The Palestra in Philadelphia has long been way high on my list of must-see sporting venues. So now that my pal Marc lives in Philly, I finally made it to a game there.

It was the conference opener for Penn and Princeton on Saturday afternoon. Neither team is expected to dominate the Ivy League this season but we were treated to a really thrilling, see-saw contest between longtime archrivals with rich basketball traditions.

The Palestra opened in 1927 and looks every bit its age. It’s an urban on-campus barn built for hoops. In its hey-day, it was considered the nation’s premier place to watch basketball. It has a capacity of 8722. The court is set below ground level. The seating area rises at a steep but reasonable gradient to give one the feeling they’re on top of the action.

The seats are flat benches without backs throughout much of facility. It’s old school all the way.

It was only a little better than half full for this contest but the level of enthusiasm from those who were there was exceptional. It was the best basketball crowd I’ve been party to in a long time. The fans did not sit on their hands. They reacted sharply to bad calls and cheered loudly for effort and execution in a way you don’t see from your average current-era hoops audience.

The Palestra is Penn’s home floor and the crowd was pretty much all Penn fans with a smattering of Princeton boosters. Both sides had pep bands on hand. Alternating evenly, they chimed in during breaks in the action.

It was an excellent atmosphere aided in part by the evenness of play.

We didn’t know it as we sat there, but just a day before Penn announced it had lost starting guard Antonio Woods for the rest of the season and perhaps beyond because of academic problems. Penn coach Steve Donahue had already been tinkering with backcourt combos the last few games but the absence of Woods further opened the door to a greater role for freshman two guard Jackson Donahue (no relation to the head coach). Marc and I were actually dumbfounded at how little Steve Donahue (the coach) required his squad to feed the ball to Jackson Donahue given the young man’s clear hot hand. In warm-ups, Jackson Donahue was draining everything in sight. And when the game started, he remained deadly from beyond the arc. Wide open in the corner throughout the contest, it seemed as if Jackson Donahue was being deliberately left out of almost all the set plays. At least let him miss a few before you ignore him.

A six-point underdog going in, Penn was up 11 with 3:38 left in the game. They tried to wind down the shot clock on each possession. They got tight and blew the lead. Even so, Penn had the ball with chances to win at the end of both regulation and OT. Both times, they failed to get the ball to Jackson Donahue and failed to score. 73-71 Princeton was the final. No upset but it was close. ’Ya gotta let Jackson Donahue take a big shot in one of those spots with the game clock about to expire.

Admission was 15 bucks. We sat behind one of the goals but had a great view of the action on both ends. No complaints about the venue although it was hot and stuffy inside because of the abnormally warm temps outside. The acoustics were such that the P-A announcer was inaudible.

Marc and I both enjoyed watching the frenetic movement of Princeton’s student manager. The young woman handled multiple tasks simultaneously and even contributed coach-like support gestures as she went along.

Earlier in the day, Marc bought sandwiches from Paesano’s on South 9^th. The “Diavlo” was delish. It’s a chicken breast with salami, roasted tomatoes, broccoli rabe, herb cheddar spread – and of course – the secret Philly ingredient: sharp provolone.

I took the Megabus down early Saturday morning and returned Sunday morning via the Septa/New Jersey Transit train combo with the transfer in Trenton.

It’s basically a three-hour trip Queens to Philly. With all the great food, sports and live music going on in the City of Brotherly Love, I hope and expect to visit Marc and his family a lot as long as they’re living there.