Temple University history

In 1888, Billings granted a charter in order to create “The Temple College of Billings”, however, the city declined to grant power to award educational degrees.

Following the merger, on December 12th, 1907, the school formally reincorporated as Temple University.

Temple Junior College was founded in 1926 in response to the need for a postsecondary institution in Temple.

The Tyler School of Art was founded in 1935.

Bill Cosby was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 12, 1937.

In 1954, Temple University agreed to terms to purchase 11 1/2 acres of the adjacent Monument Cemetery and repurpose it for athletic fields and a parking lot.

A separate junior college district was established in 1955, enabling the college to build a new facility.

Cosby left high school without earning his diploma and joined the United States Navy in 1956.

After Bill Cosby was discharged from the United States Navy, he received an athletic scholarship to Temple University in Philadelphia in 1961.

In 1965 he made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

The technical program of the college expanded with the opening of the Watson Technical Center in 1967.

The school modified its institutional standing and incorporated as a university in 1970.

In 1986 he wrote the best-selling book Fatherhood.

In 1997 Cosby’s son, Ennis, was shot and killed while changing a tire on a Los Angeles freeway; that same year he and his wife, Camille, founded the Hello Friend/Ennis William Cosby Foundation in their son’s memory to fund teachers of students with learning disabilities.

The School of Tourism and Hospitality Management was established in 1998.

The Temple College Downtown Center opened in May 2000 in the historical old Temple Post Office Building.

Temple College became a leader in education for health professions with the opening of a new Health Sciences Center and Clinical Simulation Center in 2004.

In 2005 he was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand the previous year; at the time of the alleged incident, she was working at Temple University.

The comedian then gave a deposition in a civil suit brought by Constand, and in 2006 he settled out of court, paying her more than $3 million.

In fall 2007 Temple College, in partnership with Taylor Independent School District (ISD) and Hutto ISD, began operation of the Legacy Early College High School.

In 2008 he released the hip-hop album Cosby Narratives Volume 1: State of Emergency, which blended jazz, pop, and funk but shied away from the profanity he said was typical of most hip-hop music.

In 2011, EWCHEC expanded to include a center in Hutto.

After initially being housed at the Veteran’s Hills Elementary School, a permanent EWCHEC-Hutto facility opened in fall 2013.

While he had not faced charges related to the new accusations, his reputation was so damaged by them that both NBC and Netflix pulled planned Cosby projects in November 2014.

In 2015, Temple achieved the R1 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, placing it among the most active research universities in the nation.

In 2016 Cosby’s legal team sought to have the case thrown out, alleging that Castor had actually declined to file charges as part of a deal in which Cosby agreed not to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in the civil trial.

A retrial began in April 2018, and that same month he was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand.

In 2019, more than 20 years after Architecture became a part of Tyler, the school expanded its name to the Tyler School of Art and Architecture—a move that embraces the school’s true breadth.