Just across a lawn from each other at the University of Pennsylvania resides two of America's oldest sports venues: Franklin Field and the Palestra. Over the past century, each has hosted countless memorable moments while transporting fans back to a time when the stands were positioned right on top of he action and before giant video boards.
Franklin Field
With athletics becoming a bigger deal in the college landscape, the University of Pennsylvania decided to build an athletic stadium that could hold anything from track meets and football games to baseball games. The university bought a spot just east of campus that had once been a potter's field for the Blockey Almshouse and they collaborated with the noted architectural firm Frank Miles Day & Brother who was famous for designing the Art Club of Philadelphia and chief draftsman Charles Klauder who would one day help design the new stadium's neighbor.
Ground was broken early in 1895 and Franklin Field's original wooden structure was erect and ready for business by April 20 of that same year. It was the first stadium in the country to have a functioning scoreboard. Penn hosted its first football game there on October 1, 1895 where they dominated Swarthmore 40-0. The Quakers would go on to an undefeated season that year, winning the national championship.
To date, the Quakers have posted an undefeated home record 23 times since their inaugural season at their longtime home. But Franklin Field was much more than just the homoe of the Quakers. Just four years after it first opened, Franklin served as the first neutral site location for the annual Army-Navy game where Army prevailed 17-5. It was the first of 18 times that Franklin Field hosted the event.
The stadium went through several renovations almost from the very start and by 1903 it officially switched from its original wooden frame to the permanent brick and concrete fortified structure that we admire today. But that horseshoe design (the first in college football) was missing a deck.
In 1925, three years after it hosted the first college football game broadcast on radio (Cornell beat Penn 9-0), Penn added a second deck to complete the construction. With its tall and wide arches at its base and the top of structure crowned by a northern Italian style brick, it reminds one of a castle.
For years, Franklin Field was popular location for the high school football city championship game. Every late Fall, tens of thousands would flock to the castle to watch a bunch of teenagers strive to realize their dreams and capture one last moment of glory before starting adulthood. As many as 60,000 have gathered to watch a high school football game at Franklin Field. The city championship was moved to Veterans Stadium in 1973.
It became something more than merely an athletic facility when Franklin Delano Roosevelt accepted his party's nomination for the presidential election in 1936, promptly giving one of his most famous speeches right there on the field. As Roosevelt led America out of the Great Depression and into World War II, the television industry was growing. On October 5, 1940, Franklin Field hosted the first telecast college game as Penn beat Maryland 51-0. As a sign of the times, Philco, the company filming the event, only used two cameras for the contest.
In 1958, the Eagles moved from Connie Mack Stadium and into the cozy confines of Franklin Field. Two years later, they and Penn alum Chuck Bednarik, won the NFL championship, defeating Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers before ecstatic Eagles fans. It was the only playoff loss of Vince Lombardi's head coaching career and would be the Eagle's last championship for the next 57 years. The Eagles stayed there until moving to Veterans Stadium in 1971.
Just a few months later, on April 29, 1961, ABC featured the famed Penn Relays in its first ever episode of the "Wild World of Sports". By this point of time, the Penn Relays had become one of the premier track events in America, having begun when the stadium first opened back in 1895. It remains one of Franklin Field's most anticipated events every year.
It also hosted the Bicentennial Meet of Champions on August 4, 1976. Dwight Stones made a memorable impression on the crowd that day by setting a high jump record, helping to make America's birthday a very memorable occasion.
Since the turn of the millennium, its been featured in two movies. It served as a tremendous backdrop for Bruce Willis's Unbreakable (2000) and was a stand-in for Mark Wahlberg's Invincible (2006).
While it still hosts track events and football games, the stadium remains a relic of the past, standing tall as a reminder of where the NFL and college football had been before they moved on to greener pastures. But while it's hosted many memorable moments in football, track and even baseball, Franklin Field's neighbor is just as iconic.
The Palestra
Just a stroll across the lawn adjacent to Franklin Field is the Palestra, or affectionately known as "the Cathedral of College Basketball". The university turned to one of the lead designers of Franklin Field for the project, Charles Klauder, who was responsible for designing Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning. Ground was broken in 1926 and it hosted its first game on January 1, 1927 where 10,000 watched as their Quakers beat Yale 26-15. At the time, it was the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball game on the East Coast.
The university named it the Palestra after Greek professor Dr. William N. Bates pointed out that the Ancient Greeks would hold athletic events in rectangular enclosures very similar to Penn's new building. as the name itself harkens back to the past, so does the seating. To this day, people feel an intimacy that can't be replicated in much larger venues such as Hinkle Fieldhouse, Cameron Indoor Stadium and Phog Allen Fieldhouse, all of whom have borrowed aspects of the Palestra's palatial design.
While it's always been impressive to the public eye, it didn't garner nearly as much attention until the Big 5 was formed in 1955. Interestingly, the Palestra has hosted most of the Big 5's games over the years. It was there where Penn, Villanova, Temple, St. Joe's, LaSalle and Drexel (an honorary sixth member) forged some of college basketball's fiercest rivalries.
With all schools being locally based, the Palestra further established itself into the fabric of the City of Brotherly Love. During the Big 5's heyday, noisemakers were practically encouraged. On any given night, drums would pound, cowbells would clang and streamers were tossed high into the air after the first basket, providing an intimacy that can't be felt on television or radio.
Some of the sport's greatest stars have played there. Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Oscar Robertson all played there in college or the pro's. both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James played there as high schoolers rocketing into the national spotlight.
Through its illustrious history, the Palestra has become a bucket list item for hoop-heads of all ages. It's become a popular practice location for visiting NBA teams and Roy Williams once put Penn on his schedule, not so that his Tar Heels could play against the Ivy League, but because he had never been to the Palestra. Penn State once eschewed both home court advantage and gate receipts by moving a home game there over winter break and made the most of their experience by beating Michigan State 72-63.
After so much history, it's only fitting that America's oldest major college arena has hosted more games, more visiting teams and more NCAA tournaments than any other facility. Along with Franklin Field, it embodies all the good that sports has to offer.
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