After a disappointing opening game loss at Duke, our fans will get their first live look at new head coach Stan Drayton’s 2022 Football squad with our home opener against Lafayette at Lincoln Financial Field this Saturday (2 pm/ESPN+). There is excitement surrounding the new leadership in Football, as well as all our teams as demonstrated by the tremendous turnout at McGonigle Hall for Volleyball and the Temple Sports Complex for our soccer and field hockey teams. We are looking forward to that same level of support for Coach Drayton and our student-athletes this weekend.

Field Hockey is leading the way for our Olympic sports teams as the Owls have posted shutout wins over Lafayette, Lehigh and Longwood with the team’s lone setback coming in a nail-biter, 1-0, at #12 Virginia. Women’s Volleyball new head coach Linda Hampton-Keith picked up her first win at Temple with an exciting 3-2 victory over Delaware. With two more wins this past weekend, she has her team off to a 3-2 start on the season.

Men’s Soccer is off to a 1-1-2 start with their lone loss coming at #9 Georgetown while women’s soccer tied Rider on the road Saturday for its third draw in five matches. Opening their seasons last Friday were the men’s and women’s cross country teams. The men finished second among 11 teams at the Lehigh Invitational with the women taking third place in an eight-team field.

Temple Athletics was on hand to welcome back the elementary school children at the Paul L. Dunbar Elementary School, located inside the footprint of Temple’s campus, for their first day of class. Our men’s and women’s basketball coaches, Aaron McKie and Diane Richardson, were on hand as was new assistant men’s tennis coach Bruce Myers and spirit squad members to greet the children for the start of another academic year.

Temple has a strong relationship with Dunbar as The College of Education and Human Development provides ongoing support through the Steppingstone Scholars Program. The Office of Community Affairs and Engagement provides mentoring and other support through its Big Brothers Big Sisters and National Council of Negro Women programs that connect Temple students to Dunbar children. Community Affairs also hosts mentoring programs directly for middle school youth in partnership with school administrators.

I want to thank Dave Gerson and our athletics advancement team for getting the official T Club up and running. The initial response has been tremendous, but we need to continue to grow this important club to reengage our former student-athletes and support staff in order to share all the good things happening with Temple Athletics. Read more HERE or click below to join.

Dave is also helping coordinate our first-ever Champions Day at our football game against UMass on Sept. 24. There we will be honoring the anniversaries of our championship teams, highlighted by the 40th Anniversary of the 1982 National Champion Women’s Lacrosse team and the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Baseball team placing third at the College World Series.

In case you missed it, we debuted our radio show, Temple Talk with Stan Drayton, last Wednesday at Pub Webb, which is located on campus (1527 Cecil B. Moore). It is a weekly one-hour live show from 6-7 p.m., hosted by the voice of the Owls, Kevin Copp. Hopefully you will be able to stop by on Wednesday to hear from Coach Drayton live – or you can listen on 97.5 The Fanatic. Check out the show schedule HERE and be sure to stop by or tune in each week.

For those of you tuning in from out of town, to keep up with Live Temple Athletics events, be sure to download the Varsity Network App. Download the FREE app or log onto thevarsitynetwork.com today and start enjoying the best live content in college sports!

Great news broke last week in the world of college football as the College Football Playoff board of managers voted to expand the playoff model from its current four teams to 12 teams starting in 2026. This opens the door for all schools at the FBS level to compete for the National Championship

Finally, as we will not have a newsletter before our Homecoming game on September 17, I wanted to include a link to all the events surrounding the game against Rutgers, as it is Family Weekend as well as the Inauguration of Dr. Jason Wingard as the 12th President of Temple University.

Please use THIS LINK to register for all the week’s events – we look forward to celebrating together in a few weeks.

I hope you can make plans to return to campus and to Lincoln Financial Field for the reunions and the celebrations.

Until then and as always - GO OWLS!!!

Missed an edition? See all past newsletters HERE.