UNIVERSITY HISTORY

Penn Plays Philadelphia Big 5 Basketball:
1955-1956 season

Standings:

Game results:

All games were played at the Palestra. Click on links to read the text of news articles about the games.

Date	Winner	Loser	Crowd
Dec 14	St. Joseph's 83	Villanova 70	2,636
	Reserve Al Juliana comes off bench for 22
Dec 20	Temple 93	Penn 72	3,751
	The Owls led by as many as 31 in the 2nd half
Jan 4	St. Joseph's 69	La Salle 56	2,022
	The Hawks led by just one at intermission
Jan 11	Temple 80	Villanova 73	4,590
	Hal Lear made 13 of 25 FGs and had 37 pts
Jan 18	La Salle 64	Penn 52	2,047
	Penn trailed by just three points at 3:00
Jan 28	St. Joseph's 72	Penn 60	2,938
	Kurt Engelbert hits 13 of 14 FTs & scores 29
Feb 8	Villanova 89	Penn 74	3,111
	Penn's Joe Sturgis gets 20 points, 27 boards
Feb 15	Temple 60	La Salle 57	3,705
	Explorers failed to score in game's final 5:30
Feb 22	St. Joseph's 77	Temple 68	9,387
	Hawks clinch first City Series Championship
Feb 29	La Salle 71	Villanova 64	2,843
	Charley Singley cans 4 FTs to ice the victory

Honors:

Big 5 First Team

Dick Csencsitz (Pennsylvania)

Kurt Engelbert (St. Joseph's)

Mike Fallon (St. Joseph's)

Al Juliana (St. Joseph's)

Hal Lear (Temple)

Bill Lynch (St. Joseph's)

Fran O'Malley (La Salle)

Hal Reinfeld (Temple)

Jimmy Smith (Villanova)

Joe Sturgis (Pennsylvania)

* Rodgers averaged 18.5 points and more than eight assists as the Owls advanced to the Final Four. It was the first Geasey MVP Award granted.

NCAA Tournament:

National Invitation Tournament:

St. Joseph's 74, Seton Hall 65	at Madison Square Garden
Louisville 89, St. Joseph's 79	Final 4 at Madison Square Garden
St. Joes 93, St. Francis/NY 82	Final 4 at Madison Square Garden