Owls holding breath for that bowl bid




New Mexico Bowl and Military Bowl remain the likely destinations for Temple.

 

If you are a Temple fan, disappointment is a familiar word.
A couple of years ago, I watched a pre-game college basketball show from my neighborhood gym and the two guys were debating whether or not Temple's 29-win basketball team was a two or three seed.
"I think Temple's done enough to move up to the two line," Doug Gottlieb said.
What happened?
The Owls slipped to No. 5 and had to play a 27-4 Cornell team in the first round.
I did not find that out until attending the selection party at the Liacouras Center that night. Driving down, I was whistling Gottlieb's No. 2 tune.
Most people's reactions:
WTF?
You know what those three letters stand for, so I won't elaborate.
Last year, they had a bowl selection party scheduled for the LC but had to cancel it at noon.
"Guys, we're done," were the famous three words uttered by Al Golden in a team meeting at the E-O.

If there is a WTF moment on Sunday, Temple should pursue all avenues to escape from the MAC immediately. Conference USA would accept Temple in a heartbeat and that's really where the Owls belong anyway

WTF?
Back in September, Temple officials were telling Owl fans that joining the Big East would happen "in a matter of days, not weeks" at the wine and cheese pre-game tailgate against Maryland.
Then Villanova stepped in and cried like a baby on the phone to its fellow Big East Catholic schools for three days and suddenly that situation fell apart, too.
WTF?
So there's a party scheduled for the LC Sunday night.
I remain optimistic that the Owls will receive an invite to the bowl party but I've seen too many funky things happen to Temple to be absolutely sure.
As I write this late Saturday night, no official bowl invitation has been received by Temple. In fact, two websites (College Football News and NBC sports) have the Owls projected out of the bowl picture entirely.
One has a 7-5 MAC team, Western Michigan, with no TV ratings and a smaller fan base, projected against Cincinnati in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
Ridiculous is one word.
WTF is three words.
Heck, even Florida International University has received and accepted its bowl invite (Beef O'Brady's, St. Pete) but not Temple.
If there is a WTF moment on Sunday night, Temple should pursue all avenues to escape from the MAC immediately.
Conference USA would accept Temple in a heartbeat and that's really where the Owls belong anyway.
Hopefully, we will all be breathing a sigh of relief at 8:15 p.m. but it never should have come down to the last moment nor should it ever again.
Temple's athletic administration should see to that no later than Monday morning.

Five 7 reasons why Bernard Pierce should stay

"When I get out of here, I'm going to lay out that guy with the long hair
 from the Pittsburgh Steelers, Troy Polamalu, and the only reason I'm going to be able
 to do that is because I stayed my full time at Temple building my body for the rigors
 of the NFL.  When I do that, you'll know it's a signal from me to you to stay in school."



Just as promised, Steve Maneri lays out Palamalu.


The subject of my favorite Temple Owl came up with one of my favorite Temple fans in the parking lot before the game last Friday.
"What is Bernard majoring in?" my friend, Chet, said.
"Nuclear physics," I shot back.
Of course I knew Bernard Pierce is majoring in the same thing I majored in at Temple University, Communications. I have that degree on my wall and it is next to my two Associated Press Best Sports Story awards and one Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association award for Best Feature Story.
Without the degree, I don't get a chance to get the other two items framed. Whatever little writing talent I had as a 17-year-old was harnessed into a readable style thanks to Temple profs.


Of course, I could never run the ball like Bernard Pierce can but I see a bright future for him in Communications after football and the average work lifespan of a good NFL running back is about five years.

The average work lifespan of a TV guy with a Temple degree is about 60 years longer than that.
Ask Kevin Neghandi of ESPN.

Another reason to come back: Steve Addazio tells funny jokes.



If Bernard really was majoring in nuclear physics, I'd advise him to leave.

Since it is Communications and he is thisclose to graduating, he would be a wise Owl to stay.
He's going to run into a lot of shady sports agent characters and they are going to give him a lot of advice designed to get their cut of his money a year early. My best advice (and it's free) for him is to go with the first agent who tells him it is in his best interest to stay.
Five good reasons:



Mel Kiper is much more likely
to call Bernard Pierce a No. 1 choice
next year, not this one.

