Video of Howard Porter (Soft Pretzel Logic)

Video of Howard Porter

Friend of the blog Mark Greenspan sent along this clip of Howard Porter's Villanova team in action from his archive of old Big 5 footage.

Posted by Jonathan Tannenwald on May 22, 2007 7:23 PM | Permalink

Comments (3)

Dan Madonna:

Reading the sad story of Howard Porter caused me to reflect upon the many times I saw him, live and on TV during the Big Five's glory years. I was a freshman in high school when he came to Villanova and, in that era of no freshman eligibility, he was a semi-legend before he played his first varsity game. Even though the Sixers were only a year removed from winning a title, my friends and I were much more interested in the Big 5.

Porter was a special talent. He was a great medium range jump shooter and rebounder but I think his greatest talent was as a shot blocking intimidator. I have never seen a college player that could change a game by blocking 2 or 3 shots on a single possession like he did. He didn't keep his blocks in play; they often went many rows up into the stands.

It is really sad that both Porter and Ken Durrett died in their 50's. Durrett was way ahead of his time and had he not torn his ACL as a senior, would have been a star in the NBA. That injury was a career ender in 1971. While Porter was power Durrett was grace.

In 1969, I bought 2 tickets from a broker to the La Salle Villanova game (with my father's permission) for the princely sum of $5.00 each, a 150% markup over their $2.00 face value! The night of the game the old Evening Bulletin ran pictures of all 10 starters in the game on the front page of the sports section along with numerous articles about the game. The game was televised in Philly and was still sold out many months in advance. Glory days, for sure.

But the late 60's were pretty glorious for the Big Five. Consider:

-St Joe's ranked #1 by Sports Illustrated before the 65-66 season
-Temple won the '69 NIT when the NIT was legit.
-La Salle was ranked #2 behind UCLA in '69.
-Villanova finished second to UCLA in the '71 tournament.
-Penn was 28-1 and ranked in the top five for the 70-71 season.

Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce. I will pray for Howard Porter and his family.

Dan Madonna
La Salle '75
Penn Law '78

Posted by Dan Madonna | May 29, 2007 1:16 AM

Posted on May 29, 2007 01:16

Bill:

Howard was the most exciting player at VU since Hubie White. When will they solve this atrocity?

Posted by Bill | June 27, 2007 6:32 AM

Posted on June 27, 2007 06:32

Beverly Durrett:

Hi, Kenny Durrett was my father. I was wondering if you had any clips of him? Please feel free to contact me at [redacted by editor for privacy]. I really enjoyed this article. Thanks for the kind words. My day was the best

Sincerely,

Beverly Durrett

Posted by Beverly Durrett | July 7, 2007 9:37 PM

Posted on July 7, 2007 21:37

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Jonathan Tannenwald is a producer with Philly.com.

I fell in love with the Big 5 at first sight upon moving to Philadelphia in 2002. At various points in my journalistic career, I've covered all six of the region's Division I teams. During that time, I've eaten many soft pretzels from the Palestra's concession stands, which is how this blog got its name.

In addition to the blog, I host and produce the Inquirer's College HoopsCast. It's a weekly podcast that features all the latest news and analysis from around local and national college basketball. Regular guests include Inquirer writers Mike Jensen, Joe Juliano and Mel Greenberg.

I also occasionally contribute to the Inquirer's women's basketball weblog, Women's Hoops Guru. If you've come here from there, this blog deals mostly with the men's side of things, though I do write about women's basketball and other sports when they fit in.

When not focusing on college hoops, I host and produce the Inquirer's PhilliesCast with Phillies beat writer Todd Zolecki, and can occasionally be found behind the camera shooting videos of the Eagles, other professional sports teams and the tiger cubs at the zoo.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on May 22, 2007 7:23 PM.

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Soft Pretzel Logic

A blog about college sports in the Philadelphia region and across the country.