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  • ‘A Nation of Artists’ is the epic story of American art. It has its charms and its slights.

    ‘A Nation of Artists’ is the epic story of American art. It has its charms and its slights.

    To find “A Nation of Artists” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, you walk from the Great Stair Hall down a long gallery lined with art that’s not part of the show. The path zigs left and tightens into what looks like a service corridor, and then zags right past the bathrooms.

    After this distinctly unceremonious approach, you’ve arrived at one of the museum’s most spectacular events of recent years.

    Not only is “A Nation of Artists” momentous — it is billed as the “most expansive presentation of American art ever mounted in Philadelphia” — but it comes with the added juice of inaugurating the museum’s newly renovated American wing on the second floor after a 14-month closure.

    The occasion brings yet another distinction: amazingly, after three more galleries open in the wing, it will be the first time in a decade that all of the galleries in the main building will have been open at the same time.

    The odd journey to the second-floor American galleries has long been in place, but it seems especially odd now. It would have been nice to reopen this major piece of real estate with more of an architectural drumroll than a drab, winding hallway, especially for an institution that, after the tumultuous year it’s had, could use a thing or two to celebrate.

    “Miners’ Wives” (right) by Ben Shahn and “The End of the War, Starting Home” by Horace Pippin at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    It might also be easy to miss the show’s greater significance to the museum and its cohost, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. “A Nation of Artists,” which opened in April with more than 1,000 works at both museums, arrives as a bolt of ambition as the groups work their way through deficits and reorganizations and remind audiences and funders that beyond crisis, there is art, and it is glorious.

    The show is the city’s major visual arts celebration of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and while it’s an impossible task to compress the story of art in America into any single show, the overall image that emerges is not a cohesive snapshot, but a fascinating mirror.

    There’s sometimes a random, almost improvisatory feeling to “A Nation of Artists” — despite the show’s attempt to place works around themes like the American West or inequity — because America is itself ever-random and improvisatory.

    Works in thematically grouped ensembles in ‘A Nation of Artists’ in the newly renovated Furness and Hewitt building at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    More than 120 works from the collection of John and Leigh Middleton and their family are augmenting “A Nation of Artists.” But after the show closes and the Middleton works are gone, PAFA will put in place a newly curated permanent collection, and the PMA will be left with a sweeping look at American art that starts on the first floor with earlier works and proceeds to the second to bring it up to the mid-20th century.

    In other words, “A Nation of Artists” absorbs the Middleton works, but also spotlights the incredible riches in residence nearly all the time. That’s no small thing at a time when arts and culture in Philadelphia is struggling for engagement in the attention economy.

    The painting “Christ Rejected” by Benjamin West and marble sculpture “Paradise Lost” by Joseph A. Bailly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    A crisp reset at PAFA

    At PAFA, the outside world seems to creep in in ways both positive and worrisome.

    How can you admire the fruitful pedagogy at PAFA on display by generations of academy students and instructors without feeling concern for the place? The relationship between the museum and school — a specific artistic legacy unique to Philadelphia — is what makes PAFA special, and it remains to be seen whether a recently revamped certificate program at the school is the ultimate answer, artistically or financially.

    The exhibition marks a crisp reset: the reopening of PAFA’s jewel of a building, the riotously detailed 1876 Furness and Hewitt-designed landmark, after a renovation project that included a new HVAC system and other renovations.

    Laylights (variously utilizing natural or artificial light) in the newly renovated Furness and Hewitt building at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    It’s good news that there are no dramatic changes; the building continues to dazzle. I visited the show there a half dozen times, and via the church-like rose window and skylights, nature played handmaiden to art. When clouds parted, sun filtered into some of the spaces, and in one gallery the natural light made the whites and colors of George Bellows’ North River pop.

    The marble sculpture “Peri at the Gates of Paradise” by Thomas Crawford in the grand staircase at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    On another morning, the sunlight made the grand stair hall of the Furness building practically vibrate. The smooth white of marble sculptures like Thomas Crawford’s Peri at the Gates of Paradise glowed and the stars-on-cobalt pattern beneath the skylight seemed to be showering down.

    Here on this day, there was no more beautiful interior in the city.

    At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In the rear is the oil painting “Death on the Pale Horse” by Benjamin West.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    A more sequestered PMA

    If PAFA maintains a lively relationship with the outside world, the PMA’s new American wing feels sequestered. There are no visible windows letting in light in the second floor American galleries — no natural light except for a small opening in a staircase.

    The layout and footpath (including that unceremonious approach) is largely the same as it had been before the renovation. But the flow within and from gallery to gallery is more open, and there is now a central spine of four continuous middle galleries that opens up a vista that helps to orient the visitor. Three remaining galleries in the renovated American wing are expected to reopen, though the date is uncertain.

    Three Thomas Eakins oils (from left): “Mending the Net,” “The Pair-Oared Shell,” and “Sailboats Racing on the Delaware.”Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    The PMA half of “A Nation of Artists” features a lot of big names (Andrew Wyeth, John Singer Sargent, Georgia O’Keeffe), as well as about three dozen works by Thomas Eakins — intimate portraits as well as epic canvases. There’s a beautiful sequence of three Eakins oils, all painted within a decade of one another, all with rivers in various hues and states of excitement: The Pair-Oared Shell, Sailboats Racing on the Delaware, and the stunning Mending the Net, a seemingly ordinary scene that gathers filmic mystery and story through minutely detailed figures mending a fishing net by the river against a gauzy beyond.

    In terms of visitor experience, the new second floor American space succeeds most in moments of drama. The wall in one gallery uses a specially reproduced rich-burgundy period wallpaper, and the relationships among the paintings, furniture, pottery, and other items in the room ricochet beautifully.

    “The Lost Pleiad” by Randolph Rogers in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s salon-style gallery.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    A sumptuous feeling immerses visitors in the high-ceilinged salon-style room (gallery 211) that includes vast landscapes and marble sculpture. Though it’s not immediately obvious, the first-floor American works are also part of the show, and they hold yet more Middleton works.

    Classics and surprises, and a lot of charm

    There’s greater poetry in the architecture at PAFA, but the work itself at both museums is undeniably impressive in scope, and especially at the PMA: painting, sculpture, furniture, silver, fabric, works in clay, and more.

    The curators — Kathleen A. Foster and Alexandra A. Kirtley at the PMA, and Leah Triplett and Lea C. Stephenson at PAFA — have delivered not just old favorites, but also surprises.

    “Black Night: Russell’s Corners” by George Copeland Ault at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    PAFA’s classics include Winslow Homer’s Fox Hunt; the Jasper Johns Flag 1960-66 from the Middletons (which the couple brought home from an auction in 2010 for $28.6 million); and George Copeland Ault’s Black Night: Russell’s Corners (1943), whose flat, cold, electric light suggesting a modern encroachment on agrarian life, can only be appreciated in person.

    Among the pieces to which I kept returning: Pink Flower with Clock by PAFA 2011 graduate Aubrey Levinthal, because of the smart way it plays with the idea of photographic positive and negative imagery even though it is an oil; and Harriet Goodhue Hosmer’s Puck on a Toadstool, from 1856, whose supernatural energy is so potent that the figure appears poised to shape-shift and break free of its marble confines.

    At the PMA, a single canvas has me reconsidering Edward L. Loper Sr., the Wilmington artist who had his beginnings working for the WPA. Loper’s Abandoned Ferry Terminal is a complex refraction of shadows and colors from 1958 whose geometries never seem to stop shifting.

    A small shadowbox of a man and woman formally costumed from around 1880 might be the most unassuming bit of charm in the entire exhibition. Its maker is unknown.

    Custom wallpaper at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with “Portrait Figures of a Man and a Woman, in a Shadowbox.”Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Leaning into representation

    If you ever wanted a lesson in the difference how a work is displayed can make, just consider how much more substantial an achievement The Gross Clinic looked a few months ago. With bright but warm lighting at the PMA, Eakins’ 1875 canvas was frightening in its vividness, the red of blood on the surgeons’ hands glistening. Today, at PAFA, it looks a little washed out, overpowered by the light coming through the nearby rose window.

    Both museums have made a conscious effort to represent a spectrum of identity — gender, regional origin, ethnicity, and so on. This is all to the good, of course. Everyone will find something relatable in this exhibition, and many will discover works that aren’t necessarily relatable on first examination but become so. This is why museums, and good curators, are important.

    Detail of “Nydia, the Blind Girl of Pompeii” by Randolph Rogers at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    It’s a fascinating marker of time to think about the cultural whiplash of the past couple of years in this country, and how vulnerable the simple concept of representation now feels. The tastes of the art establishment change, and so too does how we perceive art.

    How could it be otherwise? Every movement comes in with an air of moral and scholarly authority that purports to lay down once and for all an accurate cultural perspective.

