Palestra

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The Palestra
College Basketball's Most Historic Gym
Location	215 S 33rd St Philadelphia, PA 19104
Broke ground	1926
Opened	January 1, 1927
Owner	University of Pennsylvania
Operator	University of Pennsylvania
Architect	Charles Klauder
Tenants
Penn Quakers (Basketball, volleyball & wrestling) Big 5 Basketball (Penn, St. Joseph's, La Salle, Temple, Villanova)
Capacity
8,722

For the Greek and Roman sports arenas, see Palaestra

The Palestra is a historic arena and the home gym of the University of Pennsylvania Quakers men's and women's basketball teams as well as the volleyball and wrestling teams at Penn. Located at 215 South 33rd St. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, adjacent to Franklin Field in the University City section of Philadelphia, it originally opened on January 1, 1927.

Though originally seating approximately 10,000, the Palestra's capacity in its current configuration for basketball is 8,722. The Palestra is famed for its close-to-the-court seating with the bleachers literally ending at the floor with no barrier to separate the fans from the game. It was one of the first modern steel-and-concrete arenas in the United States and also one of the first to be constructed without interior pillars blocking the view. At the time of its construction, the Palestra was one of the largest arenas in the world.

Visitors to the Palestra should note that, due to the surrounding campus construction and other development, parking is extremely scarce near the arena, limited mostly to metered street parking. Public transportation and paid parking lots are within walking distance of the Palestra.

Contents 1 History 2 College Basketball at the Palestra 3 Palestra 2000 4 External links

[edit] History

The building was completed in 1927 and named by Greek professor Dr. William N. Bates after the ancient Greek 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 and is today still connected to Hutchinson Gymnasium.

The first basketball game was played at the Palestra on January 1, 1927. Pennsylvania defeated Yale 26-15 before a crowd of 10,000 fans, a capacity crowd, and the largest crowd to ever 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. Teams wishing to play there were often required also to schedule a game at the Palestra, which led to Philadelphia hosting a number of very high-level sporting events that it might not otherwise have. Many professional games were played at the Palestra prior to the completion of the Spectrum in 1967.

[edit] College Basketball at the Palestra

The Palestra has hosted more regular season or post-season NCAA men's basketball games, more visiting teams, and more NCAA tournaments than any other arena in the country.. 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.

Today, the gym is the oldest major college arena still in use.

The Philadelphia Big 5 (Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple, La Salle, Villanova) originally played all of its games at the Palestra. Today, the inter-city conference still plays about half of its round-robin games there. St. Joseph's hosts all of its Big 5 games at the gym (which is larger than its own arena, Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse). In the recent past, St. Joseph's has hosted games against large-drawing opponents at the Palestra. During the 2005-06 season, Ohio State and St. Joseph's played at the Palestra.

In addition, parts or all of the 1989-95 Atlantic Ten Conference men's basketball tournaments were contested there.

The gym has also served as the site of many Philadelphia high school championship games.

[edit] Palestra 2000

In 2000, a $2 million renovation to the gym included the addition of a museum celebrating the history of Philadelphia basketball in the building's main concourse. Nearby the main entrance to the gym is a section recognizing the St. Joseph's legendary 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 1950's on 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).

Penn playing at the Palestra

[edit] External links

• The Palestra - Penn Athletics
• Five we like, Five we want to see
• 'Nova should play at the Palestra

Preceded by Wister Hall 1931–1954

Home of the La Salle Explorers 1955–1988

Succeeded by Philadelphia Civic Center 1989–1995

Current Basketball Arenas in the Ivy League
Jadwin Gymnasium (Princeton) • Lavietes Pavilion (Harvard) • Leede Arena (Dartmouth) • Levien Gymnasium (Columbia) • Newman Arena (Cornell) • The Palestra (Penn) • Payne Whitney Gym (Yale) • Pizzitola Sports Center (Brown)

Current Basketball Arenas in the Philadelphia Big 5
•The Palestra (Penn, St. Joseph's, La Salle) • The Pavilion (Villanova) • Liacouras Center (Temple) • Tom Gola Arena (La Salle) •