The security guard said I had to move, so I moved.
It was Dec. 4, 2004, my second Big 5 Classic, and after Penn beat La Salle in the opener, my ticket said I still had one more game to watch. CSC Event Staff said otherwise; I had to make room for the Villanova student section to watch the Wildcats play Temple.
So I left, not out into the winter afternoon, but up to an open seat in the last row. And I got the pleasure, or displeasure, of watching one of the best worst games ever played as Villanova shot 3-for-17 from three-point range in the first half of an epic 53-52 loss to Temple.
Not just the Big 5 Classic, it was classic Big 5. And I enjoyed every moment of it.
This weekend, none of us will have that pleasure.
For freshmen and those unfamiliar with the situation, here's a quick reset: Since 2001, the
Big 5 teams and Drexel have taken over the Palestra in early December for a daytime single-admission doubleheader followed by a single nightcap.
Then last year, phase one of the phase-out took place as the annual cycle landed on St. Joe's-Villanova as one of the matchups and the great schedule-maker known as ESPN dictated that the game should be moved. The others went on in typical fashion.
Phase two occurs tomorrow, when the Big 5 Classic is gone once and for all.
But maybe not forever.
"It was a special day in Philadelphia college basketball, and I hope that we can resurrect it," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said.
But before we can think about resurrection, we have to first perform an autopsy.
The causes of death are numerous.
"We weren't full," St. Joe's coach Phil Martelli said. "I'm disappointed that we didn't embrace it throughout the city. I thought that was a unique setting.
"When the idea was presented, I assumed what we would have was people crawling over each other to get in."
It was not to be, though. Fans would routinely leave after their team's game, or arrive just before the second game. And last year's La Salle-Drexel matchup didn't help fill any seats. The doubleheader attendance of 7,022, even if every fan had been present for both games, fell exactly 1,700 short of the Palestra's official capacity.
The Philadelphia Eagles'
success during the five-year life of the Classic, combined with the fact that it's been played on the same day as the Army-Navy game in South Philly, probably limited coverage and excitement.
And the first weekend of December is a huge weekend for nonconference games, so it's been difficult for coaches to commit one weekend as definite for a City Series game.
But on a weekend that will be admittedly sad for Dunphy, Martelli and Villanova's Jay Wright - the senior members of the fraternity - the glass is seen as half-full.
"It fulfilled its purpose to get a unity going again," Wright said, referring to the preceding stretch which saw teams play just two Big 5 games per year. Now, we've got events like [Big 5 Media Day] and the Coaches vs. Cancer."
"As long as the schools continue to cooperate, and we do . it may come back in a different form," Martelli said, adding that marketing would be the key.
Dunphy suggested a five-year contract in which every team would play each opponent once in the Classic, assuming the Atlantic 10 would allow for its member schools (La Salle, St. Joe's and Temple) to play each other before Jan. 1.
However it has to happen, this should be a priority for the Big 5 coaches. Until last season, it felt like a day when the pressures of scheduling for television and the competition for home games would stop in favor of the Palestra and the doubleheader tradition of the generation before me.
I will still be covering two games Saturday at the Palestra. St. Joe's plays Drexel in the daytime, and Villanova takes on the Quakers five hours later. And there's even a third game in Philly that day.
But Temple playing Long Beach State at the Liacouras Center just doesn't have the right feel to it.
Zachary Levine is a senior mathematics major from Delmar, N.Y., and is former Sports Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. His e-mail address is zlevine@sas.upenn.edu.