 Draft status _ There are plenty of good running backs coming out including Trent Richardson (Alabama), Lamar Miller (Miami), Montee Ball (Wisconsin), Chris Polk (Washington), Cyrus Gray (Texas A & M) and LaMichael James (Oregon). I know Bernard is better than these guys. You know Bernard is better than these guys but, right now, those guys are rated higher than Bernard. That means he could go as low and third or fourth round. Next year, when he's the unquestioned best (by you, me AND Mel Kiper), he will get guaranteed first-round money and be able to start his own TV station. If he gets drafted in the second round or below, which appears likely, there is no guaranteed money, which means he is an injury away from getting cut and sitting next to me in the stands at Temple games wishing he was out there (just like Big East player of the year Walter Washington sadly did when he got bad advice from an agent and came out early in 2004).

 

Bernard already has a nice suit
ready for next year's Heisman ceremony.



The Heisman Trophy _ With Richardson, James and Ball graduating, Bernard has jumped over the field into the top five in next year's Heisman conversation. All the good backs will be gone. He'll be on national TV in the bowl game and every TV guy will be mentioning his name as one to watch in next year's Heisman talk. Also, he's playing Villanova next year in the first game. He should get 500 yards and six touchdowns in that game alone and that should catapult him into the top of the race. Usually, guys who get to the top early stay there at the end. If he stays, I will make it a singular mission to gather up all my Temple communications alumni buddies and get Bernard the Heisman Trophy. What a great thing it would be for him to be at the Downtown Athletic Club in Manhattan accepting the award that just eluded Temple's Paul Palmer in 1986. Plus, it would set him up for a good TV gig 10 years down the road.



No wonder BP has such
great vision.

The Franchise Tag _ Not Temple's, mine. For the past three years, I have been the guy yelling the loudest from the stands: "GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT'S FOOTBALL!!" For some reason, I didn't do that in the Kent State game and, after all three BP touchdowns, the two teenage girls sitting in front of me turned around to me, gave me a fist bump, and said: "GIVE THE BALL TO THE FRANCHISE. THIS IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. IT'S FOOTBALL!" I wonder where they got that from? I must've been a bad influence on those kids. If there's no Bernard Pierce next year, I got nothing. Matty Brown will do a nice job, but it won't be the same without The Franchise. Scot Loeffler, you are on your own calling plays. Could get scary.

Tesa, Wayne and Cyrus Tribue

The Mom Factor _ Watching all the moms with their sons on Friday, I thought it would be great if Tammy Pierce would be escorted onto the field by Bernard Pierce for the Senior Day ceremony next year. Tammy has been Bernard's No. 1 fan since Day One. She deserves that day in front of a packed house next year. (And it will be a packed house. Paul Palmer drew over 40,000 to crappy Veterans Stadium for his final home game.)  I met her in the concourse at the Miami game and, without knowing who she was, she said to me: "Nice to meet, you, I'm Bernard Pierce's mom." I stood there with my mouth open for about five seconds before thinking of something to say. "He's my favorite player, I love him," I said (nothing kinky, of course just like a proud adopted uncle). Tammy said, "Well, we do, too." There's a lot more people at Temple who love him than in the NFL. There is no agent out there who loves him like we do.

Ramone looks sad he came back (not!)

Lavoy: All smiles during his senior year.

Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen _ Like Bernard Pierce, both Ramone Moore and Lavoy Allen filed paperwork with the pros to determine the level of interest. Hopefully, like Ramone and Lavoy, Bernard will make the same determination to come back. Neither guy is far away if Bernard wants to get advice. Lavoy is practicing with the Sixers. Bernard walks by Temple basketball practice on the way to class every day so he can talk to Ramone as well. Just by looking at the smiles on the faces of both guys during their senior years at Temple should be enough for Bernard to want to experience his senior year at Temple as well.

Daz finally figured out how to use Bernard Pierce best.

The Daz Factor _ Both head coach Steve Addazio and offensive coordinator Loeffler finally figured out by the Army game that the best way to use Bernard Pierce was outside the tackle box, not between the hash marks. You hear the term "edge rusher" almost exclusively referring to a defensive player, but Bernard Pierce is the best edge rusher on offense I've ever seen. When Addazio stopped using Pierce between the tackles like he did at Ohio and Bowling Green, we saw the real Bernard Pierce once again. He's got the speed to beat everyone outside on sweeps and tosses. I don't think they will go back to between the tackles again. That will undoubtedly  mean bigger numbers and bigger things for a bigger and better Bernard Pierce in 2012.





Mobil 'Football Club Badges' ad, 1977

Mobil Football Club Badges, "all in the correct club colours and they're made of cloth material so you can stitch or stick them on to clothing*..."

