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Thousands of Penn State students poured into the streets of State College, overturning cars and tussling with police after the university decided to fire coach Joe Paterno late last night. Paterno had offered to resign at the end of the football season, but the Board of Trustees dismissed him and university president Graham Spanier immediately.

The gathering didn't exactly devolve into a full-fledged riot, but police did resort to pepper spray and some arrests to disperse students. The worst trouble makers threw bricks and bottles at police, smashed car windows, and overturned a TV news van adding more embarrassment and heartache to an already troubled community. But as CBS Sports pointed out, the fact that there was very little resistence to the police crackdown shows their hearts were really in it.

Some students protested peacefully, while other simply came out to be a part of the scene. The Daily Collegian, PSU's student newspaper has some excellent coverage and an extensive slideshow of the events. (Photo via Tyler Sizemore/Collegian)

Like pretty much every aspect of this sad scandal, even the firings lacked conviction and clarity. Paterno was told of his firing over the phone and when asked why it had to happen now, board vice chairman John Surma said, "I'm not sure I can tell you specifically. In our view, we thought change now was necessary."