The Palestra is one of the most recognizable names in basketball. It is an arena that belongs to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), which is in Philadelphia. The reason the Palestra is so famous is because of its long history. The word “palestra” means an area for athletic competition, training and competition. The ancient Greeks used a palestra for wrestling, but we now use the UPenn Palestra for major basketball games during March Madness as each of five different schools play against each other to see who the best team in Philadelphia is.
The history of the Palestra is very long—It will be 100 years old in 2027! The funding for the Palestra was approved in 1925 and was in construction all through 1926. On New Year’s Day 1927, the arena opened its doors for the public for the first time. Upon its completion, UPenn hosted several games there.
Since then, the Palestra has been home to several home games. Rivals of UPenn have played in the Palestra for years. Not only have rivals of UPenn played there, but it was, and still is, home to the Big 5 tournament in March Madness. The Big 5 rival started in 1954. Once the Big 5 got started, the Palestra started to become even more famous than it already was at the time.
The Big 5 schools are La Salle University, Saint Joseph’s University, Temple University, Villanova University and UPenn. This Big 5 competition started out as an informal tournament that was to be played in the Palestra. Sixty-eight years later, that tournament is still ongoing, and the Palestra is still responsible for hosting that tournament. The tournament may have kept going, but the teams have evolved. Most teams play their respective campus gyms, but occasionally, a game would be scheduled at the Palestra with a rival school from the Big 5 tournament. This is to keep the traditions that were originally created at the Palestra alive. One of those traditions is throwing streamers onto the court during the game, like our Marshmallow game. Another one of the traditions is having a sign that supports your school while also taking shots at the opposing school’s team.
To this day, the Palestra has hosted more visiting teams and had more regular season games than most other colleges or universities. This statistic also includes post season games.
The Palestra remains one of the most famous arenas in Philadelphia because of March Madness. Because the Palestra is so famous, it is worth mentioning that the Elizabethtown College men’s basketball team had the opportunity to play there against Juniata College.
For more information, go here:
https://pennathletics.com/sports/2019/6/12/penn-athletics-facilities-Palestra-bio.aspx