    The prevailing ethos arrives as the new reality. Then the next reality comes along.

    “A Nation of Artists” runs through July 5, 2027, at the PMA, 2600 Ben Franklin Parkway; and Sept. 5, 2027, at PAFA, Broad and Cherry Streets. philamuseum.org, pafa.org.

  • Ex-Philly Fed chair is back at Wharton and on a quest to save the world financial system

    Ex-Philly Fed chair is back at Wharton and on a quest to save the world financial system

    U.S. borrowing is at record levels, interest rates are up, and Social Security is running low on cash. Yet new Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has offered investors little information on whether the Fed will boost interest rates and fight inflation, or cut rates to feed growth.

    As a past president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, Patrick Harker sat in and sometimes voted at Fed Open Market Committee meetings that decided interest rate targets under Warsh’s predecessors from 2015 to 2025. He says it’s important for Fed leaders to speak clearly.

    An engineering Ph.D. who grew up in blue-collar Gloucester City, Harker spent the previous 15 years, first as dean of the Wharton business school at University of Pennsylvania, then as president of the University of Delaware, before he was chosen to run the Philly Fed by the search committee he headed after others declined the job.

    Harker finished his second five-year Fed term in June 2025 and reported back to Wharton the next day as a professor. He says he has been putting what he learned there to use.

    This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    How did you align while you were with the Fed?

    People at the Fed asked: Was I a hawk, leaning toward higher rates to fight inflation? Or a dove, leaning toward lower rates to support jobs? I’m an eagle, loyal to this country. I’m for doing what the economy requires.

    I’m where the vast majority of Americans are: They’re sick of ideology. It gets us nowhere. It drives countries to ruin. That’s never been us.

    We are a pragmatic people. Let’s do reasonable stuff.

    Are you worried digital finance will spin out of control?

    My particular interest is around operational risks caused by technology. Those come in different flavors:

    • Concentration risk: Just a few key firms — Amazon, Microsoft — providing a lot of the financial infrastructure.
    • Model risk: Everyone using the same AI models. Some of my colleagues have found that if AI models set prices, they will collude [to illegally boost prices at consumers’ expense]. They will do the same with loans.
    • Fraud risk: Faster payments equals faster fraud.
    • Market risk, credit risk, and operational risk: We are looking down into the bowels of the systems moving the money and at cyber hygiene.
    Will hedge funds’ use of insurance companies to make risky private credit loans fuel the next financial crisis?

    If you pull one thread, will it start to fall apart? At the Fed, I was a bank supervisor. I worried about it. I still worry.

    It’s not big enough yet to threaten the system [as mortgage losses did in 2008]. But the ‘private’ asset risks eventually all filter back to the regulated institutions.

    I said that at a dinner of people in the private credit industry. They said, ‘We know what we are doing!’ They do; the first people in always know what they are doing.

    But there’s only so much talent. And now you have people on the fringe taking bigger and bigger risks. And again all hell will break loose, and everyone will have to deal with it. It will go beyond the skill set of the industry.

    At the Fed you wrote about radical changes in the workforce. Will AI kill jobs? Do we still need immigrants?

    You know Jevons Paradox? Technology puts people out of work, then becomes so cheap, demand for that technology explodes, and so do the jobs providing it.

    Will AI improve productivity? It better. Our birth rate is not replacing ourselves. Our immigration policy has flatlined.

    It’s the most basic rule of economics: If you want more output, you either get more workers, or better machines.

    I’m more worried that in the United States, we are really bad at helping people make transitions to new kinds of work. A kid will figure it out. But if you’re 40 or 50, what do we do with you? No one cares; you can understand their anger.

    Can Congress fix Social Security and the deficit?

    I’m less worried about Social Security because politicians know they can’t get reelected without solving the problem.

    With the deficit, they keep kicking the can down the road. It really depends on healthcare, a very large part of the U.S. budget. Economists are starting to talk about the Fed losing the ability to set rates [because it is too busy] keeping Treasury’s financing costs down. When debt gets too high, you can’t avert default.

    After the Supreme Court said the president can’t fire Fed officials, you wrote about the Fed’s ‘fragility’ on LinkedIn. How did readers respond?

    A lot of people want the Fed to be independent.

    Fed independence is not a slam dunk. And the Fed’s independence is only around monetary policy. Congress is free to change the bank regulations.

    So you have to earn that independence every day. And you have to defy the administration sometimes because it’s the right thing to do.

    I worry about the new chair [Kevin Warsh, who has promised to comment less than his predecessors]. The Fed needs to communicate more. Very clearly.

    In this country, we’ve all gone into our own herds, we don’t listen to the other side. But if there’s a vacuum in communications, someone else will fill it with their narrative instead of yours.

    You protect credibility the institution built over decades by explaining yourself.

    What can you make happen now that you’re back at Penn?

    I’m a tenured faculty member. I put together an MBA class. I’m publishing academic journal articles on fraud in payment systems. I had to dust off my quantitative brain.

    I’m director of academic engagement for Penn Washington. We work with faculty, bringing fact-based, objective content like Kent Smetters’ Penn Wharton Budget Project and Olivia Mitchell’s work on pensions and Social Security to Washington. They aren’t lobbying. They don’t tell anyone what to do. You want to do this; here’s what it costs.

    And I’m joining Itay Goldstein at the Wharton Future of Finance initiative.

    Patrick Harker outside the Wharton School, 2026.The Wharton School
    Billionaire investor Marc Rowan is at the center of your interests. He led a fight to change Penn’s leaders; he backed the Wharton Budget Project, and his Apollo led the private-equity charge into private-credit and insurance.

    What motivates him I’m not sure, but he loves this place. His father died when he was here, and the school stepped up with financial aid, he doesn’t forget that.

    What do you miss about the Fed?

    One of the great privileges of the Fed, when you go to the Open Market Committee, there’s no personal electronics. For two days you have nothing to do but seriously think about what everyone else is saying.

    Even if you disagree, it’s in a very professional way. To the public, Washington can look like a big food fight. But at places like the Fed, there are people seriously dedicated to their job.

    Are you worried for your grandchildren?

    There is hope. People worry everything’s gone nuts; we’re leaving the young people with a giant bill. And a political system that is seemingly broken.

    People peddling crazy ideas understand the brain very well: Push these panic buttons. But to quote [former President Richard] Nixon, there is a silent majority who want to have a better life. Not to fight culture wars.

  • A former dump in Camden County will soon be home to energy-generating solar panels

    A former dump in Camden County will soon be home to energy-generating solar panels

    A former landfill in Voorhees Township will become the home of a new solar field aimed at expanding access to renewable energy and lowering utility bills for New Jersey residents.

    Once complete, the 13.5-acre community-scale solar array will join the more than 200 solar projects that make up the state’s Community Solar Energy Program.

    Started in 2019, the program allows households served by the state’s four major electricity providers — Public Service Electric & Gas, Jersey Central Power & Light, Atlantic City Electric, and Rockland Electric Co. — to subscribe to a participating solar facility to receive renewable energy credits on their bill without requiring that they install solar panels themselves.

    The program also mandates that a majority of the available renewable energy be set aside for low- and moderate-income households, who are less likely to be able to install their own systems, program manager Sawyer Morgan said in an email.

    There are now more than 51,000 households subscribed to the community solar program statewide, Morgan said, receiving over $18 million in net savings since the first projects came online in 2021.

    Most of the existing community solar projects are at capacity for participating households, he said, but the program anticipates over 100 additional solar projects to be completed and operational before the end of the year.

    While New Jersey is currently home to 209 community solar projects with a total capacity of 291 megawatts, Morgan said, an additional 392 projects that are in development or under construction will add 703 megawatts of capacity to the grid.

    “These projects are all on rooftops, canopies, landfills, contaminated sites, mining sites, and certain bodies of water as floating solar,” he said, including the solar project in Voorhees.

    The 35-acre landfill on Centennial Boulevard ceased operations in 1972, and the property was acquired by the township five years later. In the decades since, the land has remained largely untouched, unable to be developed because of its prior use.

    Now, solar panels are expected to cover about half the property, according to development plans approved by the Voorhees Township Planning Board last month. The exact configuration of the panels will be finalized before construction begins, the plans show.

    The developer, Voorhees Solar LLC, was not immediately available for comment about the construction schedule, overall cost, and other project details. The company is owned by the Pegasus Cos. Inc., a wireless and broadband service provider based in Bala Cynwyd, according to the application submitted to the township.

    “We can’t build a park or redevelop it with homes,” said Stephen Steglik, Voorhees Township administrator. “The only other option was keeping it empty and in its current state.”

    At least with the solar project, he said, the township can create savings for residents while also collecting nearly $900,000 in one-time land lease fees.

