The Palestra, often called the Cathedral of College Basketball,The Palestra tour
/ref> is a historic

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

and the home gym of the

Penn Quakers The Penn Quakers are the athletic teams of the University of Pennsylvania. The school sponsors 33 varsity sports. The school has won three NCAA national championships in men's fencing and one in women's fencing. School colors There are s ...

men's and women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

teams,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

teams,

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

team, and Philadelphia Big 5

. Located at 235 South 33rd St. in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

on the campus of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, near

Franklin Field Franklin Field is a sports stadium in Philadelphia, United States, at the eastern edge of the University of Pennsylvania's campus. It is the home stadium for the Penn Relays, and the University of Pennsylvania's stadium for American football, foo ...

in the University City section of Philadelphia, it opened on January 1, 1927. The Palestra has been called "the most important building in the history of college basketball" and "changed the entire history of the sport for which it was built." The arena originally seated about 10,000, but now seats 8,725 for basketball. The Palestra is famed for its close-to-the-court seating with the bleachers ending at the floor with no barrier to separate the fans from the game. At the time of its construction, the Palestra was one of the world's largest arenas. It was one of the first steel-and-concrete arenas in the United States and also one of the first to be constructed without interior pillars blocking the view. Since its inception, the Palestra has hosted more games, more visiting teams, and more NCAA tournaments than any other facility in college basketball.

History

The building was completed in 1927 and named by Greek professor William N. Bates after the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

term '' palæstra'', a rectangular enclosure attached to a gymnasium where athletes would compete in various sports in front of an audience. Penn's Palestra was built adjacent to and today is connected to Hutchinson Gymnasium. The Palestra hosted its first basketball game on January 1, 1927. Pennsylvania defeated Yale 26–15 before a capacity crowd of 10,000, then the largest crowd ever to attend a basketball game on the East Coast. For many years, the building shared the same management as Madison Square Garden in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Teams wishing to play at the Manhattan venue were often required to schedule a game at the Palestra, which thereby hosted several very high-level sporting events. Many professional games were played at the Palestra before the completion of the

Spectrum A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...

in 1967. The arena hosted the

1968 Intercontinental Cup The 1968 Intercontinental Cup was an association football tie held over two legs in 1968 between the winners of the 1967–68 European Cup, Manchester United, and Estudiantes de La Plata, winners of the 1968 Copa Libertadores. The first leg was h ...

basketball tournament.3 COPAS INTERCONTINENTALES; 1 MUNDIAL DE CLUBS
The Palestra's 50th Anniversary was celebrated on February 10, 1977. During the 2011 NBA lockout, on September 25, 2011, a team including NBA stars

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest p ...

Chris Paul Christopher Emmanuel Paul (born May 6, 1985), nicknamed "CP3" and “The Point God”, is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Paul is widely regarded as one o ...

, and

Carmelo Anthony Carmelo Kyam Anthony (born May 29, 1984) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been named an NBA All-Star ten times and an All-NBA Team ...

, among others, took on Team Philly, a team of NBA players with connections to the Philadelphia area. Team Philly won the game 131–122 in front of 8,725 attendees.

College basketball at the Palestra

The Palestra has hosted more regular season or post-season

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

men's basketball games, more visiting teams, and more NCAA tournaments than any other U.S. arena. Virtual tour of Penn's campus It is often called "the birthplace of college basketball". It has hosted the East regionals six times (most recently in 1980), and the sub-regionals ten times (most recently in 1984). In total, 52 NCAA Tournament games have been played at the gym since it first came to Penn's campus in 1939. The Philadelphia Big 5 ( Penn, Saint Joseph's,

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

, La Salle, Villanova) originally played all of its games at the Palestra. Today, the intra-city conference still plays about half of its round-robin games there. St. Joseph's hosts its Big 5 games at the gym, which is larger than its own Michael Hagan Arena, formerly Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. During the 2008-09 basketball season Saint Joseph's played all their home games at the Palestra while the then Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse was undergoing an extensive renovation to become the Hagan Arena. The annual Battle of 33rd Street between Penn and Drexel was also held at the Palestra until 2013, when the series was suspended due to a location dispute. In 2015, the series resumed; however, it became a home-and-home series alternating between The Palestra and

Daskalakis Athletic Center Daskalakis Athletic Center (DAC) is a athletic and recreational facility in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The facility is best known for its 2,509-seat multi-purpose arena that is home to multiple Drexel University Dragons sports teams includin ...

every year. In addition, parts or all of the 1989-95 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball tournaments were contested there, as were the 1985

MEAC men's basketball tournament The MEAC men's basketball tournament (popularly known as the MEAC tournament) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC). The tournament has been held every year since 1972. It is a sing ...

and the inaugural

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight school ...

men's and women's tournaments in 2017. The gym has also served as the site of many Philadelphia and PIAA championship games. The Palestra hosted a

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

game between

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

and Penn State on January 7, 2017, with the "home-standing" Nittany Lions prevailing 72–63. The 2017 Ivy League men's basketball tournament (March 11–12, 2017) and the 2018 Ivy League men's basketball tournament (March 10–11, 2018) were held at the Palestra.

2000 renovation

In 2000, a $2 million renovation to the gym added a museum celebrating the history of Philadelphia basketball in the building's main concourse. Near the main entrance to the gym is a section recognizing the St. Joseph's acclaimed Hawk mascot who made its first appearance at the Palestra on Jan. 4, 1956. At the other end of the concourse, by the ramp to sections 211 and 210, a scoreboard lists the all-time record of the Penn-Princeton rivalry. Each decade, from the 1950s onward, has its own exhibit in the concourse. The 1970s section, "A Decade of Prominence," celebrates the Final Four runs by Villanova (1971) and Penn (1979). In summer 2007,

ESPN Classic ESPN Classic was an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns 20%). The channel was originally la ...

broadcast a one-hour documentary on the historic arena, entitled "The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball." This feature-length documentary traces the evolution of college basketball through the rise of the arena. NBA great Bill Bradley, Naismith Hall of Fame Coaches Chuck Daly, Jack Ramsay and John Chaney, best-selling sports author

John Feinstein John Feinstein (born July 28, 1956) is an American sportswriter, author and sports commentator. Early life Feinstein was born to a Jewish family in New York City on July 28, 1956. His father was heavily involved in the arts having been the Ge ...

, Penn Band director R. Greer Cheeseman III, and then-CBS/ESPN analyst

Bill Raftery William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach. High school and college years Raftery attended Saint Cecilia High School in Kearny, New Jersey, where he starred in basketball an ...

are interviewed. The film was written, produced and directed by former Penn Women's Basketball player Mikaelyn Austin (founder of Philly Philms).

References

External links

The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball - documentary on historic gymnasium, premiered on ESPN

The Palestra - Penn Athletics

Five we like, Five we want to see

{{Penn 1927 establishments in Pennsylvania Basketball venues in Philadelphia College basketball venues in the United States College volleyball venues in the United States La Salle Explorers men's basketball NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four venues Penn Quakers basketball venues Philadelphia 76ers venues Philadelphia Big 5 Saint Joseph's Hawks basketball venues Sports venues completed in 1927 Temple Owls basketball venues University of Pennsylvania campus Wrestling venues in Pennsylvania

History

College basketball at the Palestra

2000 renovation

See also

References

External links