On an absurdly cold April Fools Day of 2011, the juggernaut Phillies, the most talked about team in baseball, were down 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth against an eventual 100 loss team in the Houston Astros. Roy Halladay, who was deemed the team’s ace of aces, surrendered only one earned run on an RBI groundout through six innings.
Former Phillies Opening Day starter Brett Myers surprisingly bested Halladay as the Astros’ first man out and even laid down a bunt to set up two runners in scoring position who eventually crossed home plate to score in the top of the seventh.
Fast forward to the dramatic finish. All Jimmy Rollins had to do in the bottom of the ninth was get on base. He got a pitch from “closer” Brandon Lyon on the hands and hit it through the hole in on the right side for a base hit. And while the conditions were right for Ryan Howard to hit a game-tying home run (the wind was blowing to the right), the big man grinded out a tough at-bat and lined a single up the middle.
Two batters later, Ben Francisco registered the third single of the inning for the Phillies, scoring Rollins. Next up was Carlos Ruiz and after nearly winning the game on what would have been a double that was rightly called foul, Chooch fought off a 1-2 count and got a ball to the outfield. The bases were loaded for Wilson Valdez.
You guessed it, he singled. Unlike the hitters who came before, Valdez jumped on a high pitch. Since the ball was hit hard, only one runner could score. That meant pinch hitter John Mayberry Jr. had the chance to win it with the bases loaded and one out.
On a 2-2 count, Mayberry smoked a ball over the center fielder Michael Bourn's head to claim the Phillies’ first victory. Only 101 more to go.
On Saturday October 15, 1966, fans embraced the likes of Wilt Chamberlain, Hal Greer, and Billy Cunningham as the Sixers came out of the tunnel for their final Opening Night at the Philadelphia Civic Center. This would be the last year the Sixers played at the Civic Center, as the Spectrum was opened less than a year later. What fans did not know was that they were about to witness one of the best teams the city of Philadelphia has ever had to offer.
This 1966-1967 76ers team was coached by Alex Hannum, his first year at the helm. Hannum, who would go on to be a Hall of Fame coach himself, said in an interview in 2001:
''That was the greatest team in the history of basketball… I'm talking about all kinds of basketball, including the Dream Teams.''
This team started the year with a bang, winning 46 of their first 50 games, setting the tone for what ended up being a magical year in 76ers history. Led by a pair of 30 year old future Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Greer, this Sixers team dominated on both sides of the ball. Ranking 1st in point per game and 3rd in points allowed, these Sixers decimated the rest of the league to the tune of 68 wins and 13 loses.
Finding themselves at the top of the league was a surprise to everyone throughout the basketball world. While they had great players like Wilt (who averaged 24 points and 24 REBOUNDS per game), the Boston Celtics had run the league the previous decade. Winning 9 of the last 10 NBA Championships, the Bill Russell led Celtics had finally met their match.
Cruising through the first round of the NBA Playoffs, the Sixers dethroned the Cincinnati Royals, winning the series 3-1 (first round series were only five games back then). The team was led by its two man wrecking crew, Chamberlain and Greer each had two 30-point games in the series.
Next came the daunting Celtics. Going up 3-1 in the series, the Sixers had the luxury of playing Game 6 in Philadelphia. On April 11, 1967, with an overflowing crowd of 10,000+ strong (capacity was 9,600), the 76ers had five players score 20 or more points. Led by a 29 point, 36 rebound game from The Big Dipper himself, the Sixers were able to eliminate their arch rivals 140-116, sending them to the NBA Finals for the fourth time in team history.
After reaching the Finals, the Sixers made quick work of their opponents, the San Francisco Warriors, winning the series 4-2. Despite a masterful performance in Game 6 by the Warriors Rick Barry, the depth of the Sixers was too much for San Francisco to handle.
More recently, in an article from 2020, Bleacher Report ranked these Sixers as the 14th best team of all time. While we can agree to disagree on that ranking, we will always remember the 1966-67 Sixers as one of the best in Philadelphia history.
You can vote for the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers basketball team in the third round of our Philly's Greatest Team bracket!