    The project will have the capacity to produce around four megawatts of energy when operating at full power, according to the project plans, enough to power up to 4,000 typical households.

    Of the energy is generated by the project, 51% is going to be dedicated to low- and moderate-income households, Steglik said.

    “While costs are going higher and higher, at the very least Voorhees Township is trying to take steps to maintain utility costs and at least try to save people a little bit of money,” he said.

  • Eagles 53-man roster projection 3.0: What changed after the first preseason game?

    Eagles 53-man roster projection 3.0: What changed after the first preseason game?

    For the first time since training camp kicked off late last month, the Eagles got some work against a real opponent Saturday, when they traveled down to Baltimore for what ended up being a 24-7 preseason defeat to the Ravens.

    What was learned? Not a whole lot, really. The Eagles, as expected, rested almost all of their projected starters. They ran a pretty bland offense and didn’t peel back the curtain to what the new scheme under Sean Mannion might fully look like.

    More will be revealed this week, when the Eagles head north for two joint practices against the New England Patriots on Wednesday and Thursday before preseason game No. 2 on Saturday.

    Still, Saturday’s action combined with some recent practice observations were enough to stir some movement in our latest 53-man roster projection. (Here are links to our previous iterations from a month before training camp started, and two weeks ago.)

    Quarterbacks (3): Jalen Hurts, Andy Dalton, Cole Payton

    Traded: Tanner McKee

    Status quo here. Dalton got the start on Saturday, which seemed to reveal that the Eagles consider him QB2 over McKee for now, even despite Nick Sirianni again saying after the game that nothing has been decided. Neither quarterback looked very good, though the play-calling and scheme were pretty vanilla and they were playing behind backup linemen and throwing to backup receivers. The end goal here hasn’t changed. The Eagles likely will be looking for a trade partner for a quarterback-needy team between now and roster cut-down day, which is Aug. 30. We’ll leave McKee as the one who eventually is traded, though it could be Dalton.

    Running backs (3): Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley

    Cut: Dameon Pierce, Carson Steele, Ja’Quinden Jackson

    Same three here from our previous two projections. Pierce popped a little in the early days of camp but has been dealing with a hamstring injury. Shipley had a few solid runs on Saturday, a little bright spot in what was a lousy night for the offense.

    The Eagles offense was not impressive in Sean Mannion’s debut. That’s not surprising … or all that concerning.

    Wide receivers (5): DeVonta Smith, Dontayvion Wicks, Makai Lemon, Darius Cooper, Hollywood Brown

    Cut: Elijah Moore, Johnny Wilson, Danny Gray, Britain Covey, Quez Watkins, Erik Ezukanma, Samori Toure

    Our first position group with some movement. We’re keeping five players instead of six this time because needs for spots at two positions on defense came up (more on those later). The order of the top five players also has changed. Cooper has moved into the “lock” category with the three guys listed ahead of him, while Brown’s struggles in camp make it fair to wonder if the Eagles would consider cutting him and dealing with the cost of releasing a player who signed a $5 million guaranteed deal. That seems hard to fathom for now. Moore has played well enough to warrant giving him a roster spot, but one could argue keeping Brown and Moore is a bit redundant.

    Tight ends (4): Dallas Goedert, Johnny Mundt, Eli Stowers, Cameron Latu

    Cut: Grant Calcaterra, Stone Smartt, E.J. Jenkins

    Another unchanged position group. Goedert and Mundt will be on the field often, while Stowers, a rookie second-round pick, might need some more seasoning. Latu’s status as a blocker and special teamer should have him on the right side of the cuts.

    Offensive line (10): Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Lane Johnson, Fred Johnson, Markel Bell, Drew Kendall, Willie Lampkin, Micah Morris

    Cut: Myles Hinton, Michael Jordan, John Ojukwu, Jake Majors, Cameron Williams, Hollin Pierce

    Two new names make the cut with the final two spots in this group. The first eight players listed are locks. Lampkin has come on strong over the last week or so and was a bright spot Saturday. Lampkin and Morris, a sixth-round pick, are in the field over Jordan and Hinton for now. The No. 9 and No. 10 spots certainly are still up for grabs. It’s also possible the Eagles keep only nine on the initial 53 and try to get some guys through to the practice squad. Kendall and Lampkin can play both center and guard.

    Defensive tackles (6): Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Moro Ojomo, Byron Young, Ty Robinson, Uar Bernard

    Cut: Gabe Hall, Zion Wilson, David Blay

    We left Robinson off of our initial iterations of this exercise, but he had his best week of camp and had a sack Saturday (though he did have some mishaps, too). Bernard remains the wild card. For now, we’ll guess the Eagles decide it’s too risky to expose him to waivers and keep him on the roster after camp breaks. Robinson offers some insurance at a position where the Eagles are rostering a player who likely won’t play.

    Ty Robinson sacks Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley during the first quarter of a preseason game.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    Edge rushers (6): Jonathan Greenard, Jalyx Hunt, Nolan Smith, Arnold Ebiketie, A.J. Epenesa, Joshua Weru

    Cut: Tarron Jackson, Keyshawn James-Newby, Jose Ramirez

    This may be considered an overreaction. Weru, an International Pathway Player like Bernard, played his first-ever padded football game Saturday and had a quarterback hit. Sure, he was unblocked off the edge, but you saw the athleticism the Eagles loved when they signed the former rugby player from Kenya. Weru has a lot of developing to do, but he has clocked a 4.45-second 40-yard dash, a 41 1/2-inch vertical leap, and a broad jump of 11-2. If he flashes in more preseason action, will another team claim him if the Eagles waive him?

    Much has been made about Bernard. The Eagles drafted him in the seventh round and signed Weru as an undrafted free agent. But they might have two players worth protecting come Aug. 30. We’ll see. Ahead of Weru, those five spots should be considered locks. Barring injury, don’t expect much movement here. It’s the top five guys, and then maybe Weru.

    Linebackers (4): Zack Baun, Jihaad Campbell, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., Smael Mondon Jr.

    Cut: Chance Campbell, Deontae Lawson, Brandon George

    There’s some buzz around Chance Campbell. Vic Fangio seems to like him. The 2022 sixth-round pick came off injury and was a well-liked member of the practice squad last year. He’s also having a good camp. But unless the Eagles want to cut Mondon, their own fifth-round draft pick from last season, it seems superfluous to keep five off-ball linebackers just for the heck of it. Mondon seems to be developing and is a solid special teamer. Trotter, meanwhile, probably starts on some NFL teams. There doesn’t seem to be a need to keep five players here.

    Joshua Weru and Uar Bernard suited up for the Eagles on Saturday night. It was their first football game at any level.

    Cornerbacks (5): Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Riq Woolen, Jonathan Jones, Mac McWilliams

    Cut: Kelee Ringo, Jakorian Bennett, Ambry Thomas, Shaun Wade, Tariq Castro-Fields

    We are going one fewer here than last time for a few reasons. Needs along the defensive line forced the hand a little, and there’s also some positional versatility in the defensive backfield that makes it unnecessary to roster six corners if there are other positions worth stretching. Michael Carter II, who is in a competition to start at safety, can be the backup nickel. DeJean will play safety in base. Jones, who is out right now with a shoulder injury, and McWilliams offer inside-out abilities. Ringo is the roster casualty here. He had a nice interception on Saturday, but also got beat for a touchdown.

    Kelee Ringo intercepts a pass in the end zone to stop a Ravens drive late during a preseason game.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    Safeties (4): Drew Mukuba, Marcus Epps, Michael Carter II, J.T. Gray

    Cut: Cole Wisniewski, Andre’ Sam, Max Pulley, Kapena Gushiken

    This position is getting pretty interesting. Wisniewski, a seventh-round pick, has been sidelined by a hamstring injury, and it’s hard to give him a roster spot right now. The new UDFAs, Gushiken and Pulley, have had their moments. Sam has been around the building on the practice squad for a few years. But we’ll give the fourth spot to Gray for now. The 30-year-old is an elite special teamer.

    Special teams (3): Jake Elliott (kicker), Braden Mann (punter), Rocco Underwood (long snapper)

    These are the only three specialists on the roster. Underwood has had a few snapping issues so far in camp, but the Eagles haven’t brought anyone else in. They could cut him on Aug. 30 and then find another snapper before Week 1.

  • 🏀 A cultural phenomenon | Sports Daily Newsletter

    🏀 A cultural phenomenon | Sports Daily Newsletter

    In the summer of 1993, Tom Austin, a Wharton grad, was in the process of creating a start-up with a fellow Penn alum, Seth Berger, and a friend, Jay Coen Gilbert.

    The company was going named “AND1,” and Austin wanted to take edgy slogans — the kind you’d hear in a local pickup basketball game — and print them on T-shirts. Six months later, the T-shirts became a cultural phenomenon.

