IT’S TIME TO NOTICE TEMPLE FOOTBALL
By Joseph Santoliquito
One of the best underdog stories in sports is going on right now. Just up Broad Street. Maybe you haven’t noticed in the Phillies’ World Series haze and consequent hangover. It’s the story of a program that’s been in the past easy to gloss over. Maybe that’s because they were a perennial loser—probably the biggest loser in the city the last two decades. It’s the story of a team no one except maybe a few brave souls would even admit going to their games.
It’s the story of the Temple Owls football team.
The last time Temple had a winning season was back in 1990, almost 20 years ago, when the Owls went 7-4 under Jerry Berndt. It’s also the last time Temple won seven games in a season. The last bowl game Temple played in doesn’t even exist anymore—the Garden State Bowl, which the Owls won by beating California 28-17 in 1979.
The last time Temple won seven-straight games in a season was in 1973.
It looks as if all of those foibles have been trampled this year. Now we’re being a little premature here in assuming Temple will get a bowl invite—but with a 7-2 record, these Owls, circa 2009 and winners of seven-straight games, almost seem certain to finally break the 30-year slide.
Temple football has battled layers of apathy, compounded by years of losing. The Owls could now wind up at the GMAC Bowl in Alabama, the Little Cesar’s Pizza Bowl in Detroit, or the International Bowl in Toronto. It’s not a BCS Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl or Cotton Bowl, but it’s not the toilet bowl, either.
After starting this year 0-2, it’s where the Owls seemed headed. Who would have thought Temple would bulge to 7-2, which the Owls achieved Thursday night after their last-second 34-32 Mid-American Conference victory over Miami of Ohio?
Maybe you haven’t noticed.
It’s easy to understand why, considering this is very much a pro city. But if there is a program that personifies the Philly sports tradition, it is Temple football. Think about it, a program that’s always clawed and scratched for any scant of respectability, lugging around a past it’s tried to expel. It’s been a program that’s looked longingly for any morsel of attention, and been pleased with the crumbs it’s received.
Not too long ago the Phillies were buried in a bowl of cracking concrete called Veterans Stadium and were a team not many really cared about, either. They were once overshadowed by the attention given to Eagles’ training camp in July. Remember?
Leading Temple’s charge is a true freshman that the country seems to have noticed—yet not many in Philadelphia have. That’s Bernard Pierce. He’s shattered almost every freshman rushing record Temple has. He leads all freshman running backs in the country in rushing and total yards. If you want to question the Owls’ Mid-American Conference schedule, go ahead. You’re entitled.
But it’s pretty tough to ignore Pierce’s 267 yards rushing in Temple’s dramatic 27-24 victory over Navy on October 31, or his 100-yard plus rushing games this season. Or his 178 yards and three TDs against Miami of Ohio.
I’m not saying Temple is ready to take on Florida and USC. But I am pointing out that a once-dormant program has had life breathed into it by head coach Al Golden and his hustling staff in making sure local talent doesn’t escape somewhere else. I’m saying they’ve reached that level of respectability, elusive for this program—and possess a budding star in Pierce.
“This was the biggest win of this program for this staff,” Golden said after Thursday’s victory. “I kept telling my staff and the guys if you want to be a good team and keep streaks like this, you have to win games like this. Good teams wins games like this.”
The Owls stole a little something from the beloved late Harry Kalas Thursday. As the media gathered for Golden’s press conference, a thunderous chorus of High Hopes could be heard vibrating through the walls of the interview room at Lincoln Financial Field from a team that was once nowhere and appears heading somewhere now in December or January.
Perhaps you haven’t noticed. Perhaps you should.
Joseph Santoliquito is an Emmy Award-nominated sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area.
