At the beginning of my sophomore year at Temple in 1963, I was sitting in Mitten Hall reading the Temple News. At the time I was a Liberal Arts major contemplating a career in medicine. I happened upon an ad in the News for sportswriters and thought that since I loved sports and had always been a decent writer I would apply.
So I trundled off to the Temple News office on the second floor of Wyatt Hall. The sports office was in the back. I believe the sports editor at the time was Mark Wallace. He asked if I had any writing experience and I truthfully replied to the negative.
Despite that, he sent me to cover a cross country meet on Belmont Plateau. The cross country team, then coached by Jack St. Clair, won the meet. In speaking with the coach afterwards he told me that even though the team won the meet, he was not happy with their performance.
Now I had to write the story. The following day after class I sat at a typewriter in the sports office, papers scattered around me looking quite lost. Phil Jasner, who at the time was a senior, noticed the forlorn look on my face. He sat down next to me, asking what I saw and what I heard. When I told him about St. Clair’s comment he immediately told me “that is your lede.”
The next day the story appeared under my first byline with the headline “X-Country team Wins Meet But The Coach was Not Happy.” I was hooked. I switched my major to journalism and wound up covering the swimming team that winter and traveling with them to away meets. The following September, I was named Temple News Sports Editor. Upon graduation, my first job was sports editor for the now defunct Coatesville Record.
David Friedman was The Temple News Sports Editor in 1964.
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