Scroll down to find the Big 5 school Men’s Basketball team scores and news.  At the bottom is a short history of the Big 5 in Philly …

The Big 5 is a great rivalry in the Philadelphia area.

The Palestra

A radically expanded Palestra opened the door for a radically expanded schedule for the five preeminent Philadelphia basketball teams: LaSalle, Penn, St. Joseph’s, Temple, and Villanova. On September 12,1955 the Daily Pennsylvanian announced that those five teams would compete in “a round robin city series at the Palestra” against each other.

In May 1954, the University of Pennsylvania proposed to four other universities and colleges in the Philadelphia area–Temple University, Villanova University, LaSalle College, and St. Josephs College–that the five schools coordinate basketball game scheduling in Philadelphia. The Palestra gymnasium of the University of Pennsylvania, it was further proposed, would be utilized and designated as the home floor for all intercollegiate games. The proposal aimed to eliminate conflicting doubleheaders, save costs of promotion and have a greater use of the Palestra facilities. In November of that year, Gaylord P. Harnwell, President of the University of Pennsylvania, formally announced on behalf of the presidents of the five schools the formation of a cooperative arrangement on basketball games involving the five institutions for a five-year period beginning with the 1955-1956 season.

The cooperative program was hence referred to as the Basketball at the Palestra Program or the Big Five Basketball Program and the director of the Penn Department of Intercollegiate Athletics or his authorized representative was designated to be the Manager of the program. The athletic directors of the five schools met from time to time and rotated to be in chair at the meetings. They discussed game scheduling’s and all other matters concerning the group, such as technical details of the rules of the game, promotion, publicity by television, ticket sales, and joint initiatives with nation-wide basketball organizations.

In 1960, the five schools agreed that the program be extended for another five years. The program has been renewed many times and remains active at the present. Since 1979, the program has used a new name–the Philadelphia Big 5– and a new logo.

The City 6 is an informal association of college athletic programs in the Philadelphia area.  It is an inter-city intramural competition, but it is also used as a colloquial term to describe all the Division-I schools in the Philadelphia area.

The colleges in the City 6 are all of the Philadelphia Big 5 schools—La Salle University, Saint Joseph’s University (SJU), Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Villanova University—along with Drexel University.

The City 6 Extramural Classic features the best intramural teams from each school competing against one another.  The classic was founded in 1986 by representatives from Saint Joseph’s and Temple. Games between the intramural programs are held at such locations as SJU’s Hagan Arena, Penn’s Franklin Field, and Villanova Stadium.

The sports are flag football, volleyball, basketball, and softball.  Each sport includes competition for men, women, and co-ed.^[2]

Over 13,000 intramural participants have competed in City 6 events over the last twenty years.