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Despite a flurry of reports saying he had died, former Penn State football head coach Joe Paterno was still alive late Saturday night, according to his family.
Based on a tweet from Penn State student news outlet Onward State, American broadcaster CBS announced that the beloved — and recently embattled — coach had died of complications from lung cancer at 85.
Less than an hour later, Onward State made a retraction on its Twitter account,
“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.”
Son Scott Paterno also took to Twitter to deny the claims. “CBS report is wrong — Dad is alive but in serious condition. We continue to ask for your prayers and privacy during this time.”
CBS quickly retracted its story, but not before the claim made rounds on the Internet. Several news sources, including the Toronto Sun, CP24 and the Huffington Post, all spread the news of Paterno’s death before issuing corrections.
By 10:20 p.m., Onward State managing editor Devon Edwards had resigned. He expressed his remorse for “misleading” readers and apologized to Penn State and Paterno’s family, saying “getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm.”
Earlier Saturday, Paterno's doctors announced his condition had worsened, and students had gathered on Penn State campus to hold vigils. Reporters and photographers were seen stationed outside Paterno’s home.
Paterno, the most successful college football coach of all time, made headlines in 2011 when he was fired in the aftermath of the child sex abuse charges against former assistant Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly afterward.
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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