Penn basketball memories: The Big 5-0 celebration

• TWEET
• SHARE
• SHARE

Eight days until tip off, and we'll be bringing you more Penn basketball snapshots today, starting with a Big weekend for Philly basketball captured by DP Sports alum Jonathan Tannenwald.

Your favorite Penn basketball memory?

The Big 5's 50th anniversary celebration was a really special weekend. I was lucky enough to be covering City Series games for the DP at the time. As a result I was able to cover a dinner at the Palestra on the Friday night of that weekend to which every living Big 5 Hall of Famer was invited.

I wrote two stories that weekend: one from the dinner, and a Page 3 feature on some of the most important people in the Big 5.

Anyway, the dinner was extraordinary. I got to meet a lot of Penn basketball legends, including Bobby Morse, Corky Calhoun, Chuck Daly and Bob Weinhauer.

The next night, the Big 5 brought back its most famous traditions: streamers. I had written a column the previous summer expressing a hope that the Big 5 would do it, but I didn't think it would actually happen.

The game was against St. Joe's, a classic night with the Palestra split right down the middle. Mark Zoller (I think) scored the first basket of the game, and the entire west end of the arena exploded with red and blue crepe paper. St. Joe's went on to win the game, but in the long run it didn't matter.

It's good that Penn found a new way to incorporate the streamer tradition, having students throw them at the end of games the Quakers win. Hopefully it keeps going, because anyone who comes through the Palestra as a student deserves that opportunity.

-Jonathan Tannenwald, College '06