Interesting choice of the word “earned” in this OwlsDaily headline.

Back in the mid-1960s, Fran Dunphy spent most of his springs as the shortstop of the LaSalle University baseball team. His second baseman in the double-play combination was former Temple University athletic director Bill Bradshaw.

Since it was a short fence at McCartney Stadium, we can assume Dunphy (and maybe even Bradshaw) hit a few out of the park.

Bradshaw continued his prolific home run hitting, at least in a figurative sense, at Temple as AD. It’s not a stretch to say that he saved the football program with the hirings of Al Golden and Matt Rhule and, even though he popped out with Steve Addazio (who won a bowl game), a 2-for-3 day at the hiring plate is a good performance in this sport.

More importantly, once the ship was righted, he signed contracts with Notre Dame and Penn State that increased Temple football’s profile nationally and he was directly responsible for the night that Temple set the record (that probably won’t be broken) for  the number of TV sets in the nation’s fourth-largest market glued to a college football game.

So Fran needs to get on the phone with his old buddy today or tomorrow if he’s going to make a difference in this job.

“Bill, what’s up?”

“Fran, congratulations on the AD job.”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about. I don’t want to be known as a placeholder. I want to be a guy who makes a positive difference at Temple in this job.”

“Fran, here’s what you do. Get on the phone with Lafayette, Norfolk State, Coastal Carolina and rip up those contracts and tell them you are going to help them get games with Penn and Villanova.”

“Then what?”

“Then go through the list of Power 5 schools who are not at the top right now, I’m talking about the Indianas and the West Virginias, and schedule games with them. Try to get home and homes but, if you have to, settle for two for ones. It’ll help Temple get into the Power 5 to win those games. Hell, I’ll even help you try to get Notre Dame back on the schedule if you want.”

“Thanks, Bill. One more thing.”

“What’s that, Fran?”

“How about getting baseball back?”

“Let’s not get crazy. One thing at a time.”

Friday: What the other AAC teams are doing