* "We do not recommend that the badges be washed as this may have a detrimental effect."

Temple bowl foes: The unusual suspects

Expect Morkeith Brown to be in the middle of the bowl celebration again.

All of this bowl talk reminds me of the shell game on the Jumbotron at Lincoln Financial Field.
You know the one.
Three Temple helmets and guess which one the ball is under.
That's pretty much how it is today, about a week before the official selection Sunday.
Like that video game, there are too many moving parts to make a solid prediction but there are just enough moving parts to know it is a limited pool of opponents to chose from right now.
I'm pretty sure of two things. They are going to have a bowl selection party at the Liacouras Center and everybody is going to go crazy around Morkeith Brown in the center of the room.
Everything else is just speculation at this point. The real bowl is under one of six helmets.
What isn't speculation is the number of teams are mostly unusual foes for Temple football. I like that aspect of the bowl games. Reminds me of the World Series before interleague play ruined that element.
Heck, I'm excited to be playing anywhere but I'm a little more excited about certain matchups.
The speculation:

1) Rutgers vs. Temple, Birmingham Ala. BBVA Compass Bowl _ Two sites have this has the possible matchup. This is very appealing to me for three reasons: 1) Temple is underrated and 2) Rutgers is overrated and 3) It would give Temple another chance to shove it in the Big East's face. Put me down for this one. Army keeps coming up as a common foe. Rutgers beat Army, 27-13. Temple beat Army, 42-14. RU also beat Ohio at home, 38-26, while the Owls lost at Ohio. The Owls were struggling with QB issues vs. Ohio but got that ironed out by Army.

2) San Diego State vs. Temple, New Mexico Bowl _ Should be good weather for this one. The teams have one common opponent and that is Army. San Diego State beat Army, 23-20. Temple beat Army, 42-14. This appears to be more likely than the first one because it makes sense, geographically. San Diego State brings the crowd. Temple brings the East Coast TV ratings. If Temple fans want to go on the cheap, they can take scenic Route 66 out to Albuquerque. It's only a three-day ride. I'll have to thumb it because I can't afford the gas money. Both CNNSI and CBS Sportsline have this matchup.
3) Western Kentucky vs. Temple, Kraft Hunger Bowl, San Francisco _ ESPN predicted this and it makes no sense to me at all. Not because Temple is there, but because Western Kentucky is there. Western Kentucky brings nothing to the table. No fans. No TV ratings. Western Kentucky is to FBS football what Villanova is to FCS football in terms of interest and that is no interest. Temple brings a big-time East Coast TV following. It would make a lot more sense if UCLA is able to obtain a NCAA waiver and compete in this bowl at 6-7. Either UCLA or Cal vs. Temple would be a bowl rematch and a great game.

4) Florida International vs. Temple, Beef O'Brady Bowl _ Plenty of Temple fans in the Clearwater/St. Pete, Fla. area because I run into them every March at Phillies Spring Training. Probably the nicest town (go to Ybor City for night life) and the best weather. I'll take it over any venue but Birmingham. Don't like the foe because beating FIU doesn't do much to promote the Temple football brand. Both teams have one common foe: Akron. FIU beat the Zips, 27-17. Temple won, 41-3.

5) Louisiana-Lafayette vs. Temple, New Orleans Bowl _ Great town, not-so-great foe. See the note on Florida International as far as promoting the Temple brand. The teams have one common foe, Kent State. Temple beat Kent State, 34-16. Louisiana-Lafayette beat Kent State, 20-12. College Football News is reporting this matchup.

Temple fans are still thawing out from D.C. game in 2009.

6) Wake Forest vs. Temple, Military Bowl _ Affords Temple fans the short and relatively cheap Amtrak trip to Washington, D.C., just like 2009. Unlike 2009, it can't get to be that cold again in late December. Average high in Washington that week is 48. Temple drew 20,000 fans despite wind-chills below zero and a real temperature of 11 degrees above zero. Both teams have one common opponent, Maryland. Not much to chose. Temple went on the road and won at Maryland, 38-7. Wake beat Maryland at home, 31-10. This would be a nice win for Temple in front of a big homefield advantage for the Owls. USA Today is reporting this matchup.
Listen, when you are in the MAC and you don't take care of business in three league games, any bowl is a great bowl.
There are just some better than others and I'm rooting for the first or second matchup.

