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Synopsis

Cast

• Voice Over Narrator: Harry Kalas | bio

  Harry Kalas is one of Philadelphia’s most legendary broadcasters. He got his start working in the City of Brotherly Love in 1971 as the play-by-play announcer for the Philadelphia Phillies. Thirty-five years later, he has now broadcast over 5,000 Phillies games resulting in a love affair between this broadcasting icon and the Phillies fans that is unmatched anywhere else in the country. Soon after he arrived in Philadelphia, Kalas also joined the television broadcasting team of Al Meltzer and WPHL-17. The handful of years he spent broadcasting Big 5 basketball at The Palestra gave him a taste for the Philadelphia spirit that would enable him to become one of the city’s most beloved broadcast pioneers. Today, Kalas continues his reign as one of the great contributors to American sports as the voice of “Inside the NFL”, a nationally syndicated program from NFL Films.

• Interview: Bill Bradley | bio

  Bill Bradley played for the Princeton University Tigers from 1961 to 1965, during which time he was a three-time All-American and the 1965 Player of the Year. In 1964, Bradley captained the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team. Not only one of The Palestra’s all-time greatest opponents, Bradley was a model student-athlete. He graduated from Princeton with honors and was awarded the prestigious Rhodes Scholar in Oxford. After completing his studies, Bradley went on to a Hall of Fame career in the NBA followed by an illustrious career in politics, including a run for the presidency in 2000 and an 18-year seat in the Senate. When James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891, Bill Bradley was the very type of player he envisioned.

• Interview: Dr. Jack Ramsay | bio

  Jack Ramsay, known simply as “Dr. Jack”, is arguably the greatest coach to have graced the Palestra floor in Philadelphia Big 5 history, and, without question, one of the all-time great coaches of the NBA. Ramsay got his start head coaching at the collegiate level with Saint Joseph’s University starting in 1955, coincidentally coinciding with the first season of the Philadelphia Big 5. From 1955 to 1966, Ramsay guided the Hawks to a record of 234-72, seven Big 5 Championships and ten postseason appearances, including finishing third nationally in 1965. In the NBA, Ramsay led both the Philadelphia 76ers and the Buffalo Braves to the playoffs in three of his four years as head coach from 1968-1972 and 1972-1976 respectively, led the Portland Trail Blazers to an NBA Championship in 1977, followed by nine playoff appearances over the next ten years, and concluded his illustrious career with the Indiana Pacers from 1986-1987. When he retired, he had the second most wins in NBA history, second only to Hall of Fame Coach Red Auerbach. Jack Ramsay was unanimously inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1992.

• Interview: Chuck Daly | bio

  Chuck Daly is one of the most illustrious coaches to have graced the Palestra hardwood. He began his coaching career in Philadelphia with the University of Pennsylvania Quakers from 1971-1977. During that time, he led the Quakers to four consecutive Ivy League titles and NCAA appearances from 1972-1975, as well as two consecutive NCAA East Regional finals appearances in 1971 and 1972. Daly entered the NBA ranks in 1978 with the Philadelphia 76ers as an assistant coach and would go on to a 14-year head coaching career, which included two NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons. A member of the Naismith Hall of Fame, Daly was selected in 1997 as one of the NBA’s “Ten Greatest Coaches” of the league’s first 50 years.

• Interview: John Feinstein | bio

  John Feinstein is one of the most distinguished sports authors in the country. A 1977 graduate of Duke University, he worked at the Washington Post for eleven years as both a political and sports reporter. He has also worked at Sports Illustrated and at the National Sports Daily. Among his many accomplishments, Feinstein has authored dozens of sports books including bestselling titles A Season on the Brink, A Good Walk Spoiled, A Civil War, The Last Amateurs, and The Punch. In 1989, he released A Season Inside: One Year in College Basketball, which examined the great venues and stories of college basketball, with special recognition of the Palestra and its place in hoops history. Feinstein is currently a commentator for National Public Radio and Sporting News Radio and is an essayist for CBS Sports. In addition, he writes columns for AOL and Golf Magazine, and contributes to the Washington Post.

• Interview: Bill Raftery | bio

  Bill Raftery is a former star member of the LaSalle University basketball team. He played three seasons under legendary coach Donald “Dudley” Moore, leading the team in scoring during his sophomore year, and co-captaining the Explorers to the National Invitational Tournament his senior year. His outstanding college play earned him a pick in the NBA draft by the New York Knicks after graduation. For the past 24 years, Raftery has been a very successful member of the CBS Sports Team as an analyst for CBS Sports College basketball coverage. He also serves as an analyst for CBS Radio/Westwood One’s coverage of the NCAA Men’s Final Four, and as an analyst for college basketball on ESPN.

