When the 76ers Came to Margate

Shooting hoops at the local Jewish center with the NBA’s best team ever.

1966-67 76ers team photo
1966-67 76ers team photo
Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia 76ers.

Leo Schoffer was just 14 when the Philadelphia 76ers came to town. It was September 1966 and the team that featured superstar Wilt Chamberlain was about to start its pre-season training camp at a most unlikely location: the Jewish Community Center in the Jersey Shore town of Margate.

“It was special for us to see them play on the same court where we played,” recalls Schoffer, who at the time was a freshman at Atlantic City High School.  Practices were open to members of the Jewish center. “It was very informal,” Schoffer says. He got to talk with forward Luke Jackson and guard Hal Greer.

Why Margate?

“My father was a Jersey Shore person and he bought a home in Longport in 1953,” says Mike Richman, son of Ike Richman, a team owner at the time. “He thought it would be a great idea to hold training camp at the Shore since there would be no diversions in the offseason.” (The 76ers began to train in Margate in 1964; the senior Richman died of a heart attack in December 1965 while watching his team play the Boston Celtics at the Boston Garden.)

The 1966 training camp was the 76ers first under new head coach Alex Hannum. Players recall the camp, held from September 12-24, as rigorous. Practice shifted to Holy Spirit High School in Absecon on September 15-16 when the center closed for the Jewish holidays.

“Alex worked us hard. He wanted us to practice like you play,” says Wali Jones, then a third-year guard from Villanova.

“Practices could last two hours,” adds Matt Guokas, a rookie guard from St. Joseph’s University. “You were sore in the afternoon and sore the next day.”  That led him to revise his thinking. “Before camp, I figured I get a little lunch and go to the beach,” he says. “Instead, I would go to my room after lunch and plop in my bed.”
The team stayed at the Canterbury Motel in Longport. After dinner, players would socialize over beers at Meral’s, a Margate club. “We would only have one or two,” Guokas says. “We had to get up and be at practice by 9 a.m.”

Unfortunately for the local fans, Chamberlain, one of basketball’s all-time greats, did not practice with the team in Margate; he was dealing with a fire at his San Francisco home. But the talented team had three other future Hall of Famers (Greer and forwards Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham). That season they won 46 of their first 50 games and finished at 68-13, capturing the NBA title. The team was voted best in league history when the NBA celebrated its 35th anniversary in 1980-81.

The 76ers practiced in Margate until 1970. They still have a presence in South Jersey. The team is moving its offices and practice facility to Camden this fall. It held training camp at Stockton University in Galloway in 2015, says Schoffer, now vice chairman of Stockton’s board of trustees.

The 2015 training camp had one big difference.  “Practices were closed to the public,” he says. “It’s a different world now.” (The 76ers will be back at Stockton from September 27-30 for this year’s training camp.)

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