The Palestra...

On ESPN.Com Jim Caple wrote an interesting article titled "American's 100 Most Important Sports Venues"...The good news is that I've visited THE most important one - the Yankee Stadium. The bad is that I still have ways to go...My "bucket" list has to be this list, or darn good part of it. As a sports fan, this list gives you a great picture as to how spend your 60's after the kids get to college and you and your wife are left wondering "What Now...?!?!"

I think I've mentioned several times to my students that when I retire, i would like to own a small, authentic, and friendly Udon shop...shopping for ingredients at the local market in the early morning, check them in the restaurant, play golf with my wife around 10AM, wash up and getback to work around 4PM, start mingling with the regulars, and have a small bottle of hot sake to call it a night...Well, that routine will need a long summer break and my customers will know about and accept it. Perhaps from July to August...to let us go on these road trips visiting sport venues...The ESPN got me the blueprint. I just have to make enough money to pursue it.

Anyways, I was pleasantly suprised to run into the old Palestra on this list. The home of the Penn Quakers and the cathedral of college hoops in the East Coast - will always have a soft spot for the East Coast where I spent my adolescence and college days (I hope my kids get to experience that blustery, bone-chilling winter days of the East Coast - gotta experience the four seasons...)
     
To this date I consider the four years at Penn to be 4 of the best years of my life...
Depsite the ghetto sceneries around the campus, it was a perfect blend of suburb and metorpolis. I loved every minute at Penn - the late night impropmtu munch drives to NYC (yummy Korean food) or to Atlantic City ($4 Steak and Fries at 4AM!!) and those beautiful spring afternoons around the Schuylkill River...
     

Freshmen year at Penn, I had the pleasure of visiting the home of the Quakers for the first time...Back then, I had no clue about the history, traditions, or aura about this place. Took it all for granted. That was my only visit to the Palestra. That was it. The Penn basketball were sooooo~ pitiful while I was there and Coach Fran Dunphy, now the legendary former coach of Penn hoops in the 90's, had taken the helm during my senior year, I think. As soon as I had graduated, the program took off and owned the Ivy League for more than a decade, but at the time, you had to be a real Quaker junkie to frequent the Palestra. My first impression of the Palestra was...its not-so-garantuan specs. It was just about a few rows bigger than my old high school gym! Back then, when you don't know...you wish for the Pauley's or the Dean Dome's of the world, not the tiny Palestra, as your home court.

Looking back, I regret not spending more time at the Palestra. Well, I regret the Quakers would have fared half as good as they did in the next decade. It would have been fun. I've been carefully planning for a family trip to the East Coast and I think we might be able to pull one off next summer when the kids are old enough for long, cross-country air travels. Jackie has never been to Penn either. We had originally wanted to do an East-Coast road trip for our honeymoon, but the 911 ruined the thought and we ended up in Maui. I think it will be a great inspiration for the kids too. This time the Palestra won't be left out from the list...

Comments

[Mikaelyn Austin]

Hello!

I just read your article and thought you and/or your readers would be interested in a documentary that I produced in 2007 about college basketball's most storied gymnasium, entitled "The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball." Lead by the powerful voice over talent of Harry Kalas and interviews with some of college basketball's most venerated characters such as Bill Bradley, Chuck Daly, Dr. Jack Ramsay, John Feinstein and Bill Raftery, this feature-length documentary traces the evolution of college basketball through the rise of this most historic arena. We're currently selling a Special Collector's Edition DVD online at http://www.PalestraDocumentary.com

I strongly encourage fellow Palestra fans, or just college sports fans in general, to check it out!

Thanks!

Mikaelyn Austin
Writer/Producer

[tucker baksa]

I also saw that article on espn.com. It was very fun to see the variety in each venue. Your story about the Palestra and your experiences at Penn was very interesting. It is always nice to experience the history first hand; you can only read about something so long with out actually going to it. Your story actually reminded me of Allen Fieldhouse on the University of Kansas campus. I was lucky enough to visit Allen Fieldhouse and although there was no game and the students were out of school it was still nice to experience a place were the game of basketball has been played since the beginning. There were even a lot of venues in our own back yard in the bay area, I especially like how BALCO made the list. Tucker Baksa Cohort29