“Philly Guy” Martelli ’72 Inducted into City Sports Hall of Fame

Phil Martelli ’72 is synonymous with Philadelphia. During his more than two decades at the helm of the men’s basketball program at Saint Joseph’s University, he proudly wore the city on his chest in leading the Hawks to more wins than any coach in school history. And when the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame came calling last month to invite him into its hallowed halls, Martelli was emotional. 

“I am humbled and honored,” Martelli says from his office in Ann Arbor, Mich., where he is now Associate Head Coach at the University of Michigan. “That’s my home. There’s not a day that goes by out here when I don’t say something about Philly. When I get introspective and think about the memories and relationships, I hope that I impacted the young people I coached, whether at Bishop Kenrick or St. Joe’s. I tried to leave the situation better than I found it. If you can walk away from a situation and say that one person’s life was just a little bit better, than that’s a Hall of Fame moment. It could be a fan who was ecstatic watching Jameer Nelson or Marvin O’Connor or a student or organization that I was able to impact. When I was coaching at St. Joe’s, no wasn’t in my vocabulary. I was charged with being a representative, a face and a voice for Saint Joseph’s University. I didn’t take that obligation lightly.”

Martelli’s Philly roots go back further than coaching in the Philadelphia Catholic League or the Big Five. His love for the city began in 1968, when young Phil made his way to the Prep as a freshman. There is no doubt about his love for his alma mater. “I have said it over and over, it is the finest high school in the country (and I have been to a lot of different high schools in my life),” says Martelli, who recently returned to the Prep for his class’s 50th Reunion. “It was a terrific experience for me and even more so for my sons (Phil ’99 and Jimmy ’00). There is something magical when you walk into that building. At the Prep, you matter.”

As a member of the Prep basketball team, coached by legendary Philly coach Eddie Burke ’63, Martelli won the Catholic League title in 1971, the last the school would win until the early 2000s. His experience at the Prep and playing for Burke launched his desire to become a basketball coach.  

“By the end of my senior year at the Prep, I was focused on being a teacher and a coach,” he remembers. “I thought it would be the greatest badge that I could receive to coach in the Catholic League. I wanted to emulate Speedy (Morris) and Eddie and the guys I competed against when I played at the Prep. If I could coach in the Catholic League, I would be measuring myself against the best.”

As the head coach at the now-defunct Bishop Kenrick, Martelli had early success and started to wonder if there were other opportunities out there. “Sometimes at practice, I’d wonder if some of these ideas that I had for running a practice would work with even higher-level players. Then I decided to try college coaching as an assistant, but I also wanted to be a head coach. To be able to do it at home and not move my family was a gift. I hopefully made good use of that gift.”

Now, Martelli is being inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame, a place reserved for the city’s best and brightest. Perhaps it’s fitting that Martelli’s favorite memories of coaching at SJU came at the city’s most famous basketball cathedral, the Palestra.

“Every single time that I walked out of the Palestra, walking towards 33rd Street, walking alone back to the team bus, leaving when the only people in there were housekeeping, the equipment guys, and me. I get chills just thinking about it,” he says. “I knew that somebody at that game may have had a dream or aspiration to coach in that building, to coach at Saint Joseph’s, to coach in the Big Five like I did. I will be forever grateful that I got that chance and I hope that kid gets his chance too.”

In November, Martelli will take his place as a part of Philadelphia history, alongside the greats who coached on Hawk Hill and the Big Five before him. “There were times when I’d be on the sideline and think, ‘Jack Ramsey did this,’ or ‘Jim Lynam did this,’ and I was walking in their shadows,” he remembers. 

While he will be surrounded by family and friends at the induction ceremony, there will be one person not there who will certainly be in Martelli’s mind and heart that day. “I can’t imagine what my father would think to know that I was going into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame,” Martelli says of his father, who instilled a love of Philadelphia sports into him and rarely missed a practice or game during his son’s tenure at Saint Joseph’s. “Philadelphia sports are in my blood. Is this because my father took me to Eagles’ games at Franklin Field? Or to meet the Phillies at the airport when they came back from Cincinnati in 1964 after losing the pennant? Or because we snuck into the Convention Center to see Wilt Chamberlain and the Sixers playing for the championship? Maybe all of that, and I am only in this hall on the backs of my parents, my coaches, my teammates, and the families that allowed me to coach my sons.”

Martelli also credits the Prep for his success. “One thing I remember about the Prep, and it has stayed with me, is ‘to each his own,’” he says. “I can remember being at the Prep and carrying that with me. Students were not from Northeast Philly or Delco, on the football team or in the theater; we were all Prep guys. I always walked away saying that I felt valued but I think everyone was valued. There wasn’t a caste separation or a class separation. It was just a life-altering experience without knowing it. In my experience at the Prep, there was a value on each and every young guy and I will always appreciate that.”

He remains close to his classmates, who gather often. “When the Philadelphia Sportswriters Association gave me the Good Guy Award, there was a table of my classmates there, and I was so touched by that,” he says. “I want to reciprocate that when I can.”

Reciprocate he has. There are few people who have accepted more invitations to speak to school groups, church functions, and other groups around the city. Martelli is also one of the nation’s top fundraisers for Coaches vs. Cancer. “I don’t want to minimize this. I recognize that the opportunities that I got outside of coaching (such as public speaking and philanthropic work); I wouldn’t have had those opportunities at a lot of other places outside of Saint Joseph’s and Philadelphia. I will always be appreciative of the fact that I could be Phil Martelli here,” he says. “I appreciated the way that people felt comfortable enough to approach me. I don’t think that would have happened if I had coached somewhere else. People in Philadelphia treated me as Phil Martelli and not the Coach. I wanted to make a difference and I had a platform and I was able to use that platform for good.”