By Audrey Snyder, Special for USA TODAY
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The bronze statue of Joe Paterno had hundreds of candles burning brightly below it Saturday night.
With the former Penn State head football coach less than a mile away at Mount Nittany Medical Center, students cried, hugged and prayed Paterno would pull through. The 85-year-old was reported to be in "serious condition" according to a Penn State spokesman. Paterno has undergone chemotherapy since he was diagnosed with lung cancer in November.
Hundreds of students flocked to Paterno's statue and placed Penn State pennants and blue and white ball caps at his feet. As erroneous reports of Paterno's death swirled, students shoveled the snow out from underneath the statue and a line of more than 100 students and townspeople formed.
People posed for pictures at the statue while about 100 yards away recruits in for their official visits walked out of Beaver Stadium. The scene at the medical center was anything but normal as news trucks lined the parking lot waiting for updates on major college football's winningest coach.
A priest from Penn State's Catholic campus ministry, the on-campus church the family regularly attends, exited the hospital around 8 p.m. ET and declined comment.
Two of Paterno's sons, Scott and former quarterbacks coach Jay, tweeted that their father was "still fighting" around 10 p.m.
Joe Paterno (pictured in 2006) was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football team from 1966 to 2011.
A posting yesterday on the social networking web site Twitter by the 's student  ''Onward State'', which incorrectly reported the death of former   coach , has led to the resignation of one of its managing editors. Paterno died today.

Paterno had been hospitalized over the weekend due to complications from , and was in serious condition. The Onward State blog had picked up word of his death at the age of 85, which was then posted on Twitter at 8:45 PM EST. Various news organizations began to pick up the story after word of the report had been picked up by . Penn State students held a  in front of a statue of Paterno on campus after word of the erroneous passing.

However, CBS soon retracted the story after posts from other Paterno family members on Twitter reported that Joe had not died. At 10:20 PM EST, the managing editor for Onward State, Devon Edwards, officially retracted the story, saying in another tweet; "Our 8:45 pm tweet about Joe Paterno's death appears to be inaccurate, according to @JayPaterno, who says he's alive. We were confident when we ran with it, and are still trying to figure out where our process failed. We apologize sincerely for error." Additionally, Edwards also announced that he would be resigning from his position at Onward State, effective immediately.
 
In a blog post officially announcing his resignation, Edwards explained that "In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm. All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility."

This morning, a report officially confirmed that Joe Paterno had died — today — from lung cancer at the age of 85.



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