    AND1 sold $1.6 million worth of apparel in its first year. Then came AND1’s mixtapes, which were video compilations of street ball moves, but because the first mixtape was shot at Rucker Park in Harlem, the company became known with New York basketball.

    Though, at its core, AND1 was a Philadelphia brand.

    Alex Coffey gives us a deep dive into how AND1 came to be, and even after the company was sold, its roots remain very much intact.

    — Isabella DiAmore, @phillysport, sports.daily@inquirer.com.

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    ❓What will it take for the Phillies to make the playoffs and go on a run? Email us back for a chance to be featured in the newsletter.

    Complete the sweep

    Alec Bohm, celebrates after hitting a three-run home run during the sixth inning against the Twins on Sunday.Bailey Hillesheim

    Things were looking bleak, then a funny thing happened on Sunday. The Phillies rallied from an early five-run deficit to pull ahead in the eighth inning of a 7-5 victory to complete a three-game, two-state sweep of the Twins.

    It marked the second-largest comeback of the season for the Phillies. They have now inched ahead of the Diamondbacks and back into sole possession of a wild card spot.

    And the infield did some shuffling on Sunday with Trea Turner out for the game. But Don Mattingly confirmed that their star shortstop avoided an injury after fouling a pitch off his leg. He could’ve started Sunday, but the interim manager didn’t want to push it.

    What we’re…

    👊 Reminiscing: The highlight moments from UFC 330 taking over Xfinity Mobile Arena — did you see who lost their teeth?

    👏 Celebrating: Before the Women’s Lacrosse League championship, Tina Sloan Green was honored for her legacy in the sport.

    🏌️ Reading: On a rainy Sunday, Jack Whaley, a 22-year-old rising senior at Florida State, won the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship.

    🏀 Learning: Dawn Staley doesn’t want to coach in the WNBA, she wants ownership. Philly has yet to extend the offer.

    Sean Mannion’s debut

    The Eagles played backups across the board on offense, and Sean Mannion’s scheme intentionally featured vanilla looks.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    The Eagles’ 24-7 loss to the Ravens on Saturday night didn’t reveal much, especially their new offensive scheme.

    It was difficult to identify Sean Mannion’s version of the Kyle Shanahan-Sean McVay system, let alone any functioning NFL offense, but Jeff McLane writes, that’s not surprising … or all that concerning as of now.

    In other news, Joshua Weru and Uar Bernard suited up for their first football game at any level. Neither player lit up the stat sheet, but they certainly showed glimpses of potential.

    And while there wasn’t a whole lot to take away from the Eagles’ first preseason game, it was enough to stir some movement in our latest 53-man roster projection.

    Past meets future

    Joe Girardi manages the West team in the All-American Classic on Sunday.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    The Perfect Game All-American Classic brought together 60 of the top high school baseball players in the country and former major leaguers at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday.

    Former Phillies manager Joe Girardi and former Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino coached Team West and East, respectively. With several other coaches involved in the event, Victorino said it’s a testament to the “Phillie way.”

    Offseason grades

    Were the Jamie Drysdale and Trevor Zegras contract extensions enough to give the Flyers passing offseason grades?Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    It looked as if the Flyers were making the biggest splash of the NHL offseason by offer-sheeting Leo Carlsson, but ultimately, Carlsson is still an Anaheim Duck — and the Flyers still don’t have a young center on the roster.

    With training camp a month away, how do we assess the Flyers’ actual offseason moves? Here’s what those in the national media are saying about the 2026-27 version of the team.

    Marcus Hayes’ take

    Chris DiJulia’s funeral drew around 600 attendees.Ed Hille / For the Inquirer

    More than 600 people crowded into St. Denis Catholic Church in Haverford last Wednesday for an 80-minute celebration of 56 years of life well-lived.

    Chris DiJulia was a fixture at St. Joe’s basketball games. He had cerebral palsy and spent his life in a wheelchair. On July 27, he died of natural causes related to his condition. DiJulia was inspirational to all who knew him, and last Wednesday, he was the king of Philadelphia basketball, writes Marcus Hayes.

    We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Marcus Hayes, Alex Coffey, Scott Lauber, Jeff Neiburg, Jeff McLane, Olivia Reiner, Ryan Novozinsky, Ariel Simpson, Gabriela Carroll, Mia Messina, Lauren Jones, and Conor Smith.

    By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.

    Happy Monday! Thanks for getting your morning started with me. We’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow. — Bella

  • Inside the hitters’ meeting that sparked the Phillies’ on-base percentage turnaround this month

    Inside the hitters’ meeting that sparked the Phillies’ on-base percentage turnaround this month

    MINNEAPOLIS — Pick a date, almost any date during the season, and the Phillies have ranked near the bottom of the majors in on-base percentage.

    It’s a fundamental problem.

    “Because everything we’re trying to do up there,” Kyle Schwarber said, at risk of stating the obvious, “is based around that result of trying to find a way on base.”

    The numbers never really added up, though. Going into the last week of July, for instance, the Phillies reached base at a .303 clip, tied for last. But they also had the fourth-best hard-hit rate and were near the middle of the pack in barrel rate, which measures how often a hitter makes contact with the optimal combination of exit velocity and launch angle.

    The Phillies know what’s needed to make the playoffs. Here’s how the race for the last two spots is shaping up.

    Maybe it was bad luck. The Phillies were batting .281 on balls in play. (Major league average is .289.) Or maybe it was self-inflicted. As a team, they swung at the second-highest rate of non-strikes (34%).

    Whatever the case, they needed to figure it out.

    So, they had a meeting.

    Hitting coach Kevin Long, his two assistants, and hitting analysts meet with the players before every series to go over strategy and review scouting reports on opposing pitchers. But this was different, multiple players said over the weekend.

    In getting together the last week of July — before the deadline trade for contact-hitting savant Luis Arraez — Long and his staff highlighted things the Phillies were doing well before inviting the players to brainstorm why it wasn’t translating into better on-base results.

    Bryce Harper (right) has drawn a walk in seven consecutive games through Sunday and has 21 walks in 15 games in August.Bailey Hillesheim

    “I think there was a stigma there of us being last in on-base, and that can wear on a group, right?” Schwarber said. “But the room starts talking, guys start giving their opinions, and then it’s like, all right, how do we work through what we want to work through to get to where we need to be?

    “As a group, it was a pretty good conversation, and I feel like we’ve been building on that and doing some really good things.”

    In fact, halfway through the month, the Phillies are leading the majors with a .362 on-base percentage in August.

    To make sense of the relative traffic jam on the bases, the easiest place to start is here: a 29% rate of swings at non-strikes so far this month, far below their 33.2% season average — and even the 30.4% league average.

    Low on prospect capital, loaded with needs, the Phillies’ best asset at the deadline turned out to be … Bryce Harper

    But there’s more. The Phillies are walking nearly twice as often, from a 7.8% rate through July 31 to 13.1% this month. Bryce Harper says his dad tells him he’s at his best when he’s walking. With Arraez batting behind him, Harper has drawn 21 walks in 15 games in August. Bryson Stott (15) and Schwarber (13) are also walking at a higher clip.

    As a team, the Phillies appear to be staying true to Long’s long-held philosophy of being “selective-aggressive.”

    It’s more than that, though, according to Schwarber. Because if the last few years have taught the Phillies’ hitters anything, it’s that chasing pitches out of the strike zone is “the nature of the beast of the game,” Schwarber said. It’s in their DNA. Most of them won’t suddenly stop doing it, even though they don’t mean to.

    And besides, every hitter is unique, with different strengths and vulnerabilities. There wasn’t a paint-by-numbers approach to figuring out how the collective group could reach base more frequently.

    Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto (left), celebrating after a homer by Brandon Marsh.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    But several players cited something J.T. Realmuto brought up in the meeting that seemed to resonate.

    Stay aggressive to your plan.

    “There’s going to be times when, yeah, we’ll have a team approach on some guy or whatever it is, but also, everyone’s got their own individual plan, right?” Schwarber said. “So, if you have your plan, that means that you’re going to be aggressive to the things that you want to do.”

    In talking it over, the hitters concluded that many of them were often deviating from their plan and letting the pitcher dictate an at-bat.

    “I think it just kind of brought out that, look, we’ve kind of got to clean it up a little bit,” Alec Bohm said. “We’re swinging ourselves out of innings, out of at-bats, and the numbers say there’s not a lot of strikes coming over the plate to a lot of us.

    “So, let’s at least be looking for something [specific]. And if we’re going to go down, let’s go down with a plan and not just be up there free-swinging. I think that kind of landed with everybody, and I think we’re definitely responding in a good way.”

