Bomb Scare at the Palestra

Until I moved to Philadelphia to be a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I was pretty ignorant about college basketball, which was not available on my TV.  As our family had season tickets for the Syracuse Nationals (Nats) games at the Onondaga County War Memorial, I avidly followed the NBA.  While a student at Oswego High School, I regularly attended Buccaneer home games.  

I had been a college football fan prior to Penn, watching the Saturday afternoon game on NBC.  Plus, I went to some live games, especially those at nearby Syracuse University.  

I was at almost all the Penn home football games at Franklin Field freshman year, which was a disaster for the Red and the Blue.  Then came basketball season and the Palestra, known as the Cathedral of College Basketball.  Opened on New Years Day 1927, it "has hosted more games, more visiting teams, and more NCAA tournaments than any other facility in college basketball." 

I remember my first visit to the Palestra (on the Penn campus) on January 25, 1964, which was for the annual clash with Big 5 rival, the Villanova University Wildcats.  We got clobbered, 72-48, but the atmosphere was electric.  The Palestra was packed with screaming fans from both schools.  There were actually two games that night as the arena was used as a home court for all five of the Big 5 schools, which included the Temple University Owls, the La Salle University Explorers and the St. Joseph University Hawks.

After that first experience, I regularly attended numerous double-headers at the Palestra during my four years at Penn.  I saw many great visiting players, such as Princeton's Bill Bradley, Syracuse's Dave Bing and Miami's Rick Barry.  I became a college basketball fan for life.  

However, the double-header I and many others will never forget is the one on the night of February 20, 1965.  

The opener pitted La Salle against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and their star player, Clem Haskins.  After the Explorer's victory came the main event between two of the top ten teams in the country, St. Joseph's (19-1) and Villanova (15-3).  The event had long been sold out.  I was smart enough to have bought my ticket way ahead of time, for a seat high up on the east end of the building.  

I remember the Wildcats jumping out to a quick 10-0 lead.  But, the score was soon tied at 12.  It remained a close game until halftime.  Then, while many used the opportunity to visit the rest rooms or buy food, came a surprise from the student public address announcer.  

There was a bomb scare at the Palestra.  Everyone, about 9,000 fans, including me, had to evacuate the building and go out into the very cold night air.  And we did, quietly and peacefully, nobody getting nervous or panicky.  We stayed out for about 30 minutes before allowed back in by the police.  I heard someone speculate it was a ploy for fans without tickets to get inside the Palestra to watch the second half of the very exciting game, in person.  

The Hawks went on to win, 69-61.  However, while not everybody who was there that night remembers the final score or who won, all remember what happened at halftime.