By

Stephen Smith /

CBS News/ December 21, 2012, 10:38 AM

Top sports scandals of 2012

1. Penn State rocked by Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is driven from the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. Sandusky was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison, effectively a life sentence, in the child sexual abuse scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to coach Joe Paterno's downfall.

Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is driven from the Centre County Courthouse after being sentenced in Bellefonte, Pa., Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012.

/ AP Photo/Matt Rourke

As Joe Paterno's assistant for 30 years, Jerry Sandusky was revered as a stellar defensive coordinator for the Penn State football team. He was also widely praised as the founder of The Second Mile, a charitable organization for troubled children.

23 Photos

Jerry Sandusky gets 30 to 60 years in prison

But a portrait of Sandusky as a serial child molester emerged last year and in October of 2012, he was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in the scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to Paterno's downfall.

Sandusky was found guilty in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, convicted of molesting 10 boys over a 15-year period. Witnesses said Sandusky used The Second Mile as his personal hunting ground to find and groom boys to become his victims.

The scandal rocked State College and toppled the school's most famous figure -- Paterno. Soon after Sandusky was arrested (along with university administrators Gary Schultz and Tim Curley), the board of trustees fired Paterno, a coaching icon who won two national championships. He died of lung cancer in January.

Over the summer, an investigation commissioned by the university concluded that Paterno and other top officials covered up allegations against Sandusky for years to avoid bad publicity.

The scandal also triggered staggering NCAA sanctions against the football team. The penalties were unprecedented: a ban on postseason play, a $60 million fine and a slashing of football scholarships. The NCAA also wiped out 14 years of victories for Paterno, stripping him of his standing as major college football's winningest coach.

Sandusky is currently serving his child molestation prison sentence at an institution in far southwestern Pennsylvania that includes most of the state's death row inmates.