    Trea Turner isn’t moving off shortstop (yet). The Phillies’ goal for now: Help him get better.

    The Phillies have 37 games left and a one-game lead for a National League wild card. Applying more pressure to opposing pitchers would help ease the burden on theirs. One-quarter of the Phillies’ games have been decided by one run.

    Two weeks of getting on base at a higher clip doesn’t erase four months at or near the bottom of the leader board. But Arraez brings a contact-oriented approach and lengthens a lineup that has lacked a cleanup hitter to provide protection to Harper.

    Maybe it’s all sustainable. Maybe not. Maybe they’ll look back at a hitters meeting in late July as a turning point.

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    “The biggest thing we were able to accomplish in that meeting was highlighting a lot of things that we do well,” Schwarber said. “Those are things that can get your brain going in a different way, and then it’s like, ‘OK, we’re last in on-base. How do we kind of maneuver this?’

    “I felt like it was just a really good conversation that we had. There was input from everyone in the room, so I felt like that was a really good way to go about it.”

  • The Phillies’ playoff chances are complicated by one of MLB’s toughest remaining schedules

    The Phillies’ playoff chances are complicated by one of MLB’s toughest remaining schedules

    The biggest reason to wonder about the Phillies’ playoff chances isn’t their pitching or the heart of their lineup.

    It’s their schedule.

    Only five teams in the majors will play a tougher slate than the one the Phillies face from here on out. Of their 37 remaining games, only 12 will come against teams that entered Sunday with a losing record. The Phillies have won about 60.5% of their games against losing teams. Even if they take two of three in each of those four series, they would need to go 15-10 against winning teams in order to reach 90 wins. They are 23-30 against such teams.

    Maybe it’s a stretch to say that Alec Bohm saved the Phillies’ season when he hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning to lift them to a 7-5 win over the Twins on Sunday. But they are at a point of their season when they desperately need to stack up wins. At the very least, Bohm’s blast put them back on the safer side of a daunting bit of math.

    Alec Bohm hit a three-run homer against the Twins on Sunday.Bailey Hillesheim

    No team in baseball history has ever won a World Series after losing more than 42 of its final 81 games. The Phillies are now 22-22 since the midpoint of their schedule. If they maintain their current winning pace against both winning and losing teams, they would finish the season with 20 losses in their last 37 games, which would give them 42 losses in their last 81 games.

    The Phillies face two issues here. The first is making the playoffs. They had a 65% chance to do so heading into Sunday’s game against the Twins. They are three games up on the Marlins and 3½ games up on the Cardinals. Both of those teams have tougher schedules than the Phillies. Except, both of those teams are in town this week for three-game series at Citizens Bank Park. The Cardinals took two of three from the Phillies last week. The Marlins swept them three weeks ago.

    Long story short, there’s a decent chance that this week ends up deciding the Phillies’ fate. Win both series, and suddenly their cushion is four games on Miami and 4.5 on St. Louis with 31 to play. The flip side is perilous. Lose four of six, and suddenly the Phillies have lost ground on the competition with 13 of their remaining 31 games coming against the Rays, Braves and Brewers, who have the three best records in the majors. Not to mention a three-game series in Arizona against the Diamondbacks, who are 21-12 in their last 33 and who entered Sunday tied with the Phillies and Padres for the last two NL wild-card spots.

    The second issue is a more abstract one. Only five teams in big league history have advanced to the World Series after losing more than half of their final 81 games. The Diamondbacks did it in 2023, when they lost 45 of 81 to finish the regular season but ended up beating the Phillies in the NLCS. That year, Arizona lost in the World Series to the Rangers, who were 41-40 in their last 81. It helps to be playing well this time of year. You are who you are most recently.

    Phillies’ Trea Turner avoids injury after fouling a pitch off his leg, but gets Sunday off vs. Twins

    The Phillies are who they’ve been all season, save that torrid stretch that had everybody ready to give Don Mattingly a seven-year contract extension. Since June 27, they have one winning streak longer than two games. They haven’t won more than four in a row since May 18, and they haven’t won more than five in a row all season. Of the nine NL teams that entered Sunday with a winning record, only the Phillies do not have multiple winning streaks of five-plus games.

    The time is now. Jonathan Bowlan needs to be a big part of it, too. He picked up a hold on Sunday, pitching a scoreless eighth inning two days after recording his first save of the season. The right-hander has allowed three runs in 16⅓ innings with 18 strikeouts and four walks since moving into a consistent high-leverage role.

    The Phillies need to look at the next month and a half as an opportunity. In their last 41 games, they’ve won exactly three games against teams that had a winning record at the time. They haven’t won a series against such a team since taking three of four from the Nationals in late June. They’ve lost nine of their last 12 against teams that had a winning record as of Sunday.

    They are going to play a lot of teams that happen to be the kinds of teams they need to beat. It starts on Monday.

  • AND1’s trash-talking factory was based in the Philly suburbs. It began with a stolen roll of Wawa toilet paper and a dream

    AND1’s trash-talking factory was based in the Philly suburbs. It began with a stolen roll of Wawa toilet paper and a dream

    When Tom Austin lived in Philadelphia, he liked to go on long walks. Sometimes for three or four hours. The Wharton grad would roam to Center City, to Boathouse Row. It helped him clear his head, and sometimes generate new ideas.

    One morning in the summer of 1993, while strolling down Spruce Street, he had a good one. Or rather, five good ones. He, a fellow Penn alum, Seth Berger, and a friend, Jay Coen Gilbert, were in the process of creating a start-up.

    Their first concept, a coupon book for basketball gear and equipment, had failed. The $50,000 they’d raised was rapidly dwindling. So, the group decided to pivot.

    Instead of selling coupons, they’d sell T-shirts. The company would be named “AND1,” a nod to streetball slang. Now, they needed something to put on said T-shirts, an edgy slogan that would resonate with hoopers of all ages.

    As Austin continued to walk, and think, and walk, and think, it came to him. They’d use trash-talk; the kind you’d hear in a local pickup game. He started coming up with boastful taglines, carefully crafting each quip in his head.

    Call 911 — I’m on fire.

    Call the police — there’s a beating in progress.

    It’s just you and me. OK, it’s just me.

    Go to church — pray you don’t guard me.

    It is hot in here, or is it just me?

    More insults started to spill out, and in a moment of panic, Austin realized he needed to write them down. He was living frugally, and didn’t have a notepad at home. He didn’t have a car to drive to an office supply store, either.

    So the 21-year-old walked into Wawa and stole a roll of toilet paper.

    “I’m not proud of that, but that’s how it happened,” Austin said. “I didn’t have anything to write on.”

    He added: “I hope the statute of limitations on that is over.”

    Without access to writing paper, Tom Austin improvised.provided by Tom Austin

    Six months later, Austin’s phrases were printed on T-shirts sold at Foot Locker, coupled with a logo of a faceless basketball player. What started as a small order turned into a financial boon.

    AND1 sold $1.6 million worth of T-shirts in its first year. More retailers came calling, and before long, the company was expanding to shorts, sneakers, and more.

    It became a cultural phenomenon. NBA players would get AND1’s faceless man tattooed onto their arm. Latrell Sprewell, Vince Carter, and Kevin Garnett wore their shoes.

    AND1’s mixtapes — video compilations of street ball moves — and the subsequent AND1 mixtape tour, made celebrities out of everyday people. Most were known only by their nicknames: “The Professor,” “Hot Sauce,” “The Bone Collector.” One of them, “Skip To My Lou,” had a long NBA career.

    Because the first mixtape was shot at Rucker Park in Harlem, the company became synonymous with New York basketball. But at its core, AND1 was a Philadelphia brand.

    And while it is not the powerhouse it once was, that brand’s legacy still has plenty of cachet.

    “There was something about the Philly identity,” Austin said. “It was always the underdog. We were always that underdog story, taking on Nike and Adidas. They’re the Rocky villains, man.”

    The AND1 slogans were kind of mean.provided by Tom Austin

    Philadelphia roots

    Austin transferred from Holy Cross to Penn in 1990, a lanky sophomore from rural Massachusetts. He was far from home and had trouble meeting people at first.

    The teenager decided to branch out in the only way he knew how: by finding a pickup basketball game.

    He discovered a nearby spot on campus, Gimbel Gym, which was open to the public. Inside were courts full of players who likely wouldn’t have otherwise met. There were law school students, business school students, janitors, locals from the neighborhood.

    Gimbel’s mainstay was a man known only as “Moose,” who loomed at 250 pounds. Austin didn’t have that kind of size — an “eighth grade-level body with a 20-inch vertical,” he said — but he was skilled.

    Before long, the New England native was hooping in Gimbel seven nights a week. And he quickly established himself as a “Moose”-caliber gym rat.

