Eagles’ Jason Kelce added to a mural featuring Jalen Hurts, Joel Embiid, and Bryce Harper in South Philly
The Kelce and Hurts murals came after oversize depictions of Bryce Harper and Joel Embiid.
A South Philly electrical warehouse now bears larger-than-life portraits of four contemporary Philly sports greats: Joel Embiid; Bryce Harper; Jalen Hurts; and most recently, Jason Kelce.
South Philly native Joey Dougherty started spray-painting the exterior of the Dougherty Electric warehouse, at 45 E. Porter St., in the Whitman section of the city — his family’s business — in 2021 while Embiid was campaigning for MVP at the end of 2020-21 NBA season.
Dougherty’s series of athlete murals began with an oversize profile of Embiid cast against the Sixers logo and continued with other notable Philly sports moments: Harper after the Phillies clinched the NLCS in 2022 and Hurts just before the Eagles Super Bowl LVII appearance in February.
The Kelce mural was ready early Monday morning after the kelly green clad Eagles beat the Buffalo Bills in overtime to go 10 and 1. In the painting, a 30-foot-tall version of Kelce in a kelly green throwback jersey stares pensively while sandwiched between Hurts and Embiid.
“It was the perfect time to paint it,” Dougherty said. “Kelce has been with us forever, and I knew I wanted to paint him in kelly green, so with it being the last game in those jerseys of the season, it just made sense.”
Kelce, who has been a center with the Eagles since 2011, is having a late-career renaissance. After being the highest-ranked center on the NFL’s Top 100 list, Kelce broke the record for most consecutive starts with the Eagles while a documentary about his life became the most-watched on Amazon Prime.
Dougherty, 22, graduated from La Salle University with a business administration degree in 2023 but has always been artistically inclined: He loved painting with watercolors as a kid before experimenting with graffiti-style artwork on the walls of his childhood home and fraternities at the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and Temple University.
Dougherty’s father, Donald, and younger brother, Christian, are diehard Eagles fans who often inspire his work. Doughtery said his dad gave him the idea to put Kelce in kelly green, while his brother was the brains behind Harper’s Phanatic headband.
“I’ve always been more artsy than I am sporty,” Dougherty said. “No one has had the opportunity I’ve had to paint on these walls, so my family really trusts me. They’re my biggest fans.”
Dougherty said painting the mural took three 12-hour days to complete, and he often had to stop and start because of rain. He sketched the portrait of Kelce on his iPad nearly two years ago, Dougherty said, and was planning to paint it on a different wall at the warehouse before inspiration struck.
Two couples visiting from Buffalo stopped by the murals Monday morning to take photos, Dougherty said, and he plans to keep the gates to the warehouse’s lot open after-hours to accommodate visiting fans.
This isn’t the first time the part-time muralist has brushed with fame: During the run-up to the 2022 World Series, Dougherty said television news crews from Houston and Japan came to film the Harper portrait. And when Hurts’ Sports Illustrated cover was being shot, he stopped to take photos in front of Dougherty’s mural — and play pickup basketball with Dougherty’s brother.
“Jalen won, but it was close,” Dougherty said. “My brother almost crossed him up.”
Dougherty said he plans to cover the walls of his family’s warehouse with more portraits, so long as Philly’s teams keep winning. Next up: fictional heavyweight champion Rocky Balboa.