TV Times: 1970 World Cup preview

Many England fans of a particular vintage rightly look back on the 1966 World Cup as a high water mark in all their time supporting the national team. What's easy to forget, however, is that the following World Cup was the one that had everyone talking. England entered the 1970 World Cup as champions and no-one could fail to get caught up in all the hullabaloo that was generated.

Sir Alf Ramsey's team flew out to Mexico to defend their title and back home it seemed like everyone was intent on watching every moment of what would surely be another successful tournament. For the first time ever, the World Cup was broadcast in colour and an appreciative UK public settled down in eager anticipation to watch events as they panned out.

Getting the women onside

To fan the flames of such widespread interest in the competition, the TV Times launched it's special preview issue on the week of 30 May to 5 June (price - ninepence). Headlined How to Survive the World Cup, the magazine took a unique approach by siding with the UK's female population who, it figured, would soon be bored with the welter of football coverage hitting their screens in the coming weeks.

The front cover was a vivid green, save for the white-bedecked curves of Trisha Noble - an Australian singer well known to British music lovers at the time. Male football fans probably would have bought a TV listings magazine anyway back in the middle of 1970, but having such a tempting feminine form on the cover no doubt would have made it an absolute certainty.

And exactly how would the TV Times provide women with the means to survive the 1970 World Cup, you ask? Why with knitting, of course! Don't you remember? Everyone was knitting back then, or so the TV Times would have you believe. Knit Yourself a World Cup Woolly was the feature if you wanted to look like Peter Bonetti and family. Quite why anyone had woollen sweaters in mind when the average daytime temperature in early June was somewhere in the region of 23 degrees C is beyond me, but there it is. As for his daughter Suzanne and her knitted two-piece 'suit', the least said about that, the better...

Clickety-click

It wasn't just knitting that the TV Times could offer women, though. There was also Bingo! Yes, the average British female in 1970 was barely breaking into three dimensions with such predictable interests, in fact the only thing missing from this issue was a guide on 'How to Make Three Square Meals a Day For Your Husband.'

Anyway, the Bingo game in question was brilliantly contrived in nature. Printed on page 5 of the magazine was a Bingo card, onto which women were invited to write the names of their four dishiest players from the first week of the competition. If those four players matched up with those chosen by Trisha Noble, Kathie Webber (resident cook) and Gabrielle Drake (actress and future Crossroads stalwart), the lucky entrant could win £4,000. Failing that, the man of the house could also enter by predicting the names of that week's Best Player, the scorer of the Best Goal, Best Goalkeeper and Most Sporting Player. With that last category in mind, aficionados won't take long to work out that Jimmy Hill was on the judging panel for this one.

The classic panel

Hill's judgement (along with that of Malcolm Allison, Derek Dougan, Pat Crerand and Brian Moore) would also serve its purpose for the feature Here Come The Soccer 'Oscars'. ITV Sport's crack band of experts would be giving out awards after the World Cup to those players it thought were best throughout. TV Times even looked back four years to see who might have won the same awards in 1966.

Elsewhere, Peter Farley explained the complicated process by which coverage of the World Cup in Mexico would reach our shores in When a Football Bounces 5,500 Miles. Apparently it's got something to do with Goonhilly, a bunch of satellites and an 84-foot wide dish on a mountain outside Mexico City. Perhaps that's what they meant earlier when they were talking about the World Cup's Dishiest Players...

Soccer with the stars

And this being a celebrity-orientated magazine, there was also the obligatory feature telling us How The Stars Will Watch. Michael Parkinson's wife Mary was apparently going spare with all the wallcharts and other ephemera littering the family home. "The house looks like the Aztec Stadium" she said in a not-at-all-written-on-her-behalf quote. Bernard Youens - Coronation Street's Stan Ogden - meanwhile planned to put his feet up while supping a pint or two. 'England for the Sup!' said the TV Times, showing The Sun's headline writers the way long before their time.

Behind the mic

The only other thing we needed to find out was the make up of ITV's commentary team. Poor old Brian Moore had to forego a Mexican holiday in 1970. He was stationed at the ITV studios in London throughout. Luckier, however, was Hugh Johns (ATV), Gerry Harrison (Anglia), Gerald Sinstadt (Granada), Roger Malone (HTV) and none other than the former England international and ATV Head of Sport, Billy Wright.

Johns, we learned, had spent two months compiling a World Cup dossier beforehand. Sinstadt would be in Leon while his wife was giving birth to their first child. Harrison had been doing keep-fit exercises to ensure he stood the pace. Malone, however, was looking forward to celebrating his 37th birthday after the opening match had taken place. It's not difficult to see who the slacker was in the ITV commentary team, is it?

