One of the big plays in yesterday’s Homecoming football win against Franklin & Marshall was an 83-yard touchdown run by freshman Max Cepeda. But that wasn’t the only significant thing about the number 83.

Nick Palladino
Class of 2017
Quarterback
Allentown (N.J.) High School

The 42-7 victory improved the Mules’ all-time record to 497-497-41. It’s the first time they’ve been at .500 since 1931 – 83 years ago.

The Mules defeated St. Joseph’s, 7-0, in the fourth game of the 1931 campaign to put their all-time record at 115-114-22. They lost their next game to Ursinus to fall back to .500 and dropped the following contest to Lehigh to slip under .500.

And that is where they stayed for the next 83 years – until yesterday. Muhlenberg’s low-water mark came midway through the 1998 season, when a 34-31 loss at Johns Hopkins dropped its all-time record to 61 games under .500.

The Mules have made up that ground in fast order, going 114-53 (.683) over their last 167 games to get back to .500.

So where do they go from here? They can move above .500 with a win at McDaniel this Saturday. All-time win number 500 is on the horizon. The school record for games over .500 (10, when the 1927 season ended with an all-time record of 104-94-21) is within reach in the near future if the teams goes at its current pace.

Ferdinand Palladino
Class of 1932
Quarterback
Allentown (Pa.) High School

The current Muhlenberg squad certainly does not want to go the way of the 1931 team, which represented the start of a downward slide for the program. That team finished with a record of 2-8 and scored only 51 points all season – a total the 2014 Mules needed only six quarters to surpass.

But the teams are linked, not only by their all-time record at one point during the season, but also by an incredible coincidence that stands as further proof that truth can be stranger than fiction: One of the members of the 1931 Muhlenberg football team was a quarterback from Allentown High School named Palladino.