Crew

• Producer: Mikaelyn Austin | bio

  MIKAELYN AUSTIN is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and former co-captain of the Women’s Basketball team. Founder of Philly Philms, a budding independent film/video production company based in Philadelphia, PA, Austin has been producing acclaimed documentaries and dramatic shorts since founding her company in 2003. THE PALESTRA: CATHEDRAL OF BASKETBALL, Austin's first feature-length documentary, was licensed by ESPN for national broadcast distribution in the summer of 2007. This historic sports documentary was also chosen as a Festival Favorite in the 2007 Philadelphia Film Festival and is currently celebrating it's highly anticipated Collector's Edition DVD release. AUSTIN also recently co-produced the local Philadelphia hit THE CURSE OF WILLIAM PENN, a feature-length documentary about Philadelphia’s professional sports teams, their lack of a championship since 1983, the die-hard fans that have had to endure this unprecedented drought, and an intriguing theory behind the all the loosing. An entertaining, comical, tongue in cheek film, THE CURSE OF WILLIAM PENN premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival in early April 2007, and is currently under broadcast negotiations and distribution. AUSTIN recently signed on to associate produce LEBANON, the new film from award winning Philadelphia Writer/Director, Ben Hickernell. A bittersweet comic drama about the current division in American Culture, LEBANON is slated to begin production in late Fall of 2007 or early 2008. Spearheaded by president Mikaelyn Austin's unwavering dediction to producing entertaining and high-quality filmmaking, Philly Philms is on it's way to becoming one of the premiere independent production companies in Philadelphia. To learn more about Philly Philms production work, please visit www.Philly-Philms.com

• Associate Producer: Carey Smith | bio

  An extrovert who is a sports nut and basketball addict, Carey Smith is the president of (215) Sports & Entertainment, a television, film and video production company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that boasts a client list of Emmy Award winners including ESPN, CBS, and NFL Films. Their work has appeared on ESPN’s SportsCenter, Sunday SportsCenter and “The Life” as well as on NFL Films properties such as “NFL’s Greatest Games” and HBO’s “Inside the NFL.”

  Smith is also a Freelance Consultant/Producer/Writer for a number of high profile clients. His past work for ESPN has appeared on original shows like “The Life” and “Outside the Lines” as well as SporstCenter. He also serves as a Feature Producer for ESPN Remote, as a Field Producer for NBA Entertainment, as a Producer / Writer for College Sports Television and as Consultant and Contributing Writer for Dime, “The Basketball Lifestyle Magazine”.

  Prior to leading (215) Sports & Entertainment, Smith served as the Director of Content and Programming for HoopsTV.com, a former # 1 ranked basketball news and entertainment web site in the world. Smith’s resume also boasts a short stint as Programing Coordinator for Comcast SportsNet. After helping with the launch and early development of what would become Philadelphia’s regional sports cable channel, Smith took the role of Associate Producer on the network’s daily, one-and-half-hour, live sports talk show: “Daily News Live.” In this position he assisted with guest bookings, selection of discussion topics and research for the region’s highest rated television sports talk show.

  Prior to joining Comcast SportsNet, Smith spent three years with ESPN Classic - ESPN’s 24-hour a day, sports hall of fame network. Starting as a Programming Assistant, Smith along with Steve Greenberg (former V.P. of Major League Baseball) and Rich Kopilnick (current Director of NBA Direct) comprised the Programming Department of this start-up cable network known at the time as Classic Sports Network. Smith was quickly promoted to Program Coordinator, where his duties focused on program development, planning and scheduling for the network. In his time at ESPN Classic, Smith was a vital part of a team that watched a network with 25, 000 subs at launch grow into a phenomenon that now reaches into 22 million homes.

• Director of Photography: Michael Vechesky | bio

  As a professional sports cinematographer, Michael Vechesky's camera work has been used by every major sports network in television: ESPN, ABC, FOX, NBC, CBS and more. Thus, Vechesky has filmed almost every major sporting event: NBA Finals, MLB World Series, NHL Stanley Cup and the NFL's Super Bowl.

  In addition to shooting sports, Vechesky also has a background in commercial projects, corporate shoots, and music videos. Some of his credits include filming Aerosmith, Pink, G-Love, and Patti Labelle.

  Michael has a Bachelors of Arts degree from Villanova University (C'94), and has studied photography and HD filming at NYU. Vechesky started his professional career at NFL Films where he was mentored by DP Steven Andrich. He then moved to NBA Entertainment where he continued to work under DP Michael Winik.

  The Palestra: Cathderal of Basketball will be the fourth independent film in the last four years to tab Vechesky as Director of Photography. He was the DP on Cellar, winner of the NFL Technical Achievement Award at the 2005 Philadelphia Film Festival. He was also the DP on Heart of Gold in 2003, and 2nd unit Cinematographer on the Docu-drama, Star-Crossed in 2002.

• Picture Editor: Steve Pack | bio

  An Emmy Award winning film and video editor, Steve Pack's client list includes work with some of the most prestigious clients in the industry. His past projects have included work for Adidas, Reebok, Sunshine Network, Comcast SportsNet and the College Football Hall of Fame. He has edited year-end football highlights for the University of Florida, Connecticut, Harvard and Penn State. He also edited the 20 year anniversary DVD of Villanova University's improbable NCAA Basketball Championship, as well as countless other television and straight to DVD projects.

  A hard-working sports enthusiast, Steve's most recent projects have him teamed up with Carey Smith of (215) Sports & Entertainment producing two critically acclaimed TV shows, HoopsTV and JunksTV, which has been a ratings killer in the Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia television market.

  A Philadelphia native, Steve graduated with honors from Temple University's highly regarded School of Communication and Theatre. He soon was hired by Ross Productions to produce and edit The Inquirer High School Sportshow, a half hour program featuring the areas best and brightest high school athletes. Under Steve's guidance, the show soon broke nationally and High School Sportshow America became the recognized leader in showcasing the talents of high school athletes across the country. With years of production and editing knowledge under his belt, Steve decided to branch out on his own in 2001, and has become one of the areas most sought after freelancers.

Bonus Features

• Deleted & Extended Scenes

Accolades