"Temple University is highly deserving of this award because of its commitment to developing leadership in its student-athletes and caring for the community," said Richard Lapchick, founder and executive director of NCAS.

"The award represents Temple's commitment as a role model for student-athletes to demonstrate the ultimate goal of institutions of higher education, which is to develop young people to become tomorrow's leaders."

Director of Athletics Bill Bradshaw also praised the commitment of Temple’s student-athletes and coaches.

"This is a real tribute to the genuine contributions, generosity and unselfishness of our coaches and student-athletes," Bradshaw said. "We are quite proud of the high priority our student-athletes place on giving back to the community and helping others. Their leadership has become a distinguishing characteristic of our teams, and we look forward to maintaining this dedication to the university community and the city of Philadelphia."

In recent years, Temple has sponsored the Partnership Field Day for local schoolchildren, has participated in the CHOICES alcohol abuse reduction program, the Diamond Street Clean-up, National Girls & Women in Sports Day, and Philadelphia Cares Day, and recently hosted the first Community Partnership basketball game in the Liacouras Center. In addition, Temple’s football team has made donations to the Fahmarr McElrathbey Trust Fund and the Adam Taliaferro Foundation.

In recent months, Temple’s athletic teams have found additional ways to give back to the surrounding community. In November, the football team delivered 26 full turkey dinners to St. John’s Hospice and 37 boxes of canned food items to the Bethesda Project. Then in December, the baseball team delivered more than 200 gifts to children at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Under the degree completion program, Temple ranked seventh nationally in student-athletes returning to school to complete their degrees following the exhaustion of their eligibility.