Lost Memorabilia 

The Philadelphia Sports Heritage Collection contains many items donated by local teams, colleges, and other organizations.  Generally, these are older items like the Palestra backboards, Veterans stadium ticket windows, and Spectrum dasher boards.

The accepted practice is for local teams and athletes to send historically notable items to their respective sports’ halls of fame.  Routinely, significantly memorable items are automatically sent to Cooperstown, Canton, Springfield or Toronto.

If a Phillie hits for the cycle his bat goes to Cooperstown.  If an Eagle sets a record for rushing touchdowns his jersey goes to Canton.  76ers sneakers and Flyers sticks are just sent away.  While the overall significance to the sport may be minimal,  for Philadelphia sports fans, they are memorable if not extraordinary.

“While it looks and sounds great to say that a particular item ‘went to the Hall of Fame,’ the reality is that the vast majority of these items are cataloged, then mothballed, never to be seen again”, said volunteer archivist Jeff Kirsch. “The simple truth is that they need to go to a hall of fame and they need to stay home, here at the Philadelphia Sports Hall  of Fame.”

What's Next?

In addition to digitizing the existing artifacts, the Collection Hall of Fame archivists are continually adding new items.  Substantial donations have come from the Phillies, Comcast-Spectacor, The University of Pennsylvania, Villanova & St. Joseph’s University, among others.  

While many donations come from teams & organizations, the vast majority  are from individuals, including local residents and Hall of Fame Inductees. For example, within the past month, Frank Peszka, of Erdenheim, contacted the Hall of Fame to donate some items from his father. These included a 1929 World Series program, a signed photograph of Athletics legend Al Simmons, and an unused ticket from Penn’s 1925 football game at Yale.

Other recent examples include:

• 1700+ Sports Illustrated magazines from Kent Barney of Bethlehem

• Bill Lyon’s family donation of his collection of sportswriter awards

• Dan Fahy, Jr., of King of Prussia has donated dozens of items over the years including a number of autographed books and jerseys.

• Upon his passing, the family of long time area sports writer Frank Bertucci donated the program from the very first Flyers game at the Spectrum in 1967, and a program (along with his game notes) when the Flyers beat the Soviets in 1976, a legendary night in Philly sports history. 

Sports fans throughout the Delaware Valley own thousands of Philly sports items. They are on display in home offices, family rooms, basement bars or even just tucked away in drawers or cabinets.  

“So many people have accumulated various sports-related items over the years, either in actual collections or just as mementos.  Unfortunately, as these fans grow older, often their children are not interested and so many memorable items are simply discarded,” said Montgomery.  “We want them to know that there is a home for them with the Hall of Fame.  It is a great way to honor loved ones with a permanent tribute.”

The Hall of Fame’s online archives platform provides the capability to tag each donation with the donor’s name.  Donors will be acknowledged when items are on display and are permanently acknowledged in the archives

To donate:  http://www.phillyhall.org/donation/