The health condition of the former Penn State coach Joe Paterno worsened in the past days because of complications appeared on Saturday night. This morning, his family announced that the coach died at 85 years old from lung cancer. He was hospitalized last week because his medical condition worsened after the chemotherapy treatment.

It was his son, Jay, who wrote on his Twitter page that his father was leading strong battles against cancer, thus drawing the press’ attention towards the subject. Jay continued by thanking fans for their support and prayers.

In addition to his lung cancer complications, Paterno also suffered from a broken pelvis. Although this rumor hadn’t been confirmed by a doctor, there were reasons to believe that the fracture had been caused by a metastatic bone disease which is often related to cancer.

His lawyer, Wick Sollers told the press that Paterno had experienced various health complications in the past few weeks.Sollers further stated that the family doesn’t want to make any comments and the press should respect their wish for privacy.

The online Penn State student news service Onward State erroneously reported on Saturday that Paterno had died, but the news was refuted by the coach’s family. The managing editor resigned as a consequence of the mistake he had made. He insisted on expressing his apologies and support to the family of the late football coach.

Joe Paterno had been a head coach at Penn State since 1966. His defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused in 2011 of sexually abusing boys and Paterno was arrested as an accomplice. According to witnesses’ declarations, Paterno failed to report one of Sandusky’s abuses in 2002; therefore, he was arrested last year.

Football players at the Penn State as well as other players from Nittany Lions were deeply saddened to hear that Paterno passed away. As a matter of fact, many students gathered around Paterno’s statue on the Penn State campus in sign of appreciation of the former coach.