Temple jumped out to a 23-6 lead, defeating Western Michigan 69-55 in the 5-Hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off on Thursday. The Owls scored the game's first nine points, led by 17 before the midway point of the first half, and held a 37-21 lead at halftime. "I hope we stay that balanced this season," said head coach Fran Dunphy after the game. "Anytime you have five guys in double figures, you feel very good about it."

Stanley Whitney, a professor emeritus at Temple's Tyler School of Art, was recently named the inaugural recipient of the $25,000 Robert De Niro Sr. Prize. The award is administered by the Tribeca Film Institute and its co-founder, actor Robert De Niro, in memory of his father, who was a painter. Of his teaching philosophy, Whitney said he keeps things basic while imparting a key truth: "You have to be able to work through the frustrations. You have to realize that a bad day is a good day. Once they learn to do that, they're on their way."

Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball by Temple religion professor Rebecca Alpert received rave reviews in JWeekly: "The author puts the Jewish fascination with baseball into cultural context, explaining that 'because of its role as part of America’s civil religion, baseball provided an entryway for new immigrants to become absorbed in the American way of life. Jewish men became boxers and basketball players to protect themselves on the street and to prove their masculinity, but playing or even following baseball made them American.'"

A long-lost audio tape of radio communications between White House officials just hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy sheds light on the way top government officials reacted to a national catastrophe. "Many things had to be arranged in that 4 1/2 hour flight," said history professor emeritus James Hilty of Temple. "It was the equivalent of what would take place after a presidential election between November and January when a new president would come in. President Johnson had to put his whole operation in place during the flight back from Texas."