Big East welcomes Temple with this sign on March 12.

Ever since a guy named John Carpenter won a million dollars on a TV quiz show, I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind I’d like to get a chance to do the same.
I’m somewhat of a trivia whiz, even in matters outside of Temple football, and I’ve been determined to get a swing at those questions for awhile.
So I go up to New York once or twice every summer.
Carpenter won it in the classiest manor possible, using his final “phone-a-friend” lifeline to call his father on the $1 million question.
“Dad, I don’t need your help,” Carpenter said, “I’m just calling to tell you I’m going to win the million dollars.”
Then he correctly gave the answer as “Richard Nixon” and the confetti fell and Carpenter was presented with his $1 million check.
That’s a nice chunk of change for 30 minutes of work.
So with that in mind, I signed up for a June 12 New York City tryout for the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” TV show about a month ago.
Dumb luck, a few days ago I received an invitation in the mail to attend a June 12 Temple New York City alumni event featuring athletic director Bill Bradshaw and coaches Steve Addazio, Fran Dunphy and Tanya Cordoza.
Since the tryout was 5 p.m. at 66th and Columbus and the event was 6 p.m. 61 blocks away at 557 Broadway, I could not miss out on the opportunity.
I hopped on the D train at 59th and Columbus, got off at the Broadway/Lafayette station and was at the function in no time.
When I told Bradshaw about the juxtaposition yesterday, he said, “You are going to give us a cut of that money, right?”
“Absolutely,” I said.
Then Bill made one request.
“Don’t quote the coaches.”
“I’m good,” I said.
And I am.

For some reason, Hawaii’s 1979 sked came up in the conversation on Tuesday night.

These kind of functions are like a family dinner. What’s said at the dinner table doesn’t go outside.
It doesn’t mean a lot of interesting things aren’t said. It’s just that it is all in-house and that’s the way it should be.
Coaches should be quoted in pre-game press conference settings and after-game press conferences.
They should feel free to say whatever they want inside the Temple family setting without getting acid reflux afterward or suffering a sleepless night because of worrying about what they said.
Still, the coaches and Bradshaw gave Temple the best branding it has had in New York City since that sign appeared above Times Square EXACTLY three months ago (March 12) welcoming Temple to the Big East.
The Temple alumni had a great time and the coaches were great and neither is an exaggeration.
The fans talked about everything from the score of the 1979 Temple vs. Hawaii game to 2011 Maryland bus trip.
Back to the first part of the afternoon.
I got about 27 of the 30 questions right. I was foiled by a question on the Kardashian sisters and the percentage of checkers on a checkerboard square along with the definition of an Italian word (I don’t speak Italian, unfortunately). I’ve since googled answers and will take the test again in a month armed with that knowledge.
Now back to the Temple function.
I can tell one tale out of school, though.
If you have an extra $50,000 lying around underneath your mattress, please send it to Bradshaw with a note saying, “this is for the Temple football light (singular, not plural).”
He’ll know what your talking about. So will everyone else who attended. It’ll be worth the money.
If you don’t have it, I’ll try to scrape it up in a half-hour’s work in a few months.
Unless they feed me a different question about the Kardashian sisters.