When our stores closed around this time last year due to the pandemic, we were 100% online for several weeks. To encourage safe and easy shopping we temporarily got rid of shipping fees. Despite the stores reopening last summer, we kept free shipping through the holiday season and into 2021.
As we (hopefully) return to some semblance of normal, we need to re-calibrate our shipping practices. We hope you understand that as a small business, we simply cannot afford to ship everything free forever. But we want to ease back into that practice gently, so we're instituting the following changes on April 1:
We're committed to producing original vintage designs and providing a great shopping experience however you connect with us. We hope this balanced approach fits best for our customers, partners and staff.
If you have questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for continuing to support small local business.
- Brian & Johnny
Thirty-three years ago, John Chaney's Temple Owls were at the center of the college basketball universe. The 18-1 Owls were named the No. 1 team in the country on Feb. 8, 1988 becoming the first Big 5 team since the 1954-55 La Salle Explorers to earn the honor. The timing was impeccable as the Owls were set to take on their nationally ranked neighbors from the Main Line in what was billed as the most highly anticipated Big 5 matchup of the decade.
An overflow crowd of over 4,500 packed McGonigle Hall for the Owls’ only matchup of the season against Villanova. Rollie Massimino’s Wildcats had the upper hand early with an 8-0 run, but Temple’s prolific offensive prevailed in the end. Temple sealed the game late, outscoring the Wildcats 7-2 in the final three minutes and burying 14-consecutive free throws.
Owls freshman guard Mark Macon, who went on to become Temple’s all-time leading scorer, had a career-high 31 points. Teammate Howie Evans finished with 20 assists, two shy of the NCAA’s single-game record.
The Wildcats did all they could to match their Big 5 counterparts. They shot 51.7 percent from the floor. Point guard Kenny Wilson finished with 25 points, but they didn’t have much left to match Temple’s late onslaught.
More than a quarter of the century later, the game still holds up as one of the greatest 40 minutes of Big 5 basketball. Paradoxically, the two teams managed to play tight defense while giving up a combined 184 points. Both Massimino and Chaney cooked up a variety of defensive schemes but in the end, nine players combined to reach double figures in points. The intensity of the rivalry was amplified by the national spotlight and the players rose to the occasion.
"I thought it was one of the best basketball games played in this city in a lot of years, a lot of years," Massimino told the Inquirer after the game. "You can go back to whenever and you won’t find a basketball game played the way this one was."
Chaney, who couldn’t care less about what the polls said about his team, recognized that what transpired was worthy enough to be remembered by Philadelphia basketball fans for generations.
"Rollie and I could have stood on Broad Street and ate peanuts; this was a game for the players," Chaney said. "I don’t think I ever had control of it. It was nothing I orchestrated. The players played themselves into a win."
The Owls' performance that night secured their #1 ranking for at least another day. Chaney’s team would remain at the top for the remainder of the season, winning the next 13 games before falling to Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
You can vote for the 1988 Temple Owls men's basketball team in the first round of our Philly's Greatest Teams bracket.
The Phillies entered the 2011 season with one of the most fearsome rotations in baseball history. Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt were deemed “The Four Aces.” The four pitchers combined for 13 All-Star appearances, three Cy Young Awards, two NLCS MVP awards and one World Series MVP.
The media requests were out of control so the Phillies had a solution: put them all on the podium at once. The love affair officially began on Valentine’s Day 2011.
Yes, that also included Joe Blanton. Halladay was on board with the news conference, but only if Blanton was there. The team’s fifth starter was rumored to be on the trading block all winter long. Instead, he was thrust into the spotlight. It made for a funny moment between Blanton and a reporter who forgot that he was part of the 2008 World Series Championship team.
The $65 million rotation, which would probably cost at least twice as much 10 years later, were asked a flurry of questions on the expectations they have for themselves. The convenient part of scheduling a news conference on the first day of workouts is that nobody has done anything yet and that reflected in some of the answers.
“I think we haven’t thrown a single pitch as a group yet,” Lee said.
The off-season began with Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt, but the re-acquisition of Lee for a team that fell just short of a third consecutive World Series appearance fueled the hype around the team’s starting staff. For weeks, it seemed as though Lee’s return to the Phillies was surreal -- a type of miracle unfamiliar to Philadelphians.
