One thing I can tell you about Philly is that it's a city with heart. And nothing gets the collective hearts of this city and its inhabitants beating faster than the highs and lows of its beloved sports teams. In Philly, sports aren't just something you watch to pass the time on a Sunday afternoon or a warm summer night. Here, we eat, sleep, and breathe the teams that we love. When they win, our days are a little brighter, our smiles a little wider, and things just seem to flow better. And when they lose, the collective let-down can be felt all across the city and beyond. Our teams have kept us on the edge of our seats, biting our nails, gritting our teeth, clutching the arms of our friends and family, for as many years as there have been sports teams in this town. With our losses, and there have been many, we find comfort in our battle cry of "there's always next season" (after we've found comfort in throwing the remote through the window, or breaking down in tears). And with our victories, we are completely and totally overjoyed. And on the few occasions when we have been able to win it all, to walk away with the biggest of prizes allotted in sports, it has been other-worldly.
The love of sports in this town is a tradition handed down from parents to children, in the form of season tickets and Sunday traditions. For many of us, that love evokes in us memories of another time in our lives. Much like a beloved song can take you back to an exact moment in time simply by turning it on, the memory of a big game, a big victory, can flood our minds with memories and our hearts with emotion. Perhaps one of the greatest moments in Philadelphia sports history occurred on May 19, 1974. And although the writers of this site were but 3 years old at the time, the stories handed down, the highlight reels, the news reports, all have fostered tangible memories in the minds of even those who were too young to recall. If you don't believe that a team, a game, can create a flood of emotion so powerful that it can take your breath away, then just read this letter written to One, Unified co-founder Noelle Florek and her husband Rob. In this letter, Noelle's uncle Eddie captures perfectly how something that is seemingly meaningless to some, can captivate an entire city. And how in just a moment of recall, you can be brought right back to another time, another place, even 20+ years after the moment is gone.
The love of sports in this town is a tradition handed down from parents to children, in the form of season tickets and Sunday traditions. For many of us, that love evokes in us memories of another time in our lives. Much like a beloved song can take you back to an exact moment in time simply by turning it on, the memory of a big game, a big victory, can flood our minds with memories and our hearts with emotion. Perhaps one of the greatest moments in Philadelphia sports history occurred on May 19, 1974. And although the writers of this site were but 3 years old at the time, the stories handed down, the highlight reels, the news reports, all have fostered tangible memories in the minds of even those who were too young to recall. If you don't believe that a team, a game, can create a flood of emotion so powerful that it can take your breath away, then just read this letter written to One, Unified co-founder Noelle Florek and her husband Rob. In this letter, Noelle's uncle Eddie captures perfectly how something that is seemingly meaningless to some, can captivate an entire city. And how in just a moment of recall, you can be brought right back to another time, another place, even 20+ years after the moment is gone.
Eddie Gilroy 1952-2010
