Over the past few days, there has been an outpouring of support from the Penn State community to honor the late Joe Paterno. Another special recognition could ensure that the man who helped build Beaver Stadium will forever be linked to the football program.

An online petition has been created on the website Change.org to add the Paterno name to Beaver Stadium, making it “Paterno Field at Beaver Stadium.”

The petition was created by Blake Tobias who hopes to reach 107,282 signatures, which would match the capacity of Beaver Stadium. Once this number is reached, Tobias told 6abc.com that he hopes to present the petition to the Penn State Board of Trustees.

As of publishing time, the petition has over 25,000 signatures since being created on Monday, just one day after Paterno tragically passed away from lung cancer.

Tobias described his thinking for starting the petition in a statement:

“This is a simple way of giving back to a man who spent basically his entire life giving making sure that the students who went to Penn State would have the tools they needed, and the professional buildings that they needed to do their jobs. He was so much more than just a football coach, he was a mentor to thousands of students over the years, probably in the hundreds of thousands, and this is a way to honor the legacy that he worked so hard to create. We will stand tall, we will right the wrong that has been done to his name, we will not stop until this goal has been finalized, like Joe Paterno, we will not give up the fight!”

Personally, I have signed the petition and think that it is a fitting and necessary way to honor Coach Paterno. I also think it is important to keep the Beaver Stadium name intact. After all,  Paterno was a big proponent of tradition. He wouldn’t want to rename the place completely.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments if you will sign the petition and support this idea.