I was lucky to spend tonight watching the premiere of The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball, a movie about the famed arena that was written and produced by former Penn women's player Mikaelyn Austin.
Among the famous folks in attendance were four of the City Six coaches (Glen Miller, Fran Dunphy, Bruiser Flint and John Giannini), a bunch of former players, Dan Baker, Drexel AD Eric Zillmer, St. Joe's AD Don DiJulia and lots of other people who call the Palestra a second home.
The movie is just over an hour's worth of interviews with people who played and coached there, including Dunphy, Phil Martelli, Chuck Daly and Bill Raftery -- and I'm not sure those few do the whole thing justice. There's also a huge amount of archival footage of old Big 5 games (and of fans in the stands, which is also rather interesting to see if you weren't alive at the time the footage was shot).
For a lot of the people there, though, it was about memories. Count Bruiser as being very much among that group.
"There's nothing like being a player ... there's nothing like running out there, being a part of those doubleheaders, hearing your name called in a packed building," he said.
Now that he's a coach, Flint has the task of trying to teach his players just what playing in the Palestra is all about. He said it doesn't take much.
"Their first game they play in the building and they go against one of the other Philadelphia teams, they realize it's different from most games," he said.
The man who calls Flint's games on the radio, Dan Baker, knows plenty about the Big 5 -- he was its executive secretary from 1981 to 1996. He (and quite a few others) see the movie as a way of teaching people about the history of the building, and of Philadelphia college basketball.
"I thought it was a great film, capturing the essence of the best college basketball arena in the country," he said. "I hope that it gives them some sense of what we had here and can still have, to a degree -- and when two Big 5 teams play at the Palestra, I think we do have it."
It shouldn't surprise anyone to hear that there was a big Penn delegation there. It included Scott Kegler, Corky Calhoun, Vince Curran (who I have a feeling I'll be hearing from just for mentioning him on here), and Perry Bromwell. Bromwell is in a rather unique position, as he's now a Penn assistant after having played for the Quakers from 1982 to 1987.
"I think from a playing standpoint, you have a different kind of adrenaline to win and some pregame jitters and things like that," he said. But as a coach, he admitted that "sometimes, I'm trying to scream out reminders to the team on the court knowing that they really can't hear it."
Bromwell's boss, Glen Miller, came to Penn from Brown, and Miller's roots are in New England. But if you Penn fans out there had any doubts left -- which I suspect disappeared right around the time Mark Zoller went up to shoot that three in the closing seconds against Temple -- I got the impression that Miller really does get it.
"It brought goosebumps to my body," Miller said of the movie. "The Palestra's such a great place to coach, and to have the opportunity to be the head coach at the University of Pennsylvania -- when you think of guys like Chuck Daly who've come through here, and Rollie Massimino as an assistant, it's just a privilege to coach here."
Miller played in the Palestra in an NCAA Tournament while at Northeastern, but he said that he's really gotten to know the place and what it means this season.
"I don't think a lot of current players, younger coaches outside of the Philadelphia area know enough about the Palestra," he said. "Just having the experience of coaching here this year, it's far exceeded my my knowledge of the Palestra, having come here with Brown for seven years."
Of course, it's no surprise to hear that Miller's predecessor, Fran Dunphy, has a lot to say on the subject.
"I think that just some of the characteristics of the building and some of the nuances of the building were fantastic to watch," he said.
I asked him whether or not the Big 5 has changed since his playing days at La Salle.
"It's changed, but there's still -- like the other night when we played Penn at the Palestra, when we played St. Joe's at the Palestra, that's exactly what it used to be all the time," he said. "It was crazy, the games were hard-fought, sometimes they were really close and other times they just were a hammering of sorts. But always, when you get out of there, it's always the same feeling -- you've just gone through a phenomenal experience."
Another guy with quite eloquent views of the Palestra is Dick "Hoops" Weiss, the former Philadelphia Daily News writer now with the New York Daily News. He is interviewed quite a bit in the movie, and was on hand for the premiere last night.
"For those of us who grew up in it, I think it really captured the essence of our childhood, and I think it really allowed people to experience a little bit of what we experienced," Weiss said. "I don't think you can tell people about it unless they were there, I don't know if they ever realized how special it was."
Yes, Weiss is a journalist, but this movie seemed to touch him rather personally.
"When I looked at the film, I could recognize so many people that I knew growing up, so many guys that played here, that you just knew," he said. The Palestra "was the center of the basketball universe, at least on the East Coast."
Weiss, being among the truly top college hoops writers in the country, pretty well gets to go wherever he wants. But the Palestra is still among his top venues, up there with Allen Fieldhouse and Cameron Indoor stadium.
"I like the fact that coaches still feel the need to make a pilgrimage here," he said.
One such coach was Texas' Rick Barnes, who took the Longhorns to the Palestra for a practice before their game against Villanova last month.
"There's that huge picture of Wilt Chamberlain there with the two basketballs -- [Barnes] had [Kevin] Durant pose with the same wingspan just so that he could have a feel for that."
Weiss also praised the fans who come to the Palestra.
"I was in Columbus yesterday at Value City Arena, and it might as well be a rock concert because everything has to be visual every second of the day," he said. "Even though the Palestra had its incredible noise and incredible traditions, I think there was a reverence when the game started for the game itself."
The last word goes to Austin, who's been working on the movie for a few years now. I confess that I've known her since her playing days at Penn, and I've been following the production process since the very beginning. I sort of can't believe that it's actually done now, but I can only imagine the number of hours Austin put into it.
"It's like having your kid, seeing him grow up and drop-kicking him through the goalposts of life all at once," she said. "When I started this thing, it was like this [small], and it became so much more."
The people who turned out to honor her last night can certainly attest to that.
Plus, there's the faux-Gothic exterior of Payne-Whitney Gym, the building that houses the basketball arena (at right). It's all very Ivy League, no question about that, but the place gets loud in a hurry. It's a pretty good atmosphere as mid-major venues go, and it's a big reason why the Quakers have lost three of their last four games here, and four of their last six.
