Ran into one of my main Temple friends, Paul Palmer, at Cherry and White Day a month and a couple of days ago.

After we caught up on some things, I mentioned to him–like I seem to always do–that he hasn’t aged a bit since when I met him as a writer and he as a player from Temple in the early 1980s. Everybody else, including me, and the several Temple greats I ran into that day, have fallen victim to Father Time.

It this were a prize fight, Paul would have knocked out Father Time in the first round.

“Black don’t crack, Mike,” he always says.

Not quite true.

After seeing the above video, I’m shocked to see how much Ukee Washington has cracked and you can throw in longtime Temple play-by-play guy Harry Donahue (Paul’s first radio sidekick).

Paul, at least to me, has never cracked.

He’s the “Dorian Gray of Temple.”

That story revolves around a portrait of Gray, painted by Basil Hallward. Dorian expresses a desire to sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. The wish is granted and Dorian stays young. All the while, his portrait faded.

That’s the youth part of this story.

Rather than a deal with the devil, I attribute this fortune to good genes, the same genes that enabled Palmer to have that knack for elusiveness that made him the greatest running back in Temple football history.

If you don’t believe me, watch the above video that came out earlier this week.

A lot of this footage has really never been seen since 1986 and thanks to Youtuber Joe Tolstoy it is available to a wider audience now. Tolstoy taped all of the games I taped in the 1970s and 1980s but the difference between me and him is that I lost many of my tapes in several apartment moves in places like Doylestown and Quakertown and he maintained the library.

Temple as a school has done a very poor job of archiving its football hstotry.

Tolstoy is a treasure in the sense that he’s releasing a lot of it now.

Now a new generation of Temple fans can understand what a lot of us boomer guys already knew.

What would make me more comfortable with the 2023 Temple prospects? A running back with 1/10th the talent of Palmer. Not one half, not two-thirds, but I will settle for one-tenth. If that player enters the program in the next couple of months, my excitement level for the season goes through the roof.

Paul Palmer was a legend in the game of football. He also follows in the same legacy of Dorian Gray when it comes to eternal youth.

If there’s a portrait of Palmer somewhere that is aging, I’ll pass on seeing it.

Friday: Temple in the press

Monday: The G5 Magna Carta

Friday: Temple Cleanup Day