Tag Archives: Peter J. Liacouras

01.22.24
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Branding and Temple University

Coach John Chaney, who would have been 91 yesterday, was a big proponent on changing the name of Temple to Philadelphia University.

In the grand scheme of things that hold Temple football back, branding is about 147th on the list but it came to the forefront for a minute while watching the school’s basketball team play SMU the other day.

Sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the other guy and the Mustangs deserve credit for hitching their wagons to the city of Dallas.

They have “Dallas” on their uniforms both in football and basketball and, in part, rode that association to a P5 invite. (It also helps to have about 10x more millionaire alumni than Temple does.)

John Chaney would have been 91 on Sunday but both he and his president at the time, Peter J. Liacouras gently floated the idea that Temple change the name of the school to Philadelphia University.

It never got any traction because so many of us have gotten used to the name “Temple” that old habits would have been hard to break.

Honestly, though, that ship has probably sailed because there is no stomach among the current members of the Board of Trustees to change anything.

With Liacouras and Chaney, though, Temple had back then what it doesn’t have now in strong, local, leadership. Liacouras was a lifelong Philadelphian and graduate of Drexel. Chaney was the Philadelphia Public League’s Player of the Year in 1950. The Catholic League POY that season? A guy named Tom Gola.

Philadelphia remains the fourth-largest TV market (and sixth-largest city) in the country and the largest market without a Power 5 college football team. Philadelphia is highly regarded as a city across the country, if not within the city limits.

It was a huge bargaining chip when the Owls made consecutive AAC championship football games in 2015 and 2016. It no longer is that now.

But branding with the city by putting “Philadelphia” like SMU does with”Dallas” on the uniforms–if not changing the name of the school itself–is something that Temple can control and should do.

It probably won’t get Reese Poffenbarger here or a dozen other badly needed FCS starters who can upgrade the football team but getting the city on the uniforms won’t cost any NIL money and that swag won’t hit the transfer portal in a year or two.

Heck, maybe if Temple sports gets respectable again, someone in the ACC will put two and two together while watching the Owls and notice that there is one big TV market out there left to grab.

It couldn’t hurt.

Friday: Better Late Than Never

Monday: Wrong and Right

05.18.16
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For Pete’s Sake

petepatch

Last year, the Temple Owls did something relatively simple which was remarkably spectacular and that was put the simple word “Lew” on a patch of the helmet.

This year, for Pete’s sake, it is time to revisit that and, by saying for Pete’s sake, we mean it literally. The word “Pete” should be on the patch this year in Cherry and White for a double meaning in that it would honor two men of the same name who were instrumental in support of the football program, Pete Chodoff and Peter J. Liacouras.

We covered the passing of “Doc” Chodoff a couple of months ago, so we will concentrate on Pete Liacouras here. Full disclosure: I have been critical of Liacouras since he was behind the firing of the only decent head coach between Wayne Hardin and Al Golden and that was Bruce Arians. It was a mistake that set Temple football back 20 years, but Liacouras should be given credit for admitting the mistake.

Arians forgave Pete a long time ago and so should we.

In the end, though, Liacouras’ heart was in the right place for Temple football even if his Sugar Bowl timetable was a little off. He wanted a stadium, but he did not want one if there wasn’t “an identifiable funding source” and that phrase has been the foundation for the new proposed stadium.

It would be nice if the stadium was built, but the more immediate task at hand is for the season to be dedicated to him and the “other” Pete with a simple patch. Cherry and White would be the perfect color.

This is all, of course, up to Matt Rhule but he showed how something relatively simple last year could be remarkably spectacular and this tribute would be the exact same thing.

Friday: Spoiling Joe’s 50th