33 YEARS AGO

The date was October 1, 1983 – a Saturday more than 33 years ago – and I was living and working in Center City.

I was managing the Holiday Spa at 15th & Market. Right across the street from City Hall and right next to the Clothes Pin statue. And I was living just four blocks away at 13th and Locust. Right next door to the nefarious Club 13 and in the same building with one of the most popular gay bars in the city: Woodie’s.

In fact, my block was a hotbed for gays, hookers, and street-corner drug-peddlers – which is exactly why I chose to live there. You see, I had a fabulous apartment just one floor below the penthouse with a 270-degree panorama of the city.

William Penn was standing on top of City Hall right outside my bedroom window. I could see the Academy of Music through my living room windows, down on Broad Street below. And whenever the Phillies hit a home run, I could look out another set of living room windows and watch fireworks exploding in the distance over Vet Stadium.

My apartment was twenty-three floors above the mayhem on the street and it cost me half of what it would’ve cost if I lived on the straight-side of Broad Street. And, trust me, I could deal with the street urchins.

WHEEZE KIDS

On that Saturday, the first-place Phillies (89-71) were playing the second-place Pirates (83-77) at Vet Stadium. With only two games left in the season, the Pirates had no chance of catching the Phils. These were the “Wheeze Kids” – Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, Mike Schmidt, and Steve Carlton. They were an aging bunch that surprised the Baseball World and went on to:

• Win the National League pennant by six games with a record of 90-72.
• Beat the Dodgers three-games-to-one in the NL Championship Series to advance to the World Series.
• But lost four-games-to-one to the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.

By the way, during that World Series, the Philly PD sanitized my block. That’s because the Orioles were staying at the Hershey Hotel, just one block over, and Mayor William Green didn’t want any negative images of the city filtering their way onto the national TV coverage.

So for the better part of a week – and only for that one week – I lived on a clean block.

DIRTY FRANK’S

My hangout back then was Dirty Frank’s. It was on the corner of 13th & Pine, which was just two blocks from my apartment. If you never frequented Dirty Frank’s during that era, you missed something special.

Frank’s – which is what the regulars called the place – was an eclectic bar, to say the least. Just a block from the art school, the interior walls were covered with original oil paintings by art students – art students who were the most-outlandish-looking individuals I’d ever seen up until that point my life.

Mix in some Philadelphia lawyers, politicians, celebrities, newspaper reporters, street people, and people just like you and me, and you had a special place to hang out. Randall “Tex” Cobb was part of our group. Former Eagles running back Tom Woodeshick was the regular night bartender. Ben Krass – with hot chicks from his TV commercials hanging on his arm – was a regular. We used to say that on any given night, you might run into anyone from Frank Sinatra to an axe-murderer.

On that Saturday, as usual, I met up with a few friends at Dirty Frank’s. Our plan was to have a couple beers and to send the girls in the group to Tippy’s Taco House to get a couple dozen tacos. Tippy’s was just two blocks down Pine. And when the girls got back with the tacos, we’d take the subway to Vet Stadium to catch the Phillies game.

We’d eat the tacos at the Vet and wash them down with some ballpark beers. But halfway thru the first beer at Frank’s, I floated an alternate plan past the group.

THE MAGIC FLUTIE

All week long, sportswriters had been hyping the Temple football game at Franklin Field – but it wasn’t because Temple was a good football team. In fact, Temple was under .500 at 1-2 going into that game:

• Beat Syracuse 17-6.
• Blown out 35-0 by Pitt.
• Lost narrowly – 23-18 – to Penn State.

Temple could be an exciting team because they had explosive freshman Paul Palmer at running back and Tim Riordan at quarterback. But Temple’s opponent was Boston College, who was 3-1 with impressive wins over Morgan State, Clemson, and Rutgers. In fact, Boston College would go on to finish the season 9-3 and notch impressive wins over Penn State and Alabama before losing 19-18 to Notre Dame in the Liberty Bowl.

But Boston College, itself, wasn’t the big draw to the game. It was BC quarterback Doug Flutie who was the big draw. The junior quarterback was already being mentioned as a candidate to win the Heisman Trophy and was being billed as “The Magic Flutie” for the aerial magic he performed on the field.

The way I saw it, Franklin Field was as close as Flutie would come to entering my world and I wanted to see him for myself. So I started a campaign to sway my buddies to my way of thinking.

By the time the girls got back with the tacos, we were into our second beers –and I’d succeeded. We were going to Franklin Field to see the Temple game – and Doug Flutie – instead of going to Vet Stadium to see the Phillies. And it was a good decision by all because we witnessed one helluva football game.

LET THE GAME BEGIN

After a scoreless first quarter, Doug Flutie connected with Brian Brennan on a 65-yard pass to put BC on top 7-0 after the PAT. BC controlled play throughout most of the first half, but missed on three field-goal attempts.

Freshman Steve Saltz started at quarterback that game instead of Tim Riordan, who was nursing a sore shoulder he injured against Penn State.Taking over at his own 20-yard-line and with time running out in the half, Saltz led a 14-play, 80-yard drive that ended with his running it in from 9 yards out with 0:46 remaining. The PAT tied the score 7-7 at halftime.

Early in the third quarter, Temple’s freshman defensive end Jeff Ward tackled BC’s Ken Bell in the end zone for a safety to take a 9-7 lead.

Late in the third quarter, BC’s Kevin Snow kicked a 19-yard field goal and Boston College regained the lead at 10-9 at the end of three.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, still down by a point, and with the ball of his own 10-yard-line, Tim Riordan entered the game for the first time. From that point, Riordan engineered a 10-play, 90-yard drive that ended with his finding Ellis Primus for a 4-yard TD pass and a 15-10 lead.

The 2-point conversion attempt failed.

Ken Bell returned the following kickoff 51 yards and Doug Flutie took over at the Temple 47. Flutie then moved BC to a score with just 3:08 remaining in the game – Steve Strachan scoring on a 4-yard sweep to take a 16-15 lead.

BC went for two – and Flutie found Scott Gieselman in the end zone to up the lead to 18-15.

Following the ensuing kickoff and with time running out, Riordan moved Temple into position to tie the game with a field goal. But Jim Cooper’s 51-yarder went wide left and the game was over.

Doug Flutie went 17-for-28 for 271 yards and one TD – and he would finish third in the Heisman voting at the end of the season.

Like I said, it was a helluva game.

By the way, the Phillies won 5-3 with Porfi Altamirano picking up with the win when the Phillies rallied for two-spots in the seventh and eighth.

I’m delighted to see the success that Temple’s football team is enjoying this season. I hope they beat Notre Dame this week, win a Bowl game, and finish the season undefeated.

This was the second part of a three-part series detailing my recollections of Temple football. If you missed Part I, here’s the link: Temple Football & Me Part I.

In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com, Barry Bowe is also the author of:

• Born to Be Wild
• 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
• 12 Best Eagles QBs
• Birth of the Birds
• Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
• Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
• Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow