In July of 2007 Jim Caple from ESPN.com wrote an article about the 101 things every sports fan must experience before they die. Although I wouldn't care if I did half the things on his list (57. World Figure Skating Championship???), it got me thinking about how few things I knocked off my own sports "Bucket List."This past weekend I made my second trip to The Palestra. This time was to see St. John's play in the in the Philly Hoops Classic. The first time was last year, inspired by Caple's column, for a Penn/St. Joseph's (#63 on his list). I grew up a St. John's fan and saw most of my St. John's games at Madison Square Garden which isn't much of a home court and whatever games they play at Carnesseca Arena aren't rivalry games by any stretch. I went to the University at Buffalo and was at 90% percent of the games there. But I was there as they were entering the MAC Conference and never really experienced a true rivalry. Despite seeing a St. John's win last weekend, the Penn/St. Joseph's game last year was infinately more enjoyable. Being in a packed gym is always great but being The Cathedral of College Basketball for a rivalry game that goes back 54 years is one of the coolest thing a college basketball fan can do.
As part of a renovation in 2000, they added a scoreboard with the all-time record in the Penn/Princeton rivalry. Something tells me I should check out that game next time I plan a trip to The Palestra.
No comments:
Post a Comment