OSU coaches die in crash

Women’s basketball: Kurt Budke turned Oklahoma State into a winner and hoped he’d found the place where he would coach until he retired.

Miranda Serna had passed up opportunities to leave his side, staying loyal to the man she helped win a junior college national championship and rebuild a big-time college program.

Having succeeded together, Budke (right in photo) and Serna (left) died together – perishing in a plane crash on a trip aimed at their team’s future.

Budke, the head coach, and Serna, his assistant, were killed Thursday when the single-engine plane transporting them on a recruiting trip crashed in steep terrain in Arkansas, the university said Friday.

The pilot, 82-year-old former Oklahoma state Sen. Olin Branstetter, and his 79-year-old wife, Paula, also died.

Associated Press

Lung cancer strikes Paterno

College football: Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno has a treatable form of lung cancer that was diagnosed last weekend, according to his son.

Scott Paterno said in a statement his 84-year-old father is undergoing treatment and that “his doctors are optimistic he will make a full recovery.”

The announcement came less than an hour after Penn State said the NCAA would examine how school officials handled a child sex abuse scandal that shocked the campus and cost Paterno a job he held 46 years.

Associated Press