On the box

Finally, what else was on ITV during the opening week of the 1970 World Cup? Well to begin with, Saturday afternoon featured the iconic World of Sport, introduced by Richard Davies, whoever he is. The same evening you could settle down to watch The Des O'Connor Show with guest star Val Doonican and Jack 'Waa-haay!' Douglas.

At 4.15 on Sunday afternoon there was Bob Monkhouse and The Golden Shot which had one of those did-I-read-that-right line-ups of Tommy Trinder, Anita Harris and Status Quo. Later in the week, you could also feast your eyes on Hawaii Five-O, Doctor In The House and the Benny Hill silent one-off, Eddie In August. Well they were hardly going to put their best programmes on during a World Cup, were they?

Handicapping Temple's bowl odds

"There is no doubt that Temple will be in a bowl game."
_ Steve Addazio

Only 14 more games remain in Bernard Pierce's career at Temple (this year's
bowl game and next's year's 13 games) and that thought seems to weigh heavy on
head coach Steve Addazio as the two share a hug on Friday afternoon.

Great photo by Mike Edwards

It's been a long time since I've put some sheckles on a football game, but I could not help but noticing the score of Temple's game today against visiting Kent State in the final moments.
Temple 34, Kent State 16.
Temple was a 17 1/2-point favorite.
The Owls won by 18.
"How good is Vegas?" I said.
Not as good as me, though. I predicted a 28-10 Temple win and the line fell right on that 18-point spread.
I don't think Vegas does lines on handicapping bowls, but I'll take a shot.
Temple's got a 75 percent chance or BETTER of going to SOME bowl with an 8-4 record. Had the Owls lost, it would have been a 25 percent chance or LOWER of going to a bowl.

Here's what I have:
KRAFT HUNGER BOWL _ Better than a 50 percent shot and I think this is where the Owls eventually land. Since the bowl is in San Francisco, I think they will land a California team (Cal?) to play Temple. Since the local angle takes care of the crowd, the KHB won't be as keen on a team that brings a big following as one that gives them big East Coast TV ratings and Temple provides that. It's a great story line, too, in that it could be a rematch of the 1979 Garden State Bowl, won by Temple.

NEW MEXICO BOWL _ Owls have a 40 percent chance of going here. Look for a Utah State vs. Temple matchup if that happens. Utah State brings the crowd, Temple brings the East Coast TV ratings.

FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO BOWL _ Owls have a 20 percent chance of heading to this one but I think the Boise people would like a team that brings a crowd and that would not apply to Temple. The Owls probably won't travel more than 1,000 fans to Boise and you can blame that on the $825 round-trip airfare with at least two connections.
MILITARY BOWL _ The game, formerly the Eagle Bank Bowl, has good memories of Temple since the Owls brought 20,000 of their fans to the 2009 bowl. Still, the Military Bowl people seem to be keen on an Air Force vs. Conference USA matchup and that's why I think Temple has only about a 10 percent chance here.
Other possibilities (less than five percent) include New Orleans and the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. I only throw those in because both bowls had representatives at today's game.
Whatever, though, it appears because the Owls have legitimate star power (Bernard Pierce) and TV ratings in a large market coming off a three-game winning streak, they will be ticketed for somewhere.
Dec. 4 is Bowl Selection Sunday.
The Owls will know their destination well before then.
You can take that to the bank.

My First... Football Kit - Coventry City Home 86/87

I’ll try not to bang on about Mexico 86 too much in any posts I make here, but given it was a hugely pivotal moment in my life, it’s gonna happen. Let’s just all come to peace with that and move on - about six months in fact, for it is now January 1987, having been subsumed by football and discovered in myself a perhaps unhealthy obsession with football kits. (I say unhealthy, I wasn’t doing weird things with them - I just like them... a lot... I’m not David Mellor you know – contemporary reference for you there.) And so it was that I came to be at Highfield Road on a foggy January morning, visiting the tiny chip-shop-counter-style cupboard known as the Club Shop.

Firstly, however, let me give you some background info, for this was technically not my first ever kit.. No, that was a red thing in the guise of the once successful outfit of Liverpool FC. Half of my family are from that part of the world and so it was that before I was actually interested in football my only contact with the sport was via them and this meant occasionally receiving Liverpool-themed gifts.

