The rest of the world is about to discover what we already know.
The mecca of Philadelphia sports is not Citizens Bank Park. Nor is it Lincoln Financial Field. The Wells Fargo Center? Please.
You could make an argument for the dearly departed Spectrum and Veterans Stadium, but they now are merely memories.
No, any true Philly fan can tell you that the cathedral of Philly sports is a tiny gym on 33rd Street on the Penn campus.
On Saturday, the nation will get a chance to experience hoops nirvana, Philly style.
ESPN "Game Day" is coming to the Palestra.
The cable sports giant will be in town to chronicle the legendary gym, and do their pregame show before the Temple-La Salle game, which will tip off at noon.
"Game Day" will air from 10-11 a.m. on ESPNU and then from 11 a.m. to noon on ESPN.
At one time they used to pack as many as 10,000 people into the Palestra for Big 5 double-headers. Now it probably maxes out at 8,700.
The memories? They're in the millions.
I'm sure ESPN will do a fine job, but they still won't convey the experience. You don't describe the Palestra. You have to experience it. You have to feel it in your bones as those old bleachers shook.
It's been said that a lot of national powers avoided a date in the Palestra like the plague. It's where national reputations went to be buried.
The Palestra wasn't pretty. It was in your face, with the fans so close to the players you could smell the sweat.
I got my first taste of the Palestra early. My oldest brother was a La Salle man. Wrote for the school paper (yeah, it must be in the blood). Those were the days of Hubie Marshall and my all-time favorite Big 5 player, Larry Cannon.
I was first introduced to Big 5 basketball when my brother came home for Christmas break. He had a weird box he said he needed to attach to our TV so he could pull in one of the new UHF stations, Channel 48. He needed it to see something called the Quaker City Tournament. I was hooked after the first two minutes.
TV is one thing? Being in that place, especially when it was pulsating with the fervor of a Big 5 double-header, was something else altogether.
The truth is TV won't do the place justice. You have to be there. I think my brother knew that. That's why he convinced our dad to take me and my brothers in for a double-header. La Salle was playing Saint Joe's that day. I sat wide-eyed as the streamers poured onto the floor with the first basket. For the life of me I was trying to figure out how that many people could make that much noise. You couldn't talk to the person next to you. It was delirium. I loved it.
A few years later I would return to the Palestra. That was where the PIAA held its District One basketball championships. Tiny little Oxford High, powered by Donnie Dyer and Benny Bond, was playing for the title.
We were a little school from the middle of nowhere, country bumpkins headed into the big city. I remember warning so many of the Hornet fans what they were in for as we made that long bus ride into the city.
We won that game and the District title, only to fall in the state eastern semifinal to a team from Mansfield. They had a guy on that team who could play a little bit. Maybe you've heard of him. His name was Tom McMillen. He went on to star the University of Maryland and in the NBA, before getting really serious and winning a seat in Congress.
I'll be glued to the TV Saturday morning, remembering those halcyon days at the Palestra.
Times have changed. They don't play double-headers there anymore. A lot of the city teams now play on their home courts or at the Wells Fargo Center, where they can make more money.
That's what college sports is about these days - money.
The Palestra was never about money. It was about basketball. And the fans who loved every minute of it. And a place that exemplified everything about Philly.
Where have you gone, Stan Wlodarczyk?
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