Jerry Sandusky, Penn State Investigation: Overnight Football Camp Lasted Until 2010

Jerry Sandusky, the longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions charged with sexually abusing young boys over a 15-year period, including four years when Sandusky still was a member of the staff, was running an overnight football camp for kids on Penn State campuses as recently as last year, according to Deadspin.

Sandusky ran the camp, called Sandusky's Football Camp, for nearly a decade, but by summer 2010, the camp stopped running because a grand jury had already begun its investigation into the sexual allegations.

Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz were aware of Sandusky's incidents as early as 2002. It is yet unknown if any of the victims are from the camp in particular.

What is ironic, however, is that Curley testified to the grand jury that he advised Sandusky that he was prohibited from bringing youth onto the Penn State campus from that point forward. Lo and behold, seven years later, in the summer of 2009, Sandusky was still hosting his camp for children as young as nine at other Penn State schools.

Both Curley and Schultz are scheduled to turn themselves in at a district judge's office in Harrisburg on Monday on charges of perjury and failing to alert police-as required by law-after former graduate assistant Mike McQueary, now the team's wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator, told them he saw Sandusky sexually assaulting a boy in a practice facility shower.

Paterno said that in his grand jury testimony, he testified that McQueary informed him in 2002 that he had witnessed the incident and, according to prosecutors, passed on the information to Curley.

However, Paterno said specific actions of the incident emphasized in the grand jury report were not relayed to him.

It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report, Paterno said in the statement. Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.

In a phone interview, Scott Paterno, serving as his father's spokesman, said the first and only incident reported about Sandusky to Paterno was in 2002, according to the Associated Press.

Sandusky retired as defensive coordinator in 1999 but continued to use Penn State facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids, where authorities say he encountered the boys he assaulted.

Here is the mission statement for Sandusky's Football Camp, according to the now-defunct website, thesanduskyfootballcamp.com:

The goal of the camp is to learn as much about the game of football while having an enjoyable experience. Jerry Sandusky's personal experience and his excellent staff will cater to each individual camper helping them to reach their personal potential. With a variety of individual drills for every position team drills, and games, the participants will be able to build a solid fundamental background for which they can carry the rest of their lives. They will walk away with many of the ideas and concepts Jerry Sandusky has used during his brilliant career. A career that included two national championships and 28 bowl appearances! Lessons on life discipline, teamwork, trust, and loyalty will be stressed in motivational speeches by great guest speakers and selected video presentations. Regular camp instructors will include members of Jerry's family, other college and high school coaches, and former Penn State players.

It's unclear if Sandusky was compensated by Penn State for overseeing the camp, which he operated via his Sandusky Associates company located in State College. But multiple schools in the Penn State system hosted and provided facilities for the program, touted Sandusky's Penn State affiliation, and featured other instructors from the Penn State family: an implicit endorsement of the camp at the very least.