    Austin could shoot. And this was not just the consensus among pickup players. Penn’s men’s basketball team would go to Gimbel every so often to practice.

    They noticed “Tommy Gun.”

    Jerome Allen (53) started at Penn in the 90’s but has vivid memories of the future AND1 entrepreneurs balling on campus.

    “He could play,” said former Penn standout player and head coach Jerome Allen, now an assistant with the Detroit Pistons. “Just flat-out, in that setting. Whether it was him snatching the rebound and pushing it in transition, or him catching it on the wing and driving a closeout, or him in an iso.

    “If you took him for granted, you would get embarrassed. Easily.”

    This was how Austin met his friend and future business partner Seth Berger. After the Massachusetts native graduated in 1993, he began to interview with investment banks, but found it wasn’t a fit. Berger had heard through mutual friends at Gimbel that Austin had a 3.95 GPA.

    Berger shared a business plan he’d been formulating. The idea was for a coupon booklet that could be used to get discounts on basketball gear. Austin came on board along with Coen Gilbert, a Stanford graduate.

    He moved into a house at 40th and Sansom with six other guys, most of them Penn basketball players, renting a room for $100 a month.

    AND1’s adoption of grassroots and playground basketball iconography was an essential part of the brand’s appeal. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ/Daily News

    The coupon idea didn’t attract the brands or customers necessary to succeed. But the trash-talking T-shirts became a lifeline; a product that was relatively inexpensive to make, quick to turn around, and easy to sell.

    And their Philadelphia community came together to make it happen. The entrepreneurs turned to Joe and Dom, two men who worked out of an old Italian neighborhood, to lay out their T-shirts.

    Joe and Dom introduced them to Stephen Sistilli, a local comic book designer who created the faceless man. The bulk of the trash talk ideas came from Austin. But to market-test his work, he’d give Moore and his teammates sheets of paper with 20-30 phrases.

    They were told to circle their favorite ones.

    “I remember this one that was like… ‘Your game’s on the back of a milk carton, it’s missing,’“ Moore said. ”I remember that one.”

    Added former Penn forward Scott Kegler: “There was something about your game and your girlfriend. ‘Your game’s uglier than your girlfriend,’ or something like that. Really in-your-face and offensive, but also very funny.”

    Weeks later, those phrases would be seen on T-shirts, which were stored at a warehouse in Camden. They were printed in Delaware County at a company called AMPRO, which extended a line of credit to the founders in their early days.

    “The only reason we could make those shirts is because AMPRO said, ‘Hey, if you bring us a high-quality order, we’ll make the shirts for you,’” Austin said. “When we made shorts, I was driving out to Lancaster, into Mennonite country, driving by these one-horse buggies, to go pick up our short orders.

    “We were getting our embroidered stuff done in this Italian shop in an Italian neighborhood. And all the women called me ‘hon’ and had these long fingernails. All these parts of the city came alive to help us. You know?”

    One of the shoes manufactured by AND1. Their logo includes a “faceless, raceless” player.Joan Fairman-Kanes / Inquirer Archives

    Bringing streetball to the suburbs

    In its earliest days, AND1 was operating out of Berger’s apartment in Philadelphia. But as the company grew, it moved to the Main Line.

    Their first location was in Ardmore, back when the company only had six employees. Then, in the mid 1990s, AND1 relocated to Rosemont to fit about 20 more people, many of them local college graduates.

    Justin Cupps was one of those graduates. He was another product of Wharton who had connected with AND1 through one its athletes, NBA guard Darrell Armstrong.

    Cupps didn’t know anything about retail, but he did know business and basketball, and those were important qualifications.

    He says today it was the best job he ever had. AND1’s employees worked hard and played hard in the most literal sense. They’d hold afternoon pickup games at Haverford College three or four times a week. Trash talk wasn’t just permitted, but encouraged.

    On Monday mornings, employees would filter into Berger’s office and sit on his couches, armed with their most insulting one-liners.

    “There weren’t a lot of PowerPoints,” Cupps said. “There were no big board tables. It was sit around and talk hoops and try to come up with what we think were going to be the most entertaining or creative sayings to put on T-shirts.”

    Those that didn’t make the cut were discarded into a cabinet, a graveyard for barbs deemed too soft. As the staff swelled to 150-200 employees, the company moved to Paoli, but never lost its street ball culture.

    Graffiti lined the building’s walls. It housed a pro-sized basketball court inside, complete with a full-service locker room. Cubicles were separated by wire mesh, to simulate a playground court’s chain-link fence. Employees wore shorts and sneakers, with the exception of AND1’s corporate lawyer, who went shoeless.

    NBA star Larry Johnson (center) was an early adopter of AND1’s wares while Seth Berger (second from left), Marc Brownstein (holding basketball) and the company’s creative team tried to grow the company.provided by Marc Brownstein

    After going nearly broke, the company was now competing with multi-billion dollar brands by selling high quality goods for a lower price, all targeted toward a specific demographic (basketball players aged 14-25).

    By 1999, AND1 was drawing over $70,000,000 in annual revenue. But the mixtapes elevated them into an entirely different category; from selling clothes to steering the cultural zeitgeist.

    AND1’s mixtapes would be sold in over 100 countries. Its stars would tour all over the United States; ESPN turned the phenomenon into a reality TV show, Streetball: The AND1 Mixtape Tour, which debuted in 2002.

    Still, the company had even greater aspirations; to own an NBA team, to create entertainment properties, to overthrow their multi-sport competitors. But that dream was never realized.

    In January of 2002, Austin left AND1. He estimates that he’d worked 360 days a year for six years, five months of which was spent living in Asia, where he learned the manufacturing and export pieces of the shoe trade. He was getting sick, couldn’t sleep, and was completely burned out.

    Once Austin departed, AND1’s footwear department had to be restructured. Larger competitors like Nike threw their ample resources behind street ball designs, and the newer company struggled to compete.

    Many of the retailers AND1 worked with — Foot Locker, Foot Action, Champs — consolidated, giving the company fewer sources of income.

    Annual revenues began to drop, from $175,000,000 in 2002 to $130,000,000 in 2003. They increased again, to $160,000,000 in 2004, and AND1 was sold to a California-based footwear company, American Sporting Goods, in 2005.

    Like Austin, Berger and Coen Gilbert were ready for a new chapter. Berger had young children at home, and wanted to spend more time with them; Coen Gilbert was looking to get into social entrepreneurship. Both left after the company was sold.

    Seth Berger moved on from AND1 to turn the Westtown School boys basketball team into a local powerhouse. David M Warren / Staff Photographer

    AND1 became more corporate under its new leadership, and saw its customer base erode. The former start-up was acquired by another entity in 2011, Brown Shoe Company, which sold it a few months later to Galaxy International.

    But AND1’s roots remain very much intact. “The Professor” and “The Bone Collector” from the Mixtape Tour continue to share basketball highlights on social media. Many of the Main Line employees are still in touch through a private Facebook group.

    You can still find the T-shirts, the sneakers, the mixtapes. And Austin, who now works for a talent assessment company, still has that stolen sheet of toilet paper, scribbled with hypermasculine insults.

    Coen Gilbert had it framed for him a few years back; a reminder that before AND1 became AND1, it was just an ambitious idea, spearheaded by three Philadelphia-based entrepreneurs, hustling their way to the top.

  • Will Donald Trump and national Republicans help Stacy Garrity’s campaign from falling flat against Josh Shapiro?

    Will Donald Trump and national Republicans help Stacy Garrity’s campaign from falling flat against Josh Shapiro?

    Seated behind his desk in the Oval Office earlier this month, President Donald Trump spoke directly to the camera in front of him. He turned to his right and looked up at the Pennsylvania Republican who, as he had indicated just a few weeks earlier, might very well lose her race for governor this fall.

    “I think you can win,” he said this time, extending his hand to Stacy Garrity. It was a change in tune for Trump, who last month at an event in Pennsylvania said Garrity’s opponent, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, was “expected to” and might win.

    The president’s confidence in Garrity — and whether his support will extend beyond a handshake and a 17-second video with her at the White House — has become a critical question in the final stretch of the Pennsylvania governor’s race.

    Down in the polls and lagging behind Shapiro’s unprecedented fundraising, Garrity has cultivated the president’s support and the potential boost, both financially and in Republican enthusiasm, that could come with it.

    It is a risky strategy for a swing-state candidate whose party holds the White House, and particularly as polls show Trump becoming increasingly unpopular. Shapiro and his allies have enthusiastically promoted instances when Garrity, the twice-elected state treasurer, has leaned into Trump’s agenda and brand of politics.

    But with less than three months before Election Day, it is not clear to what extent Trump or other key national Republicans will pitch in on her campaign.

