South Philadelphia Hebrew Association

This print honors the Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants who dominated basketball in its early years and contributed to the outsider status of the sport that remains to this day the most vocal on issues of social justice. The South Philadelphia Hebrew Association, known as the SPHAS, were the greatest Jewish basketball team of all time, earning recognition in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. SPHAS sharpshooter Cy Kaselman helped Wilt Chamberlain perfect his free throws. SPHAS legend Ossie Schectman went on to score the first basket in NBA history.

The Yiddish wood type used for this print is both old and new. Two letters, known as oysies, come from the collection of John Horn and the other two were created after Hamilton and Partners in Print workshops on making new wood type with Ryan Molloy. The design for the new type was inspired by the Cary Graphic Arts Collection meticulously curated by Shani Avni at Rochester Institute of Technology. The red and blue ink reflects the team’s original jersey colors as well as the color scheme on bagged ice chests outside of convenience stores, in a nod to the “ice in my veins” basketball celebration popularized by ​​D'Angelo Russell.