City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The stars were in the building: from Penn’s Ernie Beck, Temple’s Mark Macon and La Salle’s Lionel “L-Train” Simmons, to Dan Dougherty and so many more, legends of Philadelphia basketball representing the birth of the Big 5 in the 1950s all the way up to the present day, in the form of 2014 Villanova grad Tony Chennault.

They entered the Palestra, onto a floor each of them are all-too-familiar with, the building that’s hosted more NCAA basketball games--regular season and otherwise--than any other in the nation since its opening in 1927.

They were there to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Big 5, a unique institution in bringing together five schools with little affiliation besides the obvious geographical proximity and getting them to play each other, round-robin, for all but eight of the past 60 years. And they were there to see some basketball.

On a blisteringly cold Wednesday night in January that had even a usually-steamy gymnasium packed with coat-wearing fans, the Big 5 returned with a vengeance. Temple met La Salle and Penn met Saint Joseph’s in the first Big 5 doubleheader since December 2004, and the evening lived up to a decade’s worth of expectations.

“I think we have something unique here with the Big 5 teams in basketball and I’m just honored to be part of it,” said Temple assistant coach Aaron McKie, one of two assistants--along with Penn’s Ira Bowman--who were on the sidelines while also being included in the 30 players--five from each school, one for each decade--who were introduced during various timeouts.

McKie, a Philadelphia native, played at Temple in the mid-90s. His first Big 5 experience came during the 80s, watching honorees like Macon and Simmons go head-to-head while sitting with legendary trainer and mentor John Hardnett.

It was only fitting that the future NBA player made his college debut in that gym, against Penn in 1991.

“I just remember it being loud, I was nervous, it had that college-like atmosphere,” he recalled. “It was cool, I was just so excited to be out there, just wanted to play and get my feet wet with that first game.”

There are few events that bring together the city’s various collegiate sports fans for something that feels wholly Philadelphian. The Penn Relays are one, and the Dad Vail Regatta is another; both long-running events that draw not just regional but national and sometimes international attention to the City of Brotherly Love.

On par with those is the Big 5, especially when the city comes out like it did on Wednesday night. Which doesn’t always happen--there have been other Big 5 games held at the Palestra over the years, and while they do feel different, they have too often been held in a half-empty gym.

“If you come here tonight and it’s just Temple/La Salle, then you know, it’s always going to be competitive, it’s going to be great,” McKie said. “But when you can get four of the five teams here, you get a little bit of everything, you get St. Joe’s, you get Temple, you get Penn, you get the fans, the fans pretty much know each other. It’s a melting pot of basketball minds and brains, and it’s a lot of people that are just from this area and rooting for their teams.”

Temple (62-49) and Saint Joseph’s (75-60) were the victors in this particular set of games, though it felt like the real winner was Philadelphia’s basketball community. The 8030 fans in attendance--not quite a sellout, not far off--were loud throughout the first game and into the second, though many had left by the midpoint of a fairly easy SJU win that tipped at 9:30 PM.

All four head coaches spoke at length during their press conferences about the tradition of the Big 5 and the enjoyment of the evening. None were more passionate than Phil Martelli, who while holding back on the idea of having a doubleheader every year, did think that there are things the schools can do to make the series return to its former luster.

“I said it at Temple, we played Temple, La Salle played Villanova at the exact same time. So if I’m a Philadelphia basketball fan, I look at it and go ‘well you guys don’t give a damn about it anymore,” the Hawks’ 21st-year head coach said. “And I’m not knocking anybody, I don’t want emails from people saying ‘there you go again.’ I’m not. I’m just suggesting that it should look special when you look at a schedule. Tonight looked special.”

Maybe a yearly doubleheader is a pipe dream. Maybe we’ll have to settle for an increased focus on the Big 5, like a TV doubleheader instead of two games competing with one another for viewers’ attention. And actual TV games, not relegated to paid internet feeds like for those who wished to view Penn/St. Joe’s.

But this shouldn’t be a once-in-a-decade experience. It shouldn’t take 10 years for four of the five programs in the Big 5--and really, the fifth team should bite the bullet and play Drexel, but that’s an argument for another time--to play on one night, and it shouldn’t take an anniversary to make it happen.

This is Philadelphia basketball. It’s bigger than that.

And Wednesday night proved it.