Sports

Springfield Township Rotary Club welcomed guest speaker Dave Brown, Esq. Mr. Brown is a local sports officiant and lover of the Philadelphia sports teams. His recent book, “Philly Jocks: The Best Philadelphia Pro Athletes of Our Time” was the subject of his talk at Rotary. Mr. Brown interviewed 100 local people who are very familiar with Philadelphia sports teams, people like Ray Dittinger and Chris Wheeler. Rotarians turned out to be excellent sports fans themselves, guessing the majority of the top 100 athletes listed in Mr. Browns book, which he has memorized by heart. The top 5 were 1. Wilt Chamberlain, 2. Julius Irving, 3. Michael Schmidt, 4. Steve Carlton, and 5. Bobby Clarke. If you want to know the rest, his book is available in paper back and on Amazon. Pictured Left to Right, Author Dave Brown, Esq. and Rotary President George Schaefer.

Springfield Township Rotarians welcomed Kristian Graves the Director of Capital Support for Temple Athletics. Mr. Graves touched on Temples revolution in the last 20 years, the expansion of its Fox School of Business, new Science and Technology Building, and the transition of the Tyler School of Arts to the main campus. Temple is unusual in that a majority of its student population live nearby to campus. While Temple has a 95 acre campus it pales to the next closest college in its league in Connecticut with 3,100 acres. This ties into Temples decision to cut 7 athletic teams from Temples athletic programs, the school felt they did not have the space or facilities to properly accommodate the sports. For example, the baseball team would have to travel hours to Temples Ambler campus, hold practice and then commute back. The main campus simple did not have the room to support a baseball field. The decision was not taken lightly and all students on athletic scholarships for the cut programs will have their scholarships honored.

Pictured Left to Right: Program Chair Bill Totten, Speaker Kristian Graves, and President George Schaefer.