R.I.P. Spectrum

Remembering The Spectrum

This past Friday night, a peice of my past died. I guess it is a piece of every Philadelphian of a certain age's past. The last sporting event was held at the Spectrum. It was a basketball game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Chicago Bulls. The Sixers have been playing in the brand new Wachovia Center across the street for the last six or seven years and so have the Flyers, while the Spectrum has been mostly used for high school graduations, high school basketball games, and small civic events. It was announced last year that the Spectrum was going to be torn down. The Sixers decided to play one last game there on Friday night and to have members of the 1983 NBA World Championship team attend the building's send off.

None of the current Sixers was even born in 1967 when the Spectrum opened. Back then, it was billed as an "ultra-modern sports facility" for Philadelphia's relatively young basketball team. The Sixers came to Philadelphia in 1963 from Syracuse and I don't have any idea where they played ball before there was a Spectrum. The Spectrum is, in fact, all I know. I can't tell you how many times my father took my brother and I to basketball games there or, after I got older, how many times I went there with my friends to see the Sixers.

The one time I ever attended a hockey game, it was at the Spectrum. I may have been one of three Blacks in attendance and the other two might have been a cop and a concession stand worker. I'm kidding of course... there were actually five of us. I also saw a few concerts there too... Hall & Oates, Phyllis Hyman, New Edition, Bobby Brown, and the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership Connection Tour in 1977. (If you want to go w-a-y back, my wife remembers going there to see the Jackson Five three years in row 1969-71.) The Spectrum was also featured in a few of the Rocky movies. Those were all good times that I'll never forget.

I was at an NBA World Championship game between who else... the Sixers and the Los Angeles Lakers (it seemed like it was always us against them) when I saw a young rookie named Earvin "Magic" Johnson for the first time. He played every position that night... guard, forward, and center (Kareem Abdul Jabbar was out with a sprained ankle). He scored 22 points and crushed the Sixers right in front of my eyes. Who knew that we were watching the beginning of greatness?

I can still remember the smell of the hot dogs, the over-salted soft pretzels, sodas, and beer splashing and spilling in between the seats. Those smells never leave you. I can remember the constant smell of Pine Sol in the restrooms... it seemed like they poured the entire bottle of Pine Sol in those restrooms back then.

The last time I was at the Spectrum was in 1989. It was a concert that featured a very young Heavy D. & the Boys, Guy, Al B. Sure, and a forgettable MC for you hip-hop historians... Father MC. The only reason I bring him up is because one of his background singers was a very young and still unknown Mary J. Blige. She was singing the hook to "Treat 'Em Like They Wanna Be Treated." I didn't know it was her at the time... I found out years later. She talked about it during an interview and said that she was the one singing the hook on that song. And, it was not just her... K-Ci and JoJo, (future members of Jodeci ) were also singing background for Father MC that night.

My Spectrum memories are many and I could go on and on... but, I think this will suffice. They are going to tear it down soon and with it will go one more monument from my past. I hear that the demolition will start this coming Friday. I don't think that I'll be the only Philadelphian shedding a tear on that day.