What’s the Deal: Hopefully, all Cherry and White

An Open Letter to John Donahoe

CEO Nike

Beaverton, Oregon

Dear John,

Another June 19th has come and the crooked number next to my name ticked up a year.

After, say, 40, that’s almost never a good thing. It’s all downhill from here in more ways than one. My birthday was never a national holiday as a kid but I was always aware of the importance of June 19th because I looked it up even as a 7-year-old. Very proud to share it with this important and positive day in U.S. history. #Juneteenth

The only good thing that’s come out of it so far has your name (Nike) on it in the form of gifts I unwrapped yesterday.

Temple grad and CBS radio host Zach Gelb celebrates Father’s Day with dad and legendary Mike and the Mad Dog producer Bobby Gelb by wearing Under Armour versions of Cherry and White.

Just read that you renewed your deal with Temple University as the official footwear, apparel, and equipment provider for all 19 of Temple’s intercollegiate athletic programs. I was the beneficiary of some sweet Nike Temple wear today being gifted a football jersey, a Temple T-Shirt, and a Temple golf shirt.

The colors were Cherry and White with the T-Shirt and football jersey and the golf shirt was white.

Perfection.

To me, those are the best colors in college sports.

How Temple got lucky enough to wear those colors, I will never know but I am grateful.

I have one small request.

For the football team only, please supply only Cherry and White game jerseys this season.

They can practice in blue, green, purple, and gray but please make the gamers Cherry and White.

There are a couple of reasons for that.

One, the abovementioned “opinion” that Cherry and White are the best colors in all of sports, let alone college football.

The second is a more factual one.

Temple almost never wins football games wearing anything but Cherry and White.

Statistically, it’s not just bad luck, it’s terrible luck.

Since Temple began regularly wearing colors like black and gray in football games, the Karma of rejecting Cherry and White is there in, well, black and white.

We’ve tracked the Temple football record since they started wearing other colors post-Al Golden Era and the numbers are not good. The Owls are 2-18 wearing black, 1-1 wearing gray, and 55-45 wearing some combination of Cherry and White.

That alone should be enough for Stan Drayton and company to demand only Cherry and White uniforms but if that’s all you supply, that solves the problem right there.

Don’t do it for my birthday.

Do it for all of the birthdays of all of Temple’s fans.

Your sales will go up, I promise.

Thanks,

Mike Gibson

Friday: The Temple TV schedule

4 thoughts on “What’s the Deal: Hopefully, all Cherry and White

  1. I agree 100%. I have been saying the same thing on social media (especially Twitter). It is and always will be “Fight, Fight, Fight For The CHERRY AND THE WHITE”! Not the Black or Gray or any other color. The CHERRY helmet is traditional too, and would like to see the Homecoming Game feature the CHERRY helmet with classic TEMPLE instead of the T.

    • My preference for the helmet is TEMPLE on both sides but a King Solomon solution would to split the baby: TEMPLE on one side, the distinctive T on the other.

  2. Cherry and White. Now, SDSU and SMU will get a P5 invites soon. Thankfully everyone now realizes what I’ve been proclaiming for too long, our BOT sucks.

    They can’t be fired, can’t be replaced, and won’t change. So what can we do? Keep kicking, screaming, and crying?

    Boycott is an answer. What if nobody showed up for the first home game? Yes, show support for the team and players by not showing up. Market it the right way and it would be huge statement on the national stage.

    Heck, you could even post people by the home of BOT members and have the camera’s rolling.., “BOT members don’t attend games and we are boycotting their lack of commitment.., etc.,,,”

    Continuation of the status quo equals a permanent cell on Death Row.

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