This is how I will always remember Temple police officer Jim Jones, with a game face on game day.

That great writer and philosopher Billy Joel probably wasn’t the first guy to express the thought but it is forever engrained in pop culture in one of his songs:

“Only the good die young.”

Don’t know about “only” but it sure seems like a disproportionate distribution of the grim reaper and the latest person taken away from us was officer Jim Jones a week ago. He was born in 1971, so that would have made him 49.

Either way, too young.

I hesitated this long to write about it because I only saw and talked to the man (basically) twice a year: The season-ticket party and the bowl game. He would interact with the fans pretty much at those points and he was always the nicest guy you’d ever talk to.

The other times you’d see him he, like the team, had their game faces on and that was, of course, on game day.

He was the first guy leading the team into the stadium and he knew his No. 1 responsibility was to keep them safe and he did that to perfection.

That’s how I will always remember him but he was much closer to the players, coaches and guys in the program and those are the people I feel for today. This above tribute written by Temple assistant director of football operations Dave Gerson, a lifelong Owl fan, reflected closeness better than anything I could write here.

The fact that just one police officer protected an entire team of 115-plus always astounded me. They are going to have to replace Jonesy with a battalion of officers and it won’t be enough.

Monday: One Way Fran Can Knock it Out of the Park

Friday: Hat tip to these AAC teams

Monday (6/29): Drop Dead Date