The Penn State board of trustees announced Wednesday the immediate removal Hall of Fame football coach Joe Paterno and school President Graham Spanier.

"In our view, things had reached a point where we had to make a change for the best long-term interest of Penn State," board member John P. Surma said in making the announcement.

Surma said the decision of the board was unanimous.

"He's made a great contribution to the university," Surma said when asked about Paterno.

He said Paterno was informed of the decision on the phone prior to the public announcement but would not characterize the coach's reaction.

"Let's see what's going to happen, OK? Right now I'm not the coach. And I've got to get used to that," Paterno said at his home after the press conference.

The announcement comes five days after former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted on sex abuse charges and athletics director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz were charged with perjury and failure to report a crime.

Pressure had mounted on Paterno's status this week as details of the case emerged. Receivers coach Mike McQueary testified he informed Paterno he witnessed a sexual incident between Sandusky and a 10-year-old boy in the showers of the football complex in 2002. Paterno told Curley. However, police contend Curley and Schultz did not report the incident to authorities.

Surma, the CEO at U.S. Steel and vice chair of the board of trustees, said, "these decisions were made after careful deliberations and in the best interests of the university as a whole."

"The past several days have been absolutely terrible for the entire Penn State community. But the outrage that we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological suffering that allegedly took place," he added.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach. School provost Rodney Erickson will serve as interim president.

Paterno, 84, announced earlier Wednesday that he would resign after the season. The Nittany Lions are 8-1 and ranked No. 12 in the country. They host No. 17 Nebraska on Saturday in what would have been Paterno's final home game with the school.

Paterno arrived at Penn State as a 23-year-old assistant in 1950 and took over the Nittany Lions program as head coach in 1966. His storied tenure has produced five undefeated seasons, the last in 1994, and national championships in 1982 and 1986.

He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame four years ago, and a bronze, life-size statue of the coach running onto the field, right index finger raised, stands outside Beaver Stadium.

Paterno finishes his career with 409 victories, the most of any major college football coach. But his involvement in the scandal and subsequent removal as coach will be part of a legacy that includes his charitable gifts to the university he worked at for more than 60 years and bears his name on its library.

Spanier, 63, has served as president at the school since 1995.

A Facebook page titled "Fire Graham Spanier" was created after the scandal broke Saturday and he issued a controversial statement supporting Curley and Schultz.

"With regard to the other presentments, I wish to say that Tim Curley and Gary Schultz have my unconditional support," the statement said. "I have known and worked daily with Tim and Gary for more than 16 years. I have complete confidence in how they have handled the allegations about a former University employee.

"Tim Curley and Gary Schultz operate at the highest levels of honesty, integrity and compassion. I am confident the record will show that these charges are groundless and that they conducted themselves professionally and appropriately."

Curley is currently on administrative leave to deal with his legal case. Schultz has retired.

Spanier also serves as chairman of the Bowl Championship Series presidential oversight committee, which has authority over the commissioners that run the system that determines the crowning of a BCS football champion.

The group has a meeting scheduled for Monday in San Francisco.

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