Page 1| Page 2 | Page 3

Bob Paul '39


From Interview held on January 1, 2008

Bob grew up in Wynnewood, a Philadelphia Main Line suburb.  He made up his mind at age 8 to attend Pennsylvania because he liked the football jerseys with the red and blue striped long sleeves.  He continued that love of sports in the jobs most people associate with him to this day.  Bob was Director of Sports Information at Penn (1953-1961) during which Franklin Field Illustrated (he was editor and staff) was selected best football program, and in 1955 he sold the athletic director to spearhead the movement to set up the Big 5 basketball program to help cover thousands of empty seats 35 nights a year in the Palestra.   He followed that up as Director of Development for the Amateur Athletic Union, 7 years, and Director of Communications for the U.S. Olympic Committee (1967-1990) with six more years as a consultant before retiring to Bayside, NY with his daughter in 1996.

He was happily married  for 52 years, has 2 kids  and four grandkids (son was Penn '74). Bob was the first president of The Daily Pennsylvanian Alumni Board,  served as president of the Friars Graduate Board, anointed Friar of the Year in 1984, and received the University Award of Merit in 1990 perhaps for his 250-page 50th book on the 55th Class Reunion.  Only standing 5' 2" now he is a mental giant with a mind like a metal trap and his memory is sharp as a tack.  I would wager he knows as much if not more than any member of the University Archives and he even remembers tons of D.P. headlines in 24 pt. bodoni including that 1936 headline after the Penn-Princeton game. Got a question?  Contact Bob and he will set you straight or fill in the blanks. He would be MVP on any trivia team about Red and Blue or sports teams hands down not because he's lived through it all and seemingly remembers almost anything he's read or heard.

Bob has tons of vivid Olympic stories, like seeing Bob Beamon's world record 1968 long-jump, but here are a two interesting sidelights.  1) Walter Annenberg of The Inquirer (and yes, fellow Friar) hired Bob Paul to handle P.R. for the AAU USA-USSR Track Meet he sponsored on Franklin Field in 1959. The AAU was so impressed with him they offered him a job as a result and the Olympic Committee stole him away!  and 2) The Amateur Athletic Union barred for life two of the most admired Olympic champions:  Jesse Owens, 1936, for jumping ship on a post-Olympic tour for the AAU because he was worn out and Bob Mathias, 1948, 1952 Olympic decathlon winner, guilty of starring in the Bob Mathias Story, a flick.  The charge was he was paid scarring him for capitalizing on his athletic fame.  At the time, he was overseas on a Marine Corps assignment.  Bob considered Mathias the most elegant Olympic champion he ever knew. Bob still wonders why, since amateurism was founded by the Greeks, the US is the last country to let pros into the games.

Interesting/Puzzling Penn fact/acquisition from his day: In the spring of 1939 the University asked fraternities to turn over their houses to them to save on property taxes.  All but two or three did.  The University 'said' they would then maintain the houses in return and sadly they have not kept their word.  In almost 70 years,  fraternities still depend on alumni for their upkeep.

Page 1| Page 2 | Page 3