Brick with Jerry Sandusky's name removed from restaurant near Penn State campus
A brick engraved with Jerry Sandusky's name has been removed from the wall of an eatery near PSU.
Thursday lunch hours just began at the Tavern, the classic homestyle restaurant in the heart of downtown State College, when owner Pat Daugherty received a call from Borough Manager Tom Fountaine.
"Pat," Fountaine said. "Did you know there's a brick with Jerry Sandusky's name on it outside your restaurant?"
"No," responded Daugherty, who has owned the property for 32 years. "I had no idea."
Fountaine then gave Daugherty a choice: Remove the brick or the Borough will send over personnel from public works to do the job. Daugherty had no qualms. "I'll take care of it," he told Fountaine.
The brick, which is engraved to read "Jerry Sandusky, The Second Mile Founded, 1977," was removed at 12:18 p.m.
After Daugherty received the call he went outside to see the brick, which sits on Centennial Walkway, an alley that neighbors the Tavern's outside seating patio. There are hundreds of bricks that neatly pave the walkway. About half of them are engraved with people's names or companies.
This particular brick is about 20 feet from the restaurant.
Daugherty enlisted the help of two of his servers -- Mike Wise and Mike Wiedemer, both recent Penn State graduates -- to chisel the brick out of the ground. They used tools -- a sharp metal blade with a blue plastic handle and a hammer with a pink plastic handle -- that were no longer than six inches for the job.
Wise was wearing a grey t-shirt that read, "Penn State football."
When the brick was removed, Daugherty said he would return it to the town. Wise and Wiedemer replaced the Sandusky brick with a blank one.
-Emily Kaplan
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