Staff Spotlight: Dave Gerson

This is the first in a biweekly series spotlighting the men and women behind the scenes supporting Temple Athletics.

Dave Gerson, who is in his fifth year as a full-time staffer with Temple Athletics, recently switched roles within the department, moving from his role as Assistant Director of Football Operations to Associate Director for Development Operations this year. He also served two years as a graduate extern in the football office.

A diehard Temple fan, Gerson became known to many followers of Owls basketball and football with his popular website, Owlified, which he started while in high school. A two-time alum, he earned his bachelor's degree in marketing in 2015 and master's degree in sport business in 2018.

Talk about your love for Temple. How did it start?
So, my dad is an '83 grad and, despite commuting from Northeast Philadelphia, was an avid Temple basketball and fan or rather fanatic. Even as an infant I was taken to Temple basketball games as he was a season ticket holder and he eventually became a football season ticket holder too.

So, my entire life, from my childhood upbringing, was entrenched in Temple. My dad is my best friend. It is the number one thing we talked about every single day. I knew growing up that Temple was my team, more than any of the pro teams around here. Win, lose or draw we were going to games. I did not anticipate applying anywhere else to go to school. I was known as the Temple fan in high school.

My love for Temple, coupled with my love for sports, started the beginning of the journey which was my website (Owlified). That was a hobby that created some incredible opportunities that led to where I am today.

I am a two-time alum, trending towards three. I am here full-time now and Temple will forever be near and dear to my heart.

How did it feel going from following Temple from the outside to working for football as a student?
My senior year in high school I was sort of recruited. Some people on the football staff brought me in when the team played Ohio U in 2010 and it was like an official visit. They showed me around the backend of the Linc and courted me, essentially saying, "we want you to work for the team."

I remember going in for the first day of training camp (my freshman year), and Ed Foley, who was the DFO at the time, sat me down and said we know you know too much (about the team) so you have to make a decision. You are either 100% in with us, or you are 100% in on your website. You can be a fan, but you cannot report (on the team).

That was the fork in the road where I made the decision to shift over from complete fan to professional, but still was a fan at heart. Even being down on the sideline during games, the kid in me is still screaming about different things, but I learned a lot more about the professional side and gained an even deeper understanding (of the program). Everyone is a Monday morning quarterback, but once you get immersed in the day-to-day operations you have an even broader understanding of a lot of the intricacies of what goes into the game even happening.

Working in the football office full-time, did that seem like the realization of a dream come true?
I think about it all the time. I think about how lucky I am. A lot of people aspire one day to work for their favorite sports teams, and I was afforded that from the jump. As a student, as a graduate assistant and to this day as a full-timer it has never truly felt like a job. It is more like living a dream and working for and serving my favorite team. That always has been a surreal feeling that never goes away. It definitely makes the wins more exciting and rewarding but the losses hurt even more than ever.

It is really an incredible experience and opportunity to have and to say I have a full-time job working for my favorite place. I always dreamed of having an impact beyond being just a fan and now I am realizing that dream.

You recently transitioned to athletics administration in the development office. Why the change and how do you like it?
Most people that know me know that my career aspirations are to one day have the opportunity to be a Director of Athletics. I think my background shows that I would love to be here. I have greater aspirations maybe in the higher education administration roles.

Overall, I think back to the little kid who made the website. That kid is the reason I was afforded the opportunity to work for the team, afforded the opportunity to obtain a master's degree, afforded the chance to become a full-time employee here. Perseverance ultimately conquers. I did not want to get stuck (in the role) where I was. I had higher dreams and goals which pushed me to consider next steps to advance myself as a professional, to get closer to that dream. So, I was very fortunate that the work I had done over at football allowed me the chance to prove myself and earn an opportunity over here (athletic development).

It has been an incredible ride. It is still surreal. It is not going to hit me that I am not with football until the fall truly hits. I viewed the roles that I have had to serve in various capacities, as a fan providing people with information, as an employee for the team serving the student-athletes, and even more so here than ever serving a number of other constituents. That piece has carried over and I feel there is more and more value that I am able to add as I progress into various roles. This is a larger footprint than I have had as I progress forward with my career.

You are so well connected with Temple alumni, serving as the STHM Alumni Association President. Explain what goes into that and how it ties into your new role?
This is the second year of my term as President. I joined the board through an alum and a diehard Temple sports fan, Andy Carl. I am a Fox undergrad so that in itself was a little bit of a jump. I enjoyed my Fox undergrad, but the experience that I had in STHM coupled with the number of people that I had worked with and the number of people in the athletics department that were my professors shaped more and more the experience I had and drove me to want to give back more so I joined the board. That provided me with the opportunity to take a step up. I was fortunate to be chosen to become the president and I have a lot more to do in the second half of my term. It has been fun as well.

Being President prepared me even more for this role in the development office. There are some fundraising and development initiatives that I am tied into there, and I was certainly able to correlate that and show that those attributes would transfer over into athletics.

We are all Temple people and all supporting the same six letters on the front of our shirts and the same T logo on our hats. It is just for different causes and different interests that we have.

Temple University Athletics

Staff Spotlight: Dave Gerson

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