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‘In The Lions’ Den’: Graham Spanier Writes Memoir About Life Following The Sandusky Scandal

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier has written a memoir about how his life and career “turned upside down almost overnight” amid the Sandusky sex-abuse scandal.

The book, “In The Lions’ Den: The Penn State Scandal and a Rush to Judgment,” will be available for purchase on Tuesday, September 6, and can be pre-ordered on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible.

Spanier served as Penn State’s president until he was forced out of office in 2011 in the wake of the Sandusky Scandal. In 2012, he was charged for his handling of the incident, alongside former athletic director Tim Curley and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, who both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor child endangerment charges in 2017.

Last August, Spanier was released from jail after 58 days for his conviction on a misdemeanor child endangerment charge. His sentence also called for two months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service. He maintains his innocence, and his most recent appeal to overturn his convictions was denied last May.

He was first charged in 2012 and convicted in 2017 on one misdemeanor count stemming from his handling of a 2001 report that claimed former assistant football coach and Second Mile charity founder Jerry Sandusky was acting inappropriately with a boy in a campus locker room shower, more than a decade before Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

The 512-page hardcover book is being sold for $22.

In it, Spanier claims to expose the people who made false accusations and talk about the since-reversed NCAA sanctions, the former governor of Pennsylvania, the attorney general, and the grand jury.

“Little did Spanier know that his life would unravel in a nightmare of false accusations and labyrinthine legal proceedings stemming from a scandal surrounding a man he barely knew and who hadn’t been in Penn State’s employ since 1998,” the book’s description reads. “In the Lions’ Den is a personal memoir, told by a central figure caught up in the crush of those events. It reveals how and why the university and many individuals, including Spanier himself and legendary football coach Joe Paterno, were unfairly targeted in a colossal miscarriage of justice.”

You can listen to the prologue here.

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About the Author

Colleen Nersten

Colleen is a washed-up biology grad and former associate editor. Her legacy will live on through stories like “10 Questions With State College Sensation ‘Hot UPS Bae’”. If you’re a STEM girlie, this is your sign to take the leap of faith and learn to write. It’s pretty fun. Colleen misses the hate mail and can be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.

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