The stories behind the scoreboard.
The Philadelphia Edition · Editorial collection
Published stories selected for From the Archives.
Basketball
On Saturday nights at the Broadwood Hotel, basketball was only part of the evening. The Philadelphia SPHAS played in the ballroom; afterward, fans could stay to dance. The arrangement placed a professional team in the middle of a neighborhood social life, in a room that served more than one purpose.
Football
Ray Didinger later recounted that Steve Van Buren saw the snow outside his bedroom, assumed the game would be postponed and went back to bed.
Soccer
The Philadelphia Union’s first home did not look like the one they were building.
Rowing
West Philadelphia had a boat. That was not enough to get it into the race.
Basketball
By the time the Philadelphia 76ers finished with nine wins in 1972–73, Hal Greer had occupied almost every kind of place a player could hold in the franchise’s history. He had come with the team from Syracuse. He had been a star on its championship team. He had remained as other pieces of that team disappeared.
Ice hockey
Brian Propp was not on the ice when the Philadelphia Flyers finished winning Game 1 of the 1989 Wales Conference final. He was at Montreal General Hospital, having left the Montreal Forum on a stretcher with a concussion and a cut lip.
Football
The first defendant at Eagles Court wore a Starter jacket. He had been arrested at a football game and brought before a judge in a maintenance room beneath Veterans Stadium, where blue carpet and curtains offered a thin layer of courtroom decor. Outside, the Eagles were playing the Steelers.
Baseball
The baseball game was tied when the sound from beyond the ballpark began drawing attention. On August 8, 1903, the Phillies and Boston were in the fourth inning of the second game of a doubleheader. Spectators in the bleachers turned toward a disturbance on 15th Street. Some moved onto a wooden passageway that overlooked it.
Baseball
With Nolan Ryan on the mound and a three-run lead, Houston needed six more outs to win the National League pennant. Philadelphia needed something less grand than a home run to begin its comeback. It needed a ground ball to go somewhere other than a fielder’s glove.
Basketball
Before Game 3 of the 1977 NBA Finals, Maurice Lucas walked across the court to Darryl Dawkins and offered his hand.
Women’s soccer
Marinette Pichon had reason to think she would be back in Philadelphia. She had scored 14 goals for the Charge in 2003, matching her total from the year before. She had shared the Women’s United Soccer Association’s Golden Boot, and she expected to sign for another season.
Football
A wartime football merger put Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on one roster, but the players’ jobs kept them apart.