What’s special about Philly is not the fact that Big Nick caught that thing instead of throwing it. It’s not the brotherly shove either. It’s not even the way that the right Philly cheesesteak can disproportionately brighten your day. What’s truly unique about this town, from a sports fan’s point of view, is the relationship that the city has with its teams and athletics in general.
Not unlike the cool-temperate successor of a royal family, Mitchell & Ness is also born and raised in Philadelphia. In 1904, Frank P. Mitchell, an AAU tennis champion, and Charles M. Ness, an avid golfer, founded the sporting goods company to combine their efforts and resources to be able to manufacture hardware for their respective fields. Rackets and clubs were the brand’s bread and butter way before the label became one of the premier historians of the game(s).
Just a few years earlier and a few blocks down the road, a young Philly banker named Charlton Yarnall married Anna Brinton Coxe, the “;!” to his “Rosebud”.1 While there is a case to be made that the well-born Anna settled for the inventive, yet reaching Charlton, there is no doubt that the two newlyweds tackled the creation of their homestead like two Sims going ham with money cheat codes. Enter: Violet Oakley!
Like the hoopers from the Pacific Northwest, Violet was a trailblazer – the first American woman to ever be commissioned for a mural – who decked out the entire house in a series of entirely original designs. Telling the story of education and knowledge, her work not only made Charlton and Anna’s place the talk of the town but the series of murals, dubbed The Building of the House of Wisdom, also made its way to Philadelphia’s Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill.
Today, the historic building is operated by Mitchell & Ness, serving as the brand’s East Coast headquarters and housing several departments of its daily operations staