Say it ain't so, Joe
DEAR JOE, As you may or may not know, former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin is up for inclusion into the current class of the College Football Hall of Fame.
DEAR JOE,
As you may or may not know, former Temple football coach Wayne Hardin is up for inclusion into the current class of the College Football Hall of Fame.
Coach Hardin's accomplishments in the realm of college ball in Philadelphia and nationally (and the pros, too) made him indeed worthy of induction. He's the last head coach in the city limits to win a pro football title, doing so for the Philadelphia Bulldogs of the Continental League in 1966. (When the USFL Stars won, they did it on the road and as the Baltimore/Philadelphia Stars.)
Coach Hardin is 80 and has a few more important things on his agenda - but none more important to him than filling Lincoln Financial Field for Temple's Aug. 30 regular-season opener with Navy.
Coach Hardin was on WPHT-AM/1210, a 50,000-watt station heard both here and Annapolis, and "guaranteed" a crowd of 66,000 for the home opener, a feat that would put Philadelphia on the college football map quicker than any football victory.
There was one caveat, though. The game had to be played on Thursday, Aug. 30. Anyone who's grown up in Philadelphia knows the town virtually empties out on the Friday of the Labor Day weekend, with people mostly headed "down the shore" for one last fling before the long, cold winter. There is virtually no chance that Temple would get what current coach Al Golden calls an "unprecedented crowd" on any other night but Thursday.
Fortunately, Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw worked it out and announced that Thursday would be the date for the opener.
The date was on Owlsports.com, the school's official athletic Web site. It was on the Lincoln Financial Field site, which I got to by clicking on a link on philadelphia eagles.com. The Phillies even switched a date to accommodate Temple, but not the Eagles.
Only, after that happened, you let Temple know that you wanted the date back for a relatively meaningless preseason Eagles game. (The Phillies' only error was not waiting until August to change the date, it seems.)
When we were kids, they'd call that Indian-giving. That's not politically correct now, so I'll call it caveman giving.
Contractually, Temple has no choice but to give the date back. Morally, your choice is clear.
The Eagles are probably the only sports organization in this town that can successfully draw on Friday night of that weekend. You'll get your crowd whether you play Thursday or Friday.
The Eagles can take the hit.
Temple can't.
You can say you'll help Temple market tickets until you're blue in the face, but nothing will help the Owls sell more tickets than giving them Thursday back.
It's not too late to right this wrong. As a favor to coach Hardin - the only coach in the history of college football to take Navy AND Temple to Top 20 final regular season rankings - abide by the agreement that let Temple announce the Thursday date.
The Eagles would help the fans of both Temple and Navy (for example, allowing Navy reserve personnel ample time to get to weekend drills) and gain an enormous amount of public-relations good will by allowing Coach Hardin and Coach Golden to realize their dream of an unprecedented Temple crowd.
Sincerely,
Mike Gibson *
Mike Gibson is a writer living in Philadelphia. His e-mail is