(University Park) -- Friends, family members, and former football players have celebrated the late Joe Paterno's life by sharing touching memories and humorous stories at a public service called "A Memorial for Joe." More than 12,000 people attended the event at Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center to honor the late coach, who died of lung cancer Sunday at the age of 85. Todd Blackledge, the former quarterback who led the Nittany Lions to a national championship in 1982, was just one of the speakers at the event. He says Paterno's influence won't disappear in the near future. "Joe's success and his impact didn't end Sunday when he died. It'll live on in the lives and the hearts of all the people here for many, many years to come," he says. Paterno's son, Jay, who served as the quarterbacks coach under his father, says he and his family are grateful to the thousands of people who've shown their support over the past few days. He says he's starting to realize just how wide-reaching his father's impact was on the Penn State community. "A white female student from California told me the same thing that a young black student told me from Louisiana: Your father is the reason that I came to Penn State." Senior Lauren Perrotti is part of the Paterno Liberal Arts Undergraduate Fellows Program, a scholarship fund set up by Joe and Sue Paterno. She says Paterno never forgot the school's student body. "He believed in all of us," she remembers. "By being the most kind, thoughtful, and hardworking versions of ourselves, together, we can continue to make him as proud of us as we are of him." Jimmy Cefalo, a former Nittany Lions wide receiver who went on to play in the NFL, says one of Paterno's biggest accomplishments was mentoring football players off the field. "Those thousands, literally, thousands of young men taken from generally small communities, looking for direction, at a very young age: This is Joe Paterno's legacy." Other speakers included former players who represented each decade Paterno served as head coach. Nike Chairman Phil Knight was the only speaker to directly refer to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal that cost Paterno his job, saying the former head coach handled the situation appropriately.