The Palestra still has nights when it comes to life thanks to Catholic League basketball
While the Palestra has been known as the Cathedral of College Basketball, it's been high school basketball of late that reminds us of the excitement that made this venue legendary.
To a certain segment of Philadelphians, the Palestra will always be associated with its nickname: “The Cathedral of College Basketball.” For others, that reality will just live on as words on a Wikipedia page.
Sometimes, it still moonlights as that special place. Just a little less frequently than it used to.
The uninformed (read: younger generation) just have to listen to anyone over a certain age loosely connected with basketball in and around this city talk about the building. Heck, just do a lap around the building. It’s like a museum of Philadelphia hoops history, the walls adorned with images, plaques and facts, home to what is basically a Big 5 basketball hall of fame.
There are myriad reasons why Big 5 or City 6 basketball isn’t what it once was, and in turn why the Palestra’s meaning in college basketball has suffered the same fate.
But this isn’t a story about the slow death of the Big 5, rather an appreciation for the two nights in late February or early March when the people still stuff the corners and the sounds and feelings emanated from inside a nearly 100-year-old building make the hairs on your arms go stiff.
It was apparent most of Wednesday night but reached its crescendo as the clock wound down on the second of two Philadelphia Catholic League semifinal games: A Neumann Goretti missed free throw provided the spark, and a West Catholic rebound with 6.7 seconds remaining in a two-point game filled the place with with a nervous hum. A drive into the lane and a kick-out to a corner three-pointer that would’ve won the game made the noise rise, and the putback layup for upstart West Catholic as the buzzer sounded that tied the game and sent the Burrs to overtime with the storied Saints of Neumann Goretti sent the building into a frenzy.
Security personnel and school officials had to keep West Catholic students from bursting onto the court. The place buzzed for minutes before overtime started.
In the seven-second sequence, longtime Neumann Goretti coach Carl Arrigale went from another PCL championship appearance to preparing for overtime. But he appreciates, still, when the Palestra pulsates.
“It’s a special place for sure. When I’m done, I’m going to miss it,” Arrigale said.
Arrigale, a South Philly native who starred at Penn Charter in the 1980s and has been leading the Saints since 1999, is of that certain aforementioned age of basketball lifers in this city who hold the Palestra in a place that younger generations don’t, in part because they can’t.
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Younger players now, Arrigale joked Wednesday after his team prevailed in overtime, don’t know the Palestra because it “isn’t on Instagram.”
The Saints have had some help learning about it recently, Arrigale said. Some former players help out at practices, others have been around recently as the league championship loomed.
“They know it’s special to be here as a high school team and to play in these games, but they don’t understand the stuff I grew up with,” Arrigale said.
Arrigale grew up during a time when Big 5 doubleheaders were must-attend events that happened with frequency. When he was a high schooler, the best players in the city tended to stay in the city.
Now? The best college atmosphere inside the Palestra happens when Penn State decides to play a game there and sells it out in large part because of the amount of local alumni.
“This is the best thing that happens here now,” Arrigale said, referring to the Catholic League’s yearly semifinal doubleheader.
“They could charge $50 a head on Monday and this place would be packed.”
He’s probably not wrong. Arrigale, the record holder with 12 PCL titles at Neumann Goretti, will go for No. 13 Monday night vs. crosstown rival Roman Catholic. The two best Catholic League boys’ programs in the city will meet in the final for the sixth time in the last 14 years, the second game of a doubleheader after Lansdale Catholic and Archbishop Wood meet for the girls’ title.
Expect people to stuff the corners, and opposing student sections behind each basket to exchange chants and gestures.
How much longer can this all last, though? That was a question asked to Arrigale. The Palestra’s luster as a college basketball jewel is dying with a generation of basketball lovers. But nights like Wednesday, and probably Monday, show it can still be brought back to life.
Those Palestra nights, Arrigale said, are among the few things he still likes about amateur hoops, becoming less amateur by the minute.
“This isn’t a time to pontificate or be on the pulpit or whatever,” Arrigale said, before briefly pontificating ... “but I’m worried about the sport. I really am worried about the sport and the direction it’s going in. There could be a shelf life. All this stuff that’s going on in the college game now is going to trickle down into the high school game and you’re going to see a lot of movement and things happening in the high school game.”
The name, image, and likeness hoopla is reaching into the high school world already. Traditions, as the Palestra knows, can’t last forever.
“People are going to start moving around for money,” Arrigale said. “I’m glad I’m on the back end of my career and not starting right now.”
The coach laughed and the subject changed. No, Wednesday night was no time for preaching, though Arrigale wore crossed ashes on his forehead. It was a night to enjoy an old building, maybe no longer a college cathedral but still the best gym in town.