The surest bet for tomorrow's enshrinement ceremony for the 2008 class of the College Football Hall of Fame, in South Bend, Ind., is that JoePa's acceptance speech will be one of the highlights.

Paterno was to have been enshrined a year earlier along with his good friend and fellow legend, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, but his big moment was postponed because of concerns he had not fully recovered from a broken leg suffered in a 2006 game at Wisconsin.

But Paterno, who is entering his 43rd season as head coach of the Nittany Lions, and 59th overall at the university, has been around long enough to spin a yarn for every occasion. His tenure in the game, dating from his high school days in Brooklyn to the high-tech 21st century, incorporates everything from leather helmets to those splashy four- and five-receiver sets that are so in vogue these days.

And while some would say that Paterno is an anachronism - what else would you call a coach who claims to not have a cell phone or a knowledge of how to fetch e-mail? - his ability to adapt to changes in the game belies his image as a crusty curmudgeon. Hey, you don't compile a 372-125-3 career record, with five undefeated seasons and two national championships, by refusing to make the occasional adjustment.

But the one thing that remains the same, to Paterno's way of thinking, is the essence of football and its ability to bring together young and not-so-young men of different eras in ways that nonplayers can never fully comprehend. To Paterno's way of thinking, a football team is a brotherhood that transcends the boundaries that might otherwise separate individuals of different races and backgrounds.

"When [Roger] Bannister ran the first 4-minute mile [on May 6, 1954], he had to work like a dog, but he had to do it by himself," Paterno said at a December black-tie dinner in New York in which he and 13 other newly minted Hall of Famers in the Bowl Subdivision - 12 players and retired Central Michigan coach Herb Deromedi - were inducted in advance of tomorrow's enshrinement. "How many times were we in the huddle and had the quarterback say, 'Damn it! Get off your rear end and get moving!' How many times?

"How many times, when guys are playing defense and getting tired, has [a teammate] said, 'Hey! We're counting on you! Don't give me that crap that you're tired! You can't get tired!'

"We've been involved in the greatest game, and the greatest experience, that there is. Some of you have used your football experience to bring up your families, to take care of your businesses. You look back and have those great memories, great teammates . . . guys you trust, guys you love. We're so lucky."

At that point, every retired player at the Waldorf-Astoria - even those who hadn't played for or against him - was ready to buckle a chin strap and run through a brick wall for the grand old man with the thick glasses.

Among those lapping up what Paterno was dishing out was Rex Kern, the sophomore quarterback of Ohio State's 1968 national championship football team who also is a member of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2008.

"I had Rex Kern in the Hula Bowl," Paterno recalled. "John Ralston was the head coach of our team. We had Rex, Joe Theismann and Jim Plunkett as our quarterbacks.

"We were supposed to play a three-deep [secondary]. I was coaching defense and one of our DBs got hurt. Ralston comes to me and says, 'We don't want to play a three-deep. We're going to play a four-deep.' I said, 'But one of our DBs got hurt! We only have three DBs!' And John said, 'Well, we have those three quarterbacks. Maybe we can talk one of them into playing defense.'

"I got the three of them together. Plunkett had a better arm than Rex, so I told [Kern], 'I think you can be a really good DB.' When Don Shula drafted Rex for the Colts, he called me up and asked what I thought of the kid. I said, 'Oh, he'll make a great DB.' And Rex got in 4 or 5 years in the NFL - as a DB.' "

Paterno, of course, is just as adept at poking some of that good-natured fun at himself.

"I'm not a Hall of Famer because I'm better than anybody else," the former Brown University quarterback said. "I'm a Hall of Famer because I'm lucky. If it had been for my football playing . . . oh, God." *