society at Penn State, said the university leaders must work to repair their relationship with the Paterno family to help the school move on.
"The question now is, given the events of the last two-and-a-half-plus-months, how do you go forward?" Mr. Moran said. "Is it possible to go forward together? That has to be answered at some point."
Mr. Nichols believes Penn State can become a better place through this by choosing to be introspective. Peering inside, the university will see a coach in Mr. O'Brien who is just a coach and not a tenured faculty member -- a significant shift in dynamics.
To keep Mr. Paterno's ideal alive -- and to move on from the ever-present Sandusky scandal -- Mr. O'Brien will need help from those in power across campus.
"The one thing we know for sure is that we don't know for sure," Mr. Nichols said.
What is certain is that Mr. Paterno's legacy, now debated across the nation, remains bulletproof on campus.
At the Paterno Library this past week, two life-size cardboard cutouts of Mr. Paterno stood at the entry. They were covered in pastel sticky notes left by students who wanted to leave him with a final thought.
"YOU ARE PENN STATE!"
"Thank you for making the Penn State family what it is."
"We are because you were."
I also had these sneakers, they're great. I'm not sure if you'll find them, they don't make them anymore. I also have a pair of legendary Air Jordan sneakers. I think everyone has heard of them, and they need no introduction. If you don't have any, then you can take a closer look, they are just unrealistically cool. Nike has already released a lot of models in this line, and they are all very cool. Of course, no model can compare with the first legendary Air Jordan sneakers.
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https://www.grailify.com/en/air-jordan-1-releases/
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https://www.grailify.com/en/air-jordan-1-releases/
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No, I looked for them too, but unfortunately, Nike no longer makes such shoes. Most of all, I liked the design and the color. Black is my favorite when choosing shoes; you can combine any pair of black sneakers with almost any style, even sometimes the elegant one if you are pretty talented. I have many pairs of Nike shoes, including jordans, but recently I fell in love with the yeezys line of shoes created by Adidas. Maybe because it's trendy, or maybe many famous people wear them. I feel very comfortable in them.
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This is worth the trip down memory lane: http://michaelweinreb.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-joepa-and-whale.html
Seems noteworthy that the chucklehead author, who lives in NYC but is from State College, ultimately caved to the external pressure of becoming vocally "Shame on Paterno!" Seems reasonable to suspect that he knows the truth about Joe but unfortunately lacks the courage to discuss it publicly.
I remember that pair of black coaching shoes that JoePa used to wear. I like it very much too. I even bought a pair, but my size wasn't right, and I donated them. And not even on ootdadvisor.com, where new outfits always appear, I don't see them. I follow the fashion news, different outfits, pictures, etc., and I haven't seen these shoes for a long time. Even if I search on nike.com, I can't find them. If you are not against wearing second-hand shoes, you can search on different second-hand clothes groups from Facebook to buy them. Like that, for sure you will find.
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Digging up an old thread because I thought some of you may like to know Nike is releasing a shoe tomorrow on the SNKRS app that is quite similar to the old Air Diamond/Commanders. Certainly not the exact same, but very close. They’re called the Field General 82. A not-so-subtle nod to JoePa.
Sweet looking pair of kicks. I have always just ordered a pair of the Cortez. I’m defiantly getting two pair of the Field Generals. Thank you very much for the heads up.