    After a high-profile snub in Pa., President Donald Trump meets with Stacy Garrity at the White House
    State Treasurer and Republican candidate for governor Stacy Garrity holds a rally in Bucks County at the Newtown Sports & Events Center in this 2025 photo. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Trump has not yet stumped in any significant way for Garrity in Pennsylvania, a swing state where he was a near-constant presence during his winning 2024 campaign. And he has not lent his vast political resources — including a Trump-aligned super PAC flush with $400 million — to Garrity or other Republican candidates as his party faces tough campaigns across the country in the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

    Several gubernatorial races around the country are considered competitive, a reality that also pits Garrity against GOP nominees who polling suggests have better shots of success. The same circumstances have doomed the most recent other Trump-endorsed Pennsylvania Republican nominees for governor — former State Sen. Scott Wagner in 2018 and State Sen. Doug Mastriano in 2022 — who never ended up with national support and lost by double digits.

    Campaigns typically heat up after Labor Day, and there is still time for Garrity’s national allies to converge to boost her. But observers say the political reality is also evident.

    “The president kind of looks toward two things,” said Samuel Chen, an Allentown-based Republican strategist who is not affiliated with Garrity and who previously worked for Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania’s most recent GOP governor.

    “One is loyalty to him. Garrity has been loyal, but has not necessarily been as vocal as some others have. The other side of it is he likes winners. He wants to endorse people who win,” Chen said. “Everyone in Trump’s orbit knows that Garrity has a very uphill climb.”

    Not supporting ‘lost causes’?

    The level of involvement from groups like the Republican Governors Association has been a key indicator of whether the party believes its nominee has a chance at winning recent gubernatorial elections in Pennsylvania.

    The RGA is made up of GOP governors who collectively support one another’s agendas and campaigns. Democratic governors have a similar alliance.

    In 2010 — the last time a Republican won the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg — the group was the largest donor to then-Attorney General Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign, giving him $6 million starting in August of that year. Four years later and helmed by then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the RGA was once again Corbett’s biggest donor. It donated more than $5.8 million as Corbett became the first sitting Pennsylvania governor in decades to lose a reelection bid. Christie, preparing to run for president in 2016, stumped with Corbett multiple times.

    The picture was starkly different in 2018 and 2022, when Republican voters nominated two candidates closely associated with Trump. Neither Wagner’s campaign against Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf nor Mastriano’s campaign against Shapiro ever became highly competitive — and the RGA and other national groups decided to sit out.

    “We’re watching Pennsylvania very closely,” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, then the chair of the RGA, said in September 2022. He added that the group would not support “lost causes” or “landslides.”

    The RGA would spend nothing in the state that year, even with Mastriano and former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis pleading for assistance. Shapiro went on to trounce Mastriano by nearly 15 percentage points.

    This year, RGA chair and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has not publicly weighed in on Garrity’s chances since issuing a brief, generic statement congratulating her after her unchallenged primary in May.

    And the competitive landscape Republicans are facing across the country may mean Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee once again gets the short end of the stick. The RGA did not respond to requests for comment.

    Even with Pennsylvania’s status as a preeminent swing state that went for Trump two years ago, there are nearly a dozen more competitive gubernatorial races across the country this fall, according to the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan group that provides election analysis.

    Stacy Garrity is a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump. Will that help or hurt her campaign in Pennsylvania?

    Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin — some of which voted overwhelmingly for Trump just two years ago — are all considered toss-ups. Four other states with Democratic governors — Oregon, Arizona, Michigan, and Kansas — are also considered more competitive than Pennsylvania, which is ranked as “solid Democratic,” according to Cook, despite Republicans like Garrity and Trump having won statewide two years ago.

    The RGA, according to its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, had less than $1.7 million in its RGA Right Direction super PAC after spending about $16 million so far in the current election cycle.

    Its recent spending has focused on Iowa, where Democrats are attempting to capture the governor’s office for the first time in two decades, and Kansas, where the RGA launched an ad this month.

    “There’s always competition for limited resources,” Charlie Gerow, a longtime Harrisburg-based Republican strategist who also ran for governor in 2022, said of the intraparty competition for donors. “There’s only so much campaign funding to go around as everybody’s trying to get a piece of it.”

    Trump hosted a fundraiser for Garrity in March at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. He has also visited Pennsylvania twice this summer, though not for events specifically with Garrity — and in one in case he did not mention her among a list of candidates he was supporting.

    In July, Shapiro’s campaign announced he had raised $50 million since January 2025. The next financial filing deadline for statewide candidates is in September, but as of the last reporting cycle, he had outraised Garrity 10-1.

    Trump was welcomed to Pa. by Stacy Garrity. He didn’t mention her at all.
    President Donald Trump brings U.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (right) to the stage as he holds an event in Mackenzie’s Lehigh Valley district at Mack Trucks in Macungie Tuesday, June 23, 2026.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    But Matthew Beynon, a spokesperson for Garrity’s campaign, said she “does not expect, nor does she need, to go dollar-for-dollar with Josh Shapiro.” Instead, he said, she “just needs the resources to prosecute her case against Josh Shapiro … and she is on pace to be able to do so.”

    Garrity looks forward to “continued support” from the RGA, he said.

    Other national attention on Pennsylvania

    After Mastriano’s disastrous performance in 2022, Republicans coalesced around Garrity — whose 3.5 million votes in 2024 were the most ever for a statewide candidate in Pennsylvania — as their best shot at defeating Shapiro.

    But in the year since she received the party’s endorsement, Garrity has barely moved the needle. A Quinnipiac University poll in July found Shapiro leading Garrity 53% to 40% among registered Pennsylvania voters. Trump saw even lower scores: Just 39% of those polled approved of the president’s job performance.

    A poll from a Republican-leaning firm promoted by Garrity showed her down, 50% to 43%.

    Across Pennsylvania, she has also competed for attention and resources as her party prioritizes other major election battles this fall.

    Four Republican-held congressional districts — based in Bucks County, the Lehigh Valley, Scranton, and Harrisburg — are seeing a rush of national attention and money as their outcomes could decide control of the narrowly divided U.S. House.

    Shapiro has also invested heavily in trying to flip the state Senate to Democratic control for the first time in three decades, putting Republicans further on their heels. The $3.3 million that Shapiro committed to the effort is more than Garrity has raised in her entire campaign.

    Josh Shapiro has fundraised $50 million since the beginning of last year, his campaign says
    Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro addresses the audience during a rally for Democratic congressional candidate Bob Brooks at the United Steelworkers Union Hall in Bethlehem, Pa. on Sunday, July 26, 2026.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer

    On the other side of the aisle, Pennsylvania’s top elected Republican — U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick — has endorsed Garrity but has not appeared to join in her public campaign efforts so far. A Trump ally and former hedge fund leader, McCormick has raised millions since his election in 2024, and political action committees associated with him have donated to other PACs working to elect Pennsylvania Republicans in Congress.

    McCormick has hosted events and campaigned for Garrity, and he “will keep doing everything he can to help her win,” said Mike DeVanney, a spokesperson for the senator.

    “He believes she demonstrates the kind of leadership we need and the kind that President Trump and many others have recognized as one that can move our commonwealth forward,” DeVanney said.

    Gerow said McCormick undoubtedly could help Garrity down the stretch.

    “He’s a prolific fundraiser. He has the connections, and he has the personality to raise large amounts of money. And he can be very, very helpful with the Garrity campaign if he weighs in with full weight,” Gerow said.

    Garrity’s campaign said McCormick has been an “incredible supporter,” including with his early endorsement and connections to supporters.

    Shapiro has also cultivated across-the-aisle relationships with some Pennsylvania Republicans who would be expected to promote Garrity.

    In an April interview with Punchbowl News, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Bucks County Republican running for reelection in the nationally watched 1st Congressional District, said he thought Shapiro would win his reelection contest and should run for president, adding: “I think Josh is very, very smart.”

    And during his 2022 run, Shapiro collected endorsements from other prominent Republicans, including Jim Schultz, a former Trump White House lawyer, and former Republican U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent.

    The final stretch

    Though the November election is less than three months away, that is still plenty of time in politics. Most ad spending does not start until September, and ground game efforts — door knocking, phone banking, and get-out-the-vote campaigns — get underway in the fall.

    Winning Pennsylvania is a priority for Trump in the midterms, and Garrity’s campaign said she is “grateful” for his continued support.

    On the state level, James Markley, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania GOP, said the party is “fully invested” in helping Garrity beat Shapiro. Those efforts include training “thousands” of volunteers and working on education programs around early voting and casting mail-in ballots.

    “The more Pennsylvania voters learn about Stacy Garrity, the more they love her,” he said in a statement. “The more Pennsylvania voters learn about Josh Shapiro, they realize he has no record to stand on.”

    Gerow said Garrity’s challenge, with limited funds compared with Shapiro, is whether she has enough money to get her message out.

