Ted’s Excellent Temple Adventure

Ted's own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year.

Ted’s own photos from the more recent past, including these from the New Mexico Bowl. Hopefully, the current coaching staff delivers with several of these bowl experiences starting next year. Note spelling is not a strongpoint of the New Mexico Bowl scoreboard operator.

There is a great Temple fan named Ted DeLapp out there who went searching for Temple football history like one of those guys with metal detectors you see on beaches.

To say Ted is a great fan really is a misnomer. He’s The Greatest Fan, until I stumble upon another with his credentials of investing in the program by purchasing way more season tickets than he really needs for a 30-plus year period.

He hit on gold with some nuggets this week that we think deserve a wider audience than his own personal facebook page.

The first one involves a challenge game between the New York Giants of the National Football League and the Temple Owls. Turns out both the Owls and the Giants had an open weekend and Giants’ owner John Mara, eager to gain some credibility for his team, challenged the Temple Owls to a game in 1935. That year the Owls were 7-3 with wins over Texas A&M and Vanderbilt. Here’s what Ted found:

giants

Another was Temple luring Pop Warner from Stanford. Love the way sports pages used cartoons back in those days:

pop

Not often you find one coach with two nicknames “Pop” and “Scobey.”

Temple lured him for the princely sum of $18,000 after Stanford refused to match the offer. Temple’s BOT in those days was forward-thinking, learning that the only way to make money is to spend money and go after the top head coaches available. Unfortunately, due to an arm’s race that would make the Cold War look like Kid’s Play, Temple is now out of that high-stakes poker game.

pophead

Interesting that a clause in Warner’s Temple contract allowed him to hold a job at a bank on the west coast during the six months between Jan. and June. Bobby Wallace had no such clause, but was away for much of the time of his eight-year contract, maintaining a home in Gulph Shores, Ala.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.

Temple TUFF about 100 years ago.