By Breaking Celebrity News Staff

The iconic statue of legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno was taken down Sunday morning as the University's sex scandal continues to reverberate.

The seven ft. tall, 900 lb. statue, erected at the entrance to Beaver Stadium in 2001, was loaded onto a forklift as close to 150 students chanted, "We Are Penn State."

The decision to remove the homage to Paterno was made following the release of an internal investigation into exactly how former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky had managed to molest numerous boys over the course of many years, often on University property.

As Breaking Celebrity News reported, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who headed the investigation, alleged a cover-up by Paterno, President Graham Spanier, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Vice President Gary Schultz. Their failure to report Sandusky to child-welfare authorities in 2001 allowed him to continue molesting boys, the report found.

Paterno died of cancer January 22nd, two months after he was fired as coach as the Sandusky scandal was exploding around him.