This former Temple football player never received his diploma. Forty-five years later, he’ll walk at this week’s graduation.

Brad Johnson was three credits shy of graduating from Temple. The Lansdale native needed to complete a secondary English course in the summer of 1981 to fulfill his business management degree. However, a medical condition kept him from finishing the class.

Or receiving his college diploma.

But Johnson, 67, went on to have a successful career in business. He moved to New York, where he and his wife of 40 years, Barbara, still reside, and became a franchise owner at Servpro, which specializes in fire and water damage cleanup for residential and commercial properties.

He owned four franchises with the company and retired about three years ago.

Johnson also was a center on Temple’s football team, beginning as a walk-on in 1976 and playing under College Football Hall of Fame coach Wayne Hardin. He’s been a longtime supporter of Temple athletics. He still attends football games and is a major donor to the football and men’s and women’s basketball programs.

So last fall, during a Temple football tailgate, Johnson told Robert Silk — Temple’s associate director of development and the school’s main contact for athletic donations — about not having his diploma. Silk made a promise that he was going to change that.

“He went to the dean of the Fox School of Business, and they brought up my transcripts,” Johnson said. “I guess some of the classes that were three credits back then are now four credits. … The dean says, ‘Well, I can see he’s done enough and earned his diploma, but only on one condition — he’s got to walk.’”

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On Thursday, Johnson will walk at Temple’s Fox School of Business graduation inside the Liacouras Center, and, after more than 45 years, proudly hold his college diploma.

“You get a little bit excited about it. I finally have it,” Johnson said. “I will frame it, I’ll put it up, and I can actually say I am a graduate. I guess I really never did that because I didn’t have it. I can show my sister now. … She always picked on me because I never had a diploma.”

Johnson is grateful he didn’t have to retake the course — “Thank God, I have enough trouble because I can’t remember anything anymore,” he said. But walking at Temple’s graduation, in some ways, feels nostalgic.

While much has changed since Johnson donned the Owls’ jersey, he was part of Temple football’s most successful era. From 1970 to 1982, Hardin, who died in 2017, compiled an 80-52-3 record, recording the most wins by a head coach in program history.

His 1979 squad is one of the best in school history. During that season, the Owls went 10-2 and finished No. 17 in the nation. They also competed in the Garden State Bowl at Giants Stadium — at the time, there were far fewer bowls — and beat California. Temple did not return to a bowl game until 2009.

This era also featured several star players, including Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive lineman Joe Klecko, who Johnson faced in practice.

“Joe Klecko basically scared the hell out of me,” Johnson said. “I was pretty much afraid to talk to him. I tried to keep him happy because I saw some people that didn’t keep [him] happy, and it wasn’t pretty, but a lot of the other players, Steve Watson was a wide receiver that ended up becoming an All-Pro at Denver. Great guy. Temple was more of a commuter school at that time, so it was a little bit different in that respect. A lot of the players went home after games and on weekends when it wasn’t in season.”

After his freshman year, Johnson was offered a scholarship and redshirted, but he still traveled and practiced as a second-team center. He earned a starting spot during the 1979 season.

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During his five years at Temple, he was part of historic moments, including the Owls playing in the first Mirage Bowl games in Tokyo, in 1977 and 1978 against Grambling State and Boston College.

Or playing at the University of Hawaii in a game televised by ABC in 1979. Johnson says it all happened because of Hardin.

“He was an offensive genius,” Johnson said. “He was the first person to ever consider having a pulling center. He was the first person to punt on third down. I mean, just being close to him in that respect, he was such a good offensive person.”

Over the next 14 months, Johnson will be traveling to 25 countries and 10 states to play golf. He says he’s played at 1,000 courses in 49 countries. Since retiring, he’s spent more time at his secondary home in Georgia, playing at his golf club with his travel buddy and youngest daughter, Brittany.

For now, he’s looking forward to walking at graduation, but says with a laugh he hopes the distance across the stage is “not too far.”