The Phillies’ self-imposed restraints on free-agents pitchers were well documented. A team that was unwilling to commit more than three years wasn’t getting their hands on a pitcher of Lee’s caliber, especially considering they blindsided the left-hander by shipping him off to Seattle on the same day the team traded for Halladay.
In a twist nobody saw coming, the Phillies emerged as a mystery team for Lee’s services. The pitcher turned down a higher offer from the Yankees (seven-years,$148 million) to return to Philadelphia. Plenty of New York-based reporters were among the 70 or so media members in attendance. The question of why Lee spurned the Yankees was asked.
“I felt like this was the best chance to win world championships. That's what it's all about,” Lee said. “Obviously, I played here in the past and enjoyed myself here, and thought we had a really good team at that time. Since then, they've made a couple of additions that I think have made the team that much better. I felt like if I ever got an opportunity to come back and be a part of what's going on here, I would take advantage of it, and that's why.” When a New York Daily News reporter further questioned his decision, Lee retorted, “Phillies all the way.”
Roy Halladay echoed Lee’s sentiments.
"A lot of us are to the point in our career where you feel like the biggest thing left for you to do is win a championship, whether you've already done it or you haven't. That was my only goal going into last year was to try and win a World Series. So, coming close and coming up short is definitely hard. It's disappointing. That's why I still want to play this game. I want to be part of a world championship team."
To say Phillies fans were excited would be an understatement. 2011 was meant to be the peak of the golden era of Phillies baseball. The aging lineup and an average bullpen were a cause for concern, but the Phillies were expected to dominate the NL East on their way to a fifth-consecutive division title. And they did just that, winning a franchise-best 102 games, but of course, fell to the Cardinals in Game 5 of the NLDS.
The 2011 Phillies rotation had a combined 3.02 ERA, the lowest mark for a starting staff in MLB since 1989. They led the league in wins (76), strikeouts (935), walks (221) and quality starts (108). Halladay, Lee and Hamels all finished in the top-10 in ERA and fWAR. “The Four Aces” did all they could to propel the franchise to its third World Series title, unfortunately, the baseball gods had other plans for the Phillies that season.
We're going to have some fun with Super Bowl squares this year, and we're going to raise money for a terrific cause. Here's how it works: It's $10 a square, payable on venmo to @jgtquizzo ($jgtquizzo on Cashapp...please put "Sharks pool" in the notes). After we get 100 squares filled in, we'll randomly assign numbers. At the end of each quarter, the last two numbers of the score will determine our winner (for instance, if the score is 14-7 Chiefs after the first quarter, whoever has the Chiefs 4 and the Bucs 7 will be our winner.). That person will win an Eagles bundle, including our Vet stadium shirt, our Holcomb winter hat, a pair of Eagles socks, a pack of vintage football cards, AND we're going to throw in a Philly Word Art poster, making this a $115 value. Whoever gets the numbers for the FINAL score will win this beautiful Mitchell and Ness sweater jacket.
100% of the money raised in these squares will go to the South Philly Sigma Nu Sharks football program. Started in 1992 by the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, the Sharks service over 400 youth between the ages of 5 and 14. The program offers numerous football leagues, a basketball leagues, and offers tutoring services. They are hoping to purchase tackling and blocking sleds in an effort to reduce live contact in practice as part of their concussion prevention efforts, and $1000 will go a long ways towards that effort. So join us in raising money for a great program and a great cause!
To sign up, just go here, enter your info, and pick a box (you can pick up to 3 at $10 a box). Once we get to 100 boxes filled, we'll draw the numbers for the boxes. Good luck!
And if you want to check out any of our other Eagles gear, this week only it's ALL 30% off. Click here and use the checkout code eagles30.
Our toy drive kicks off today, and in the days and weeks to come we'll be adding more names to this list.
Please enter your name next to the child you want to donate a toy to, purchase any of the things on their wish list, and have it mailed to:
Keni and Alex are artists based in Philly. Watch how their creative ideas become Shibe shirts and view our entire collection of original shirts.
