STATE COLLEGE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) ? Penn State's football team played its last home game of the year on Saturday before a somber crowd still in shock from a child sex abuse scandal that has ripped the university apart in the past week.
More than 107,000 people gathered at Beaver Stadium in this central Pennsylvania city for the first time since pedophilia charges were brought against a long-time assistant coach, and two school officials were charged in an alleged cover-up.
Penn State and Nebraska players and officials prayed at midfield before and after the game to honor child abuse victims, and the normally boisterous crowd remained subdued during the game, which Nebraska won 17-14.
Some fans sobbed in the stands as they reflected on the week's events, which began with the arrest of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky and culminated with the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno and the university's president.
Sandusky, once considered a likely successor to Paterno, is accused of sexually assaulting eight boys over more than a decade. He has denied the charges and is free on bail.
"We grieve for the victims," interim Penn State head coach Tom Bradley said at the end of the game. "It was all about them."
Police were out en masse before the game, fearing a repeat of the violence that occurred Wednesday after Penn State students vented their rage over the firing of Paterno, 84, one of the most revered figures in U.S. college football.
An anonymous bomb threat was received on Friday.
But the mood on Saturday was peaceful.
Most fans wore blue shirts -- the color long associated with a national "stop child abuse" campaign -- rather than the traditional game-day white.
A group of male fans expressed their solidarity by painting "FOR THE KIDS" in blue letters on their bare chests.
NO PATERNO
Fans said that going through the familiar rituals associated with football, including pre-game "tailgate" parties outside the stadium and singing the team's fight song, could aid the healing process though they said it would take time and that the university's administration had more work to do.
"It'll feel weird for everybody to celebrate anything," said Jeff Beitinger, 34, of Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, who attended a tailgate party. "If there is a big play, people will scream, but it will be hard to celebrate."
Late on Friday night, instead of the usual pregame pep rally, an estimated crowd of 10,000 conducted a vigil in front of the main university administration building for the young boys who were alleged victims of sex abuse.
"We are Penn State, and we are hurt, and we are sorry," Dustin Yenser, a 2007 graduate who is now a teacher, said at the vigil.
The absence of Paterno, head coach for 46 years, also was felt by fans and officials alike.
"Dad, I wish you were here. We love you," an emotional Jay Paterno, the team's quarterback coach and one of Paterno's sons, said after the game.
Penn State also was without assistant coach Mike McQueary, a central figure in the Sandusky scandal, who was put on paid administrative leave on Friday.
McQueary has testified to a grand jury that he saw Sandusky rape a boy in the showers at a campus locker room in 2002 and said he reported it to Paterno.
Paterno, who has not been charged, said he told his boss but did not call the police.
Sandusky, 67, ran the Second Mile charity program for at-risk children and retained access to Penn State facilities after his retirement in 1999. Prosecutors said he met all his alleged victims through the nonprofit group, which says it cut ties with him in 2008.
Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former finance official Gary Schultz, have been charged in connection with the scandal with failing to report an incident. They also deny the charges.
(Writing by Patricia Reaney and Ros Krasny; Editing by Paul Simao)
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