Factbox: Key facts about Penn State coach Joe Paterno

(Reuters) - Legendary former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, fired in November after 46 years as head coach in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving an assistant, died on Sunday, aged 85.

The following are some key facts about Paterno, his glittering career in Penn State football, and abrupt ouster in the wake of the sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

WINNING CAREER

* Brooklyn-born Paterno's own playing career was with Ivy League Brown University from 1946 to 1949. He then joined Penn State, a publicly funded university based in State College, Pennsylvania, as an assistant coach in 1950.

* He recorded 409 career victories after taking the reins as the Nittany Lions' head coach in 1966, making him the leader in career wins among major college coaches.

* He led Penn State to two National Championship victories, in 1982 and 1986, and seven undefeated regular seasons. Penn State has three Big Ten Conference Championships (one sole in 1994, and co-champs in 2005 and 2008).

* Paterno is also the all-time leader among college coaches with 24 post-season wins in 37 bowl game appearances.

PLAYERS

* Under Paterno's watch as head coach, the team counted 78 first-team All-American student athletes.

Among those recognized were 10 linebackers coached by Sandusky. All of those linebackers were drafted by National Football League teams.

* Paterno saw more than 350 of his former players sign NFL contracts with 32 of them drafted in the first round.

REPUTATION

* Penn State football has never been charged with a major National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) rules infraction.

* Before the Sandusky scandal, Paterno was long viewed by many as the leader of a pristine program. Some of his athletes also saw him as a father figure.

SANDUSKY SCANDAL

* Sandusky has been charged with repeated sexual assault of children over more than a decade.

* The university replaced Paterno in November as coach of the Nittany Lions after it was revealed he failed to go to police in 2002, when another assistant coach reported witnessing Sandusky abuse a boy in the Penn State locker room.

* Disclosure of the charges against Sandusky rocked the university and led to Paterno's ouster on November 9, with just four games remaining in the football season.

* Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence, faces 52 counts of sexual abuse of boys over a period of 15 years, including some incidents at the football complex on campus.

SOURCES: Penn State University athletic website, Penn State University compliance and student-athlete services, Sports Reference LLC, NCAA website.

(Reporting By Lauren Keiper: Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Eric Walsh)