As everyone close to Temple University knows, this has been one of the most difficult weeks in the institution's history. My heart, and the hearts of everyone at the University as well as the Philadelphia community, goes out to the family of Temple police Sergeant Christopher Fitzgerald, who lost his life in the line of duty. It is such a tragic loss for his family, TUPD, the entire university community, and especially his devoted and beloved wife and their four young children.

We ask for your support by contributing to the Temple University Fallen Heroes Fund, initiated by Chair Mitchell Morgan and our Board of Trustees, which has been established to benefit Sergeant Fitzgerald’s family. Please click here to learn more and make a contribution to the fund.

The American Athletic Conference announced the dates for the 2023 Temple Football schedule on Feb. 21 and our Owls will open the season at home against Akron on Sept. 2. The schedule features seven home games, including a Sept. 23 date against Miami (Fla.) and first-ever meetings against new conference foes UTSA (Oct. 7, H), North Texas (Oct. 14, A) and UAB (Nov. 18, A).

Let's come out for our final home games of the season to celebrate our seniors (Mar. 1 - WBB vs. SMU, 7 pm; Mar. 2 - MBB vs. UCF, 7 pm).

We celebrated the birthday of the nation’s best mascot, Hooter the Owl, on Sunday, Feb. 19 at the men’s basketball game against Tulsa. It was a great day with many of Hooter’s mascot friends in attendance for the party and to cheer our Owls on to a win.

Besides celebrating Hooter’s Birthday, we also had our 1992-93 Temple Men’s Basketball team back at the Tulsa game to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their magical run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Half of the players were able to return to be recognized pregame in the Fox Gittis Room as well as at halftime. Below is the video tribute that was run at the game.

Also at the men's basketball game against Tulsa, we hosted 31 Team IMPACT families, approximately 120 people, at the game in celebration of our partnership with this wonderful organization. The children truly enjoyed the mascots at Hooter's birthday as well as the face painting, and interactive activities. Team IMPACT also had many new patients sign up from Shriners Children’s as a result of the game.

We are grateful to partner with Team IMPACT and provide our student-athletes with the opportunity to positively influence the lives of children and their families.

We also had some big staff news since our last newsletter. Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director Derek Horne has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association (MOAA).

Also, Senior Associate Athletics Director of Strategic Communications, Larry Dougherty was named the 2023 Arch Ward Award recipient from the College of Sport Communicators (CSC).

On February 8, Temple Athletics held its first two of five Advance Life Skills sessions for our student athletes. Advance, an unbiased industry leader in Name, Image and Likeness Consulting, Education, Life Skills Development and Due Diligence Technology Solutions, has partnered with Temple to provide education to support the department’s student-athlete development programming.

2/8 - Financial Literacy- Freshmen/Sophomore
2/8 - Contracts – Football
3/15 - Decision Making - Sophomore/Junior
3/29 - Life Transitions/Taxes/Contracts - Junior/Seniors+
4/20 – The Art of Networking- Special session invite only

Men’s Basketball celebrated Hooter the Owl's Birthday as well as the 30th Anniversary of the 1992-93 Elite Eight Team with a win over Tulsa before falling to Cincinnati in overtime on Feb. 22

Women’s Basketball will be looking to end its six-game losing streak this Wednesday with its final home game of the season against SMU.

Fencing went 3-2 at their Senior Day meet, the Temple Invitational. The #11 Owls defeated #9 Penn State (15-12) and #15 St. John’s (21-6) on the day.

Women's Gymnastics had a tough week, losing three straight to EAGL foes. The team did record their third best score of the season Sunday at LIU with a 195.175.

Women’s Indoor Track senior Laura Nicolson was the lone Owl to medal at the AAC indoor championships, picking up a bronze in the mile. Nicolson clocked a time of 4:53.2 to earn All-Conference honors.

Women’s Lacrosse split two games last week to fall to 3-2 on the season. The team defeated Delaware (9-7) before falling to #17 Princeton.

Golf had a tough opening to its spring portion of the season, tying for 17th at the Wexford Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, S.C.

Women's Tennis improved to 7-1 start and the doubles team of Jamie Wei and Maiko Uchijima remaining unbeaten in the spring and ranked 8th in the nation.

Men’s Tennis, which is currently ranked 72nd in the nation, extended its win streak to seven in a row and improved to 7-2 on the year.

Congratulations to Temple all-time great David Hawkins on his upcoming induction into the Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame. One of only four Temple players to score 2,000 career points, he was a three-time All-Conference honoree and averaged double figures as a freshman on the Owls’ 2001 Elite Eight team.

The Temple Women’s and Men's Basketball teams will be heading to Fort Worth, Texas to compete in the 2023 American Athletic Conference Championships. The Women’s Tournament is being held March 6-9 with the Men’s Tournament dates falling on March 9-12.

Join our teams in Texas as they compete for the championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Click here to buy tickets.

Temple Football season ticket holders should have received an email on renewing your tickets for what looks to be an exciting 2023 season. The home schedule features games against the Miami Hurricanes, Akron Zips, Norfolk State Spartans, Navy Midshipmen, SMU Mustangs, UTSA Roadrunners, and Memphis Tigers.

TO RENEW YOUR 2023 FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS, CLICK HERE OR CALL THE TEMPLE TICKET SALES OFFICE AT 215- 204-TIXX (8499)!

Special shoutout to our Athletes of the Week since our last edition of From the Nest: Women’s Lacrosse – Belle Mastropietro (2/20) and the Women’s Tennis doubles team of Maiko Uchijima and Jamie Wei (2/27) for earning OwlSports.com Athlete of the Week. Mastropietro also earned AAC Midfielder of the Week twice (2/20, 2/27), Damian Dunn earned Big 5 Player of the Week (2/20) and Brooke Donabedian earned ECAC Specialist of the Week (2/22)

Please come out and continue to support all our Temple Athletics teams. Below is a link to our composite schedule.

Mark your calendars for Temple University is hosting the 2023 NCAA Women’s Rowing Championship on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, N.J. The dates are Friday-Sunday, May 26-28.

In closing, I look forward to seeing everyone at this week's Senior Day celebrations starting with women's basketball Wednesday (SMU), men's basketball Thursday (UCF) and women's gymnastics Sunday. Let's come out and support our teams and seniors in their final home competitions!

Missed an edition? See all past newsletters HERE.