College Hoops TIP-OFF 11.14.11
grand stands
the game marches on, but a dwindling number of basketball cathedrals can still take us back to when it all began. PHOTOgraphs by David
Leventi
The brand of basketball played today by 344 Division I schools barely resembles Dr. Naismith’s invention, the one that began 119 years ago with a peach basket nailed to a YMCA wall. And every time a college builds a bigger, if not better, basketball arena, some measure of history is lost. When Oregon retired McArthur Court in the middle of last season, it left college basketball with only 13 gyms built before 1940. The arenas pictured here stand as some of basketball’s oldest—each one spanning more than seven decades. They were designed in the early 20th century in Collegiate Gothic style, back when architects focused on how lofty clerestory windows and cathedral ceilings commanded natural light, before luxury boxes and hi-def JumboTrons became the order. The contests played on these creaky courts are largely forgotten, but to walk through these gates and settle into these seats is to remember the game’s roots. Because sometimes sports aren’t about results—they’re about beauty and style and being connected to something bigger than the game. —LaRue Cook
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The Palestra University of Pennsylvania
location Philadelphia first game Jan. 1, 1927 capacity 8,722
Each of Philly’s Big 5— La Salle, Penn, St. Joe’s, Temple and Villanova— has called the Cathedral of College Basketball home, and Kobe and Wilt won high school titles here.
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