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It seems as if every week there is another story about the dark side of big-time college sports. Agents wine and dine college athletes in violation of the rules. Boosters provide their college heroes with expensive cars, lavish expense accounts and women. As if that were not bad enough, the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse allegations tarnished even a supposedly clean program at Penn State run by the legendary Joe Paterno. Allegations against a longtime assistant basketball coach at Syracuse University quickly followed. No wonder college sports has come to be viewed as corrupt by pitting athletics against academics. There is a positive side. Look no further than our local schools to see it.
At relatively small schools such as St. Joseph’s, La Salle and Villanova universities, students have rallied around their basketball teams as a source of unity and pride. In 1961, two other Temple grads and I were hired to broadcast the St. Joe’s Hawks games. Several of the players had gotten involved the season before in a point-shaving scandal that rocked the then-small college. St. Joe’s was known for the tremendous spirit of its then-all-male student body.
The school was personified by its “never say die” spirit. The team mascot was (and still is) a student decked out in a hawk costume that tradition demands never stops flapping its wings. The student cheering section, decked out in straw hats and armed with a bass drum, intimidated the opposition. Even when the visitors won the game and foolishly thought they had finally shut up those infernal rooters, the St. Joe’s kids would chant, “the Hawk will never die,” followed by a rousing rendition of “When the Hawks Go Marching In.”
The point-shaving scandal not only threatened to undermine the athletic program, but the very essence of the school itself. St. Joe’s never had aired all of its basketball games and used our broadcasts to rally the team and its supporters. That ’61-’62 team stunned basketball observers and fought its way into the national tournament. Although there have been a couple of off-seasons since then, the school never looked back. Even today, basketball is a rallying point and much more than a sport that only involves a handful of players.
La Salle similarly has a great basketball tradition. The NCAA placed the school on probation after a 20-win ’67-’68 season. The university needed a hero and it called on one from its storied past — Tom Gola, one of the greatest basketball players of his era. He coached La Salle to a 23-1 record. That team still lives in legend at the school. While La Salle has struggled, the basketball team is on the rise and promises once again to be a unifying element the entire student body can rally around.
I am most familiar with the story of athletics at Temple University, my alma mater. When I matriculated in the late ’50s, there was little pride or spirit. In contrast to St. Joe’s and La Salle, Temple had a large student body, most of whom commuted and worked. The campus was really just a mass of sprawling concrete. Even a basketball team that went to the NCAA finals two years in a row was not enough to excite the student body. Temple needed more of an overall approach to become what it is today. Over the years, the campus has been transformed. But combined with academics and the enriched campus life, sports had a large role to play in the new, vibrant Temple.
The school has its own modern facility on campus and is home to its routinely excellent basketball teams and various concerts. Although the football team plays at Lincoln Financial Field, it too has created new excitement among its students and alumni. When I broadcasted football games in the late ’50s, the team lost 23-straight games and played at Temple Stadium, a crumbling facility before small crowds. The school band was so small, I don’t think it had enough members to form the school’s name. The twin goals for the Temple football program have always been to defeat Penn State and win a bowl game. While it still was unable to get by Penn State this season, it did win its first bowl game in about three decades.
In my day, the Temple kids yawned through games and applauded politely. Today, the enthusiasm is apparent. Sports has combined with academics and a fun campus to give the students what they have always deserved — pride in their school. There is real meaning behind the school’s marketing slogan — “I could have gone anywhere, but I chose Temple.”
All of the schools I have mentioned, along with Penn and Drexel, have people of integrity involved with their sports programs. With all of the ugly stories, it is important to recognize our local institutions that run programs an alumnus, a student or just a fan can be justly proud.
And yeah, my Temple basketball team beat Duke last week, too. SPR
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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