Penn State coach Joe Paterno waves to fans as he walks with the aid of a cane into Beaver Stadium before the Nittany Lions' 49-18 win over Michigan State on Saturday. Paterno had successful hip replacement surgery Sunday. (Michael R. Sisak)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Joe Paterno coached in pain all season because he had a mission to accomplish.

He delayed his hip-replacement surgery because he did not want to be away from his team for an extended period of time. So he waited through all 12 games and a bye week until early Sunday, a few hours after Penn State had won its second Big Ten Conference championship in four seasons and a trip to the Rose Bowl, to have the operation done.

Now comes the healing part over 40 days and 40 nights before the Rose Bowl. Medical experts said they expected Paterno to be in Pasadena on Jan. 1 but more likely in the coaches’ box, where he had coached the past six games, than on the sideline.

"I'm going to be back," Paterno said during his weekly teleconference on Nov. 18. "But how it's going to affect me? I don't have an M.D. after my name yet. Maybe when I retire I'll go back to medical school."

On the day before the Michigan State game, Paterno cried during the team meeting.

"That was probably the most emotional I've ever seen Joe," defensive end Aaron Maybin said. "He did a great job of putting us in a position to accomplish the task at hand. It really motivated us."

"When we saw him that way, it really hit our hearts," senior safety Anthony Scirrotto said. "We love him like he's our father."

Paterno, who will be 82 years old on Dec. 21, said two weeks ago that he would likely have the surgery on his right hip after the Michigan State game. But he became evasive last week, saying a decision could come later this week or early next week.

On Saturday, around 7 in the evening, after Penn State had routed Michigan State, 49-18, and the last roses were souvenirs, Paterno said he could not be specific on the surgery date because he wanted to avoid a media circus. The university protected the date as if it were a state secret.

But less than 24 hours later, Paterno had the operation a few snow-covered football fields away from Beaver Stadium, and the university released a statement at 5:47 p.m. announcing that the surgery had already been done.

“Successful hip replacement surgery was performed today on Penn State Coach Joe Paterno at the Mount Nittany Medical Center,” the Penn Statement said. “Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli reports that all objectives were accomplished and that Paterno is resting comfortably and anxious to get home. Paterno is expected to be on his feet Monday and able to resume a coaching regimen next Monday, Dec. 1, when the players return to school following the Thanksgiving break.”

Dr. Sebastianelli, who led the surgery team, is professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the director of athletic medicine.

"Barring any complications, I think he should be in good shape, but you never know for sure," Guido D'Elia, Penn State's director of communications and branding for football, said before the surgery. "From everybody you talk to, they say it's a few days or a few weeks until you're up and around again. They want you up and moving as quickly as possible."

As Saturday’s game was nearing its end in the evening frost, the celebrating fans turned to Paterno in the press box and began cheering, “Joe Pa-tern-o … Joe Pa-tern-o,” and their digital camera began flashing photos of him.

As he later seamlessly made his way to the locker room, first by elevator and then by golf cart, fans were told to wait in their seats to see the trophy presentation on the jumbo screens. Af ter Michigan State took two bizarre timeouts in the last 9 seconds, the celebration began on the field. Inside the locker room, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, Penn State President Graham Spanier and Athletic Director Tim Curley waited with Paterno for the trophy presentation. Only two university still photographers and a camera for The Penn State Football Story recorded the event.

A few minutes later Paterno walked with his cane across the cemented corridor between the locker room and the media room, climbed the step to the podium and awaited another presentation – a bouquet of roses from the 2009 Rose Bowl president.

“I don’t want my picture taken with roses,” Paterno quipped, making a quick handoff to an aide who then gave the flowers to Paterno’s wife, Sue.

Spanier and Curley stood together, presenting irony. Four years earlier, almost to the day, after a similar rout of Michigan State after the 2004 season, they had unexpectedly visited Paterno’s home, trying to persuade him to retire. But he told them to be patient, that he had an outstanding recruiting class arriving and a close family of assistant coaches working, and the program would be back. He kept his promise.

From that day on, the 17 seniors who played on the 2005 (11-1), 2006 (9-4), 2007 (9-4) and 2008 (11-1) teams won 40 of 50 games, two Big Ten titles and a bowl trip in each season.

Paterno injured himself in preseason practice on Aug. 24 while demonstrating an onside kickoff. In pain and walking gingerly, he coached the first three games on the sideline, two at home and one at Syracuse, but then moved to the press box after halftime of the Temple home game on Sept. 20 and coached from there during the next eight games, including four on the road. During the Oregon State game on Sept. 6 he bent over on the sideline in obvious pain.

He watched practice on a golf cart– he called it “a motor scooter” – and he expressed delight in having an advantage to sneak up from behind a player to admonish or instruct.

"It's been tough to watch," senior center A.Q. Shipley said. "Obviously, you don't want to see him in the type of pain he's been in. He's our coach. He's our leader. You obviously want to see him better. He needs to get better. I think he's going to feel a lot better once he gets that surgery done."

He required help climbing the step to the podium at Ohio State and the steps up and down from the locker room to the interview room. He looked like a nursing home patient, walking with a cane from the team bus, instead of the vibrant octogenarian who used to walk six miles a day.

Mindful of the increased media attention, Paterno’s Penn State entourage on Saturday cordoned off an area for photographers to work when the team buses arrived at the stadium, to avoid impeding Paterno’s path to the locker room.

Nearly a quarter million hip-replacement surgeries are performed each year. The procedure takes an hour, replacing the ball and socket of the hip with metal substitutes. Infection occurs in less than a half percent of procedures and blood clots can also occur. The hospital stay is usually two to three days. Therapy s tarts immediately with a walker and lasts three weeks. A cane is then used for two weeks.

Paterno had said the activity he missed the most was leading the team running onto the field before the kickoff and waving to the student section. The medical experts said he would be able to do that again next season.

"I want to get back on the field,” Paterno said. “I expect to be back on the field."

"I know for a fact that he's going to do everything in his power to make sure he's available, and that he's there with us every step of the way," Maybin said in perhaps an intended metaphor.