THE PALESTRA, Philadelphia , PA 2018

The Palestra, often called the “Cathedral of College Basketball”, is an historic arena located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and is the home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball teams, wrestling team, and Philadelphia Big 5 basketball. The Arena opened on January 1, 1927. At the time of its construction the it was one of the world's largest arenas. The Palestra has often been called "the most important building in the history of college basketball".

I grew up in New York City watching Big 5 games on WORTV ch 9 in the 1970s and always dreamed of going to the Palestra to watch Big 5 teams play each other because of the raucous atmosphere and intense rivalries between the schools. in 2018 I finally got the chance to go catch a couple of games there. Unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to see an actual Big 5 game but I did have the opportunity to walk around the concourse, take some photos and get a feel for the grand old arena.