Temple's Dunphy pays off a hairy bet

Holding a disposable razor, about to clear the hairy space between his mouth and nose for the first time in four decades, Temple basketball coach Fran Dunphy explained Thursday how it got to this: "Sometimes, you talk too much. My M.O. is not to say too much."

But every time Dunphy saw former Owls player Dionte Christmas in recent years, the coach got on him for not graduating despite needing only one more course. Dunphy finally told Christmas he'd shave his mustache if he got it done.

"I thought it was a joke, actually," Christmas said Tuesday. "I thought we were playing. He kept his word."

After Christmas, who has been playing professional basketball overseas the last two years, finished his degree work this summer, Dunphy didn't forget, which is how he came to be in a packed press room Thursday holding the razor and a compact mirror borrowed from basketball office secretary Essie Davis, foaming up from a mini-Gillette can.

"I am more nervous than any game I've had to play or coach," Dunphy said.

Christmas held his iPad up, filming his coach shaving.

"I'm going to tweet everything," he said.

Dunphy, not generally the look-at-me type, put himself out there, agreeing to take his most definable feature off in a news conference setting because he understood the message it was sending out, he said. Christmas said he was the second in his family to graduate from college.

"Sometimes I'd be scared to come in . . . Every time I came here Coach Dunphy was giving me a hard time," said Christmas, who has played in Israel, Czech Republic, and Greece since finishing his 2,000-point Temple career. "He'd start off good and then he'd say, 'When are you going to get that class done? When are you going to get that class done?' Just beating me on the head about it."

Asked what class he took, Christmas couldn't remember its name - it was an online course in public health, he confirmed later. He already had completed work in his African American studies major.

He knew the degree was a big deal, he said. He was so close - "I was on pace to graduate, I fell short" - so he always planned to get it done. It just took this little nudge.

Dunphy said he hasn't decided whether to keep his upper lip clean or grow the "muzzy" back, as he called it.

"Holy cow - how do I look here?" Dunphy said when he finished the job, sitting at the table where he answers postgame press questions.

"I love it . . . I love it," a laughing Christmas told him.

Dunphy, who first grew the mustache in 1971 when he was in the Army, admitted his wife didn't know what to think of the new man she was about to meet.

"She wasn't all that fired up," Dunphy said.

A former player called Dunphy and said he'd better hope Christmas doesn't go to grad school.

Former Owls player Mark Tyndale, a teammate of Christmas', also was in the room. Dunphy talked about how the next deal may be with Tyndale, another overseas professional who may play in China this season. Tyndale said he is three classes short of a degree. He's thinking about the right deal with his former coach.

"He may have to shave his arm hair or his leg hair," Tyndale said.

See a video of Fran Dunphy shaving his mustache at www.philly.com/shave

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