What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Great photo by Darryl Rule

By Mike Gibson
Prior to Wayne Hardin's "guarantee" of 66,000 for the Temple opener with Navy, he speculated about what makes a winning program.
"Is it the wins themselves or is it the support?" Hardin asked. "It's like the old question, 'What comes first, the chicken or the egg?"
Well, how about half a chicken and half an egg?
Hardin can be excused for being about half off in his guarantee.
I firmly believe Hardin could have put 60,000 in the stands for the Navy game had it been on a THURSDAY night, not Friday.
Having lived within the city limits of Philadelphia all of my life (with the exception of 10 years or so in beautiful downtown Doylestown), I know the town empties the Friday morning of Labor Day weekend.
Philadelphia is unlike any other town in that regard.
Geographically, it's situated 45 miles from the New Jersey shore towns of Atlantic City on south. Places like Atlantic City, Ventnor, Brigantine, Sea Isle City, Ocean City, Margate, Avalon, Stone Harbor, The Wildwoods and Cape May are 80 percent Philadelphians most of the summer and about 90 percent Philadelphia Labor Day weekend.
That's just vacation life in the big city.
The Eagles screwed Temple royally by taking the Owls' Thursday night away.
We'll never know if Hardin could have gotten his 66K just 24 hours earlier, but look at it this way:
If you lived in Philadelphia and the Labor Day weekend was your last chance to get away for nine months that promised to be mostly cold and dark, wouldn't you jump at that chance?
I would have if Temple wasn't playing.
I like Temple football more than the shore. But I'm not most people.
I looked at the record crowd of 30,648 on Friday night with a glass half-filled mentality.
It was a remarkable achievement, mostly due to the pounding of doors and pavement by an 81-year-old ex-Temple coach who had a dream and a commitment to it.
We all owe him a debt of thanks for filling the stadium beyond what most reasonably thought would be there. He did it despite the fact that only 77 Midshipmen were cleared to make the trip. An independent Scout.com report estimated that "at least 80-85 percent were Temple fans." And Al Golden Bobbleheads (inset) weren't even being given away, like they are this week to the first few thousand fans at Saturday's game with Buffalo.
Back in April when Hardin made the guarantee, he had hoped Navy would bring 30K and Temple 30K.
Instead, Navy brought 77 and Temple brought 30,583.
Or thereabouts.
By all accounts, it was a huge Temple presence and a dominant home crowd.
I thought all of this while driving home on Columbus Blvd. (better known as Delaware Avenue), all while passing places like Dave and Busters and other major night spots along that thoroughfare at 11:30 p.m.
Then another thought occurred to me.
On any other Friday night, the traffic would be at a standstill all along that busy row.
Here I was among only two or three cars owning the road.
If you don't think a large chunk of the city's population was down the Jersey Shore, that's all of the evidence you needed.