One Christmas, my brother received a Liverpool kit. I'm not entirely sure it was a genuine replica, but more of a market stall special as it had no badge or manufacturer label and was just all red. This was around 1984, when pinstripes were in. No matter, as we were told it was the official kit and that was all that mattered. A year or so later, it was handed down to me and I proudly ran out in it at school... next to my mate who was also sporting the Liverpool kit... which had pinstripes... which induced confusion in my non-football following brain. “Mine’s the official Liverpool kit,” I naively declared. “So’s mine,” the response. Brain meltdown. So apparently teams change kits every year or so... ooooh this football world is full of surprises!

So, picture the scene - a foggy morn, a bolt-hole outlet beloved of ‘sell to the public’ industrial estate retailers, and an excited pre-birthday 11-year-old gazing at all the merchandise nailed to the wall (OK, OK, I’m exaggerating. A bit...)

Sorry, bit more background required here: why was I at the club shop, which, being at the ground itself (none of your town centre megastores in those days my friends!) was a fair trek for my non-football loving parents? Well, despite this being a time before Sports Direct or internet shopping, we did have quite a few sports shops available to us. There was Davies (an Intersport), some other place whose name I can’t remember and a small independent sports shop, the type that has a ‘musty’ as its central design theme... it also sells school uniforms.

Davies was the place to get your kits though, being a great shop full of proper sporting equipment, including the cricketing helmet I yearned for. £125 though! And kits they had... Liverpool (on whom I had turned my back for the glamour of my home town of Coventry City... oops!), Man Utd, Arsenal - even England. And Coventry of course, what with this being Coventry? No...it’s like the Subbuteo World Cup all over again! Not even my home town shops stocked the blue and white stripes of CCFC.

So to the club shop again. "Do you have the Coventry kit?" "Yes we do." Hmmm...that was easier than I thought. After a while debating what other goodies would constitute my birthday pressie, I ended up with the shirt, shorts and socks... the whole outfit. Interestingly the boys' version of the shorts used a completely different material from the youth's size and given I preferred the boys' ones, opted for those. I ended up changing them for a different size the following week as they were just that bit too small after alland this was the 80's where 'tight' meant circulation problems.

So was I happy? Yes! And no. See, when I obsess about something, I do it full on. I can’t stand seeing a kit for sale on eBay which clearly isn’t ‘right.’Argentina’s 1990 World Cup shirt had two blue stripes on the collar, who doesn’t know that? It was also actually the same tea bag type material as the 86 one too and no retail replica had either of those features, but that’s not the point! You see what you’re dealing with here?

mmmm...details...

So, my disappointments. The badge wasn’t stitched. In the 80's, no replica badges were stitched (except my England '88 top, but that’s yet another story) so I wasn’t too disappointed with that, however most badges were generally raised flock affairs. The badge on my shirt was flat. No big deal, but anyway... Second - no sponsor. Again, replicas rarely had sponsors on them, though the bigger teams (those available in Intersport) did. Again, not a major issue, but it bugged me a little. Yes, perhaps I should get a life...

The shirt...24 years later...

What’s most surprising when I look at that kit now (replete with a red number 7 made from some old pyjamas that I stitched on myself), is how tiny it is It’s like a doll’s shirt. OK, so I was a child and now both my age and waist size are nearing 40, but it’s still shockingly small. It’s also aged very well. The badge does have bits missing from repeated wearing / washing and the Triple S Sports logo is similarly jaded, but the colours are still as vibrant as when I first got it.

Of course, Coventry went on to win the FA Cup in this shirt and I not only took great pride in following my home team, but also got called a glory hunter for doing so. To be fair, that happened in January when we were about to face Man U in the fourth round - a long, long way from ‘glory.'

This was surely the start of great things to come, and due to that Cup win, we had some money to spend. So what did we do with our winnings? We bought David Speedie. I believe this is the dictionary definition of a false dawn.

Well at least we have the memories. Unsurprisingly, this is one of the Coventry fans’ favourite kits, but not mine. My personal favourite was to come the following season as we moved into the world of 'name brand' kit manufacturers: the gloriousness that was the Hummel ‘Denmark 86’ style kit - one of the least favourite kits amongst CCFC fans.

And finally the replicas carried the sponsor's name too... that well known brand...Granada Bingo. A Coventry fan’s lot is not a great one...

One last anally retentive fact: The shirt cost £10.31. What kind of price is that? The 80's, eh? Messed up times...