    “The major concern for her immediately is to be able to tell her story,” Gerow said. “She doesn’t have the resources to tell that story effectively right now, and she has a great story.”

    Buttons for State Treasurer Stacy Garrity and President Trump are left on a table following a VIP reception before a Garrity rally in Bucks County Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

    Throughout her campaign, Garrity has hammered Shapiro on several issues she said reveal his lack of transparency as a public official. She has held roundtable discussions blasting Shapiro for his early embrace of data centers, a position he has since distanced himself from after calling for new guidelines for their development. Her campaign released a video series online that questions his handling of criminal investigations. And she has repeatedly insisted that Shapiro, who is widely rumored to be running for president in 2028, is “more interested in Pennsylvania Avenue than helping Pennsylvania families.”

    How Josh Shapiro’s early embrace of data centers is testing his high popularity in Pennsylvania

    Samantha Reposa, a spokesperson for Shapiro’s campaign, disputed Garrity’s framing and emphasized that she has stood in lockstep with Trump on most of his positions.

    “Garrity is now running to be nothing more than a rubber stamp for Trump and his agenda that’s hurting Pennsylvania families — and we will continue to hold her accountable,” Reposa said.

    A new ad from Shapiro’s campaign paints her as “100% MAGA,” highlighting her support for Trump’s tariffs.

    Given Garrity’s fundraising deficit, Chen said, he would advise her to focus on meeting individual people in the community, if he were running her campaign.

    “Forget the GOP dinners. Start going to fairs. Start going to places that Republicans don’t show up. Start retail politics, and start introducing yourself to the state outside of Donald Trump, outside of modern Republicanism,” he said. “Tell the state what you’ve done for them and what you would do differently [as governor].”

    Staff writer Joe Yerardi contributed to this article.

  • In an old Fishtown factory, a new club for city-dwelling car enthusiasts

    In an old Fishtown factory, a new club for city-dwelling car enthusiasts

    Old cars are breathing new life into an empty Fishtown factory.

    But saying vehicles will be stored there is like saying Fairmount Park has a lot of trees — technically correct but missing the point.

    Passersby on Frankford Avenue, between Delaware and Girard Avenues, will see inside what was a long-derelict factory revealing a café that’s open to the public, and further inside, through the glass walls, multiple levels of unusual vehicles.

    A black 1976 Ford Gran Torino owned by Tim Bryan of Fishtown sitting beneath a white Porsche 911 underneath the soaring architecture of the old factory at the Cannonball Club in Fishtown. The vehicles were set in place during a special event prior to opening. SITHA PUTH

    The backdrop of the new Cannonball Club will comprise a rotating crop of cars; such rare specimens as a Citroen XM or Lotus Esprit will join more well-known offerings like a 1976 Ford Gran Torino. Beyond that glass wall, members can enjoy a multilevel workspace, café, and bar. Memberships are available for car owners and car lovers alike.

    It’s the brainchild of Chris Allen, 32, who runs a similar operation in Huntingdon Valley, though that’s less a daily hangout and more a car-storage facility that also hosts special events. The Fishtown club is set to open for business Sept. 10, and the public-facing café opened last week.

    In Fishtown, “I wanted people to be able to walk by off the street and see the wall of crazy cars,” Allen said as he walked through the unfinished facility in late May, amid the clang of metal and screech of power tools.

    Envisioning a ‘car museum’

    The architecture alone can certainly draw some eyeballs. The 15,000-square-foot facility began as the Morse Elevator Works in the late 1800s. The building more recently housed antique shops, a lighting store, and a bicycle shop.

    The 75 vehicles that will fill the space will be hoisted on elevators and stacked around the building, underneath the rebuilt and refinished clerestory and exposed trusses rising far overhead.

    “I don’t want this to be a high-density parking garage,” Allen said. “This is more like a car museum.”

    And a club. The public cafe serves coffee and pastries, and the bar serves drinks and pub food. The facility’s website says it will be open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.

    It’s not for car enthusiasts who want the freedom of hopping in their vehicles on short notice. Members need to schedule pickup and drop-off when staff are there to operate the vehicle elevators.

    Allen thinks that will work fine for collectors from the neighborhood and beyond, noting the club’s proximity to I-95.

    “Any collector car owner wants to get the hell out of the city immediately once they get it,” he said.

    Owner Chris Allen sits at the 50-foot-long bar overlooking the vehicles on display inside the Cannonball Club, set to open in September.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    What Fishtown neighbors think

    It appeals to Tim Bryan, who’s lived in Fishtown for the past six years.

    Bryan will store his 1976 Ford Gran Torino — “think Starsky & Hutch, but black,” he said — at the facility. It currently is stored miles away from him at Allen’s Huntingdon Valley unit.

    Bryan attended the Fishtown Neighbors Association meeting when Cannonball was still somewhere between a plan and a dream. There, residents had a chance to voice support or concerns and vote to support or oppose the zoning variance Cannonball needed to open as an entertainment center. Neighborhood support was strong, Bryan said, and only a handful of people voiced concerns, which he saw as misplaced.

    “I thought they sort of thought this was going to be Lamborghinis and Porsches and elite cars and all that kind of stuff, but my Gran Torino is not a luxury car,” Bryan said.

    Bryan was also pleased to see the building put to use; it’s been empty since he moved to the area six years ago.

    Fishtown Neighbors Association president John Scott said the group doesn’t usually get too involved in individual projects; they’re more about addressing more general concerns, like pedestrian safety, parking, and other issues.

    But Scott said the association took the opportunity during the zoning board variance meeting to make one unusual request: using the facility as a polling place. Finding appropriate, accessible locations for voters can be difficult in a city of old buildings.

    “They said absolutely, they would love to, so it sounds like they’re going to be good neighbors,” Scott said.

    Even beyond Election Day, Scott sees the facility as a bonus.

    “It’s different and for that alone we’re really looking forward to seeing it,” Scott said.

    Scott, for example, says he loves old cars but doesn’t really want the hassle as a city dweller. Someone in his position can join for $250 a month. Members who want to store cars there pay an extra $550 a month.

    ‘Next level’ for car clubs

    Cannonball owner Allen is a racer and a car collector himself. In early July, his team won in its class at the Historic Sportscar Racing NASCAR Classic to Le Mans Classic Circuit in France. He bought the Huntingdon Valley building just as the pandemic started as a place to store his own vehicles, plus those of family and friends, and then grew from there. He has a team of four working with him on the project and a small group of investors.

    He wants to welcome an involved membership.

    “I don’t want some guy to come in here and just forget about it and not actually interact with the club. In my mind, it’s a waste of one of our spots,” Allen said.

    The idea for the more ambitious Fishtown venue arose from clubs like the Classic Car Club in Manhattan and the Motoring Club in Los Angeles.

    Allen shopped around restaurants for food service but decided it would be easier to run the kitchen in-house. He plans to serve pub food and beer, wine, and cocktails.

    A 52-foot bar on the second floor overlooks the main floor and an exposed-brick wall of cars rising in four levels. Rather than the car paraphernalia and gas pumps typical of this kind of project, Cannonball’s decor is something Allen calls colorful and “maximalist,” with Oriental rugs, plenty of seating options winding around the cars, big leather couches, and orange-velvet wingback chairs.

    “I probably would have advised him not to spend as much money as he spent in renovating and building out this space,” said business consultant Robert Mau of Richmond, Va., who knows Allen from the endurance racing circuit, but isn’t involved in the new Fishtown business.

    “What he’s doing in Fishtown takes [the car club scene] to the next level,” Mau said. “So now it’s like, ‘Let’s have a lifestyle or a culture of cars where people hang out — and, oh, if they store their car here, well, that’s great.’”

    Other than the sibling facility in Huntingdon Valley, two clubs in the Philly suburbs offer a similar experience.

    At CarVault Main Line in Berwyn, members must sponsor new applicants, and the setting is more storage building than historical loft. It advertises a self-serve bar and a place to watch the latest race.

    Pottstown’s Red Horse Motoring Club touts its historic location in a 1922 Chrysler and Dodge dealership, with a members club and the option to rent the venue.

    But nothing seems to exactly match what’s happening in Fishtown.

    Club member and New Jersey resident Mike Kovac will park his 1989 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde at the facility. He was among the first 10 people to sign up. The Alfa is shaped like a 1980s Saab with a distinctly Italian front end, and it’s one of just 75 in the world, Kovac said.

    Kovac knows not everyone is a car person, and that’s what he thinks will make the club work. He describes the challenge of gathering his car friends and non-car friends together.

    “Now with Cannonball launching,” he said, “we have a place where it’s welcoming for both non-car people and car people, and you have that awesome backdrop of classic cars and exotic machinery.”