For a moment, Marc Hembrough's 47 year-old body betrayed him.
The Penn football team would receive the ball first against Dartmouth, and fired up, Hembrough ran over for some chest bumps with the squad.
But padless and with his playing days 25 years behind him, Hembrough thought better of his move and turned off to his right, narrowly missing the Penn players in full gear.
"It was the formality of the refs," Hembrough, who was out for the coin toss, said. "Something just clicked and I was right back 25 years ago."
Afterward, Hembrough was ribbed about it by alums and friends who watched from the stands. But it was for this kind of energy that Hembrough, a member of the Quakers in the 1980s and now an associate at the Wharton Business Group, found himself on the sidelines as Al Bagnoli's guest coach for the day.
The Guest Coaches program, in its second year, seeks to bring football alumni back to Penn for a weekend to connect with and inspire the current squad.
"I'd love to take the credit for it," Bagnoli said, "But [offensive line coach] John McLaughlin came to us from Iowa. It was a very popular program at Iowa and we got to talking about it and said, 'That makes sense.' It's a great concept."
Bagnoli handpicks the alumni from his deep list of contacts and wanted "to bring in a cross section of alums who would capture the tradition and the history in the different eras of Penn football."
Sam Greenawalt, an All-American center under legendary coach George Munger over a half-century ago, joined the coaching staff for last weekend's homecoming game against Brown.
Last year, two other Penn football greats - Gary Vura, who quarterbacked Penn's first Ivy League title in 23 years in 1982, and Joe Valerio, an offensive lineman in the late 1980s who went on to play for the Kansas City Chiefs - took part in the program.
The guest coaches don't make any of the play calls, but one of their main duties is to give a speech after the Friday evening walk through.
Greenawalt wanted to give this year's team "a sense of what it was like when we absolutely packed Franklin Field."
He reflected on how the football culture has changed since the days when Penn was nationally ranked, but said he was proud that Ivy League football represents "the last of the amateurs."
Greenawalt remains involved with the football program, making it down to a few games each year and keeping up on his "Michigan boys" - players from his home state he helped recruit, like kicker Andrew Samson and wide receiver David Wurst.
For Hembrough, writing his speech was not easy.
He conveyed what it felt like to be disrespected by the League after going 1-9 in 1981, then to deliver the ultimate revenge by winning the 1982 title.
Hembrough, who remembers Greenwalt speaking to his squad, also told the team not to be afraid of taking criticism from the coaching staff.
"When I played for my head coach Jerry Berndt, I wasn't particularly fond of him, but I respected him," Hembrough said. "Coaches don't have to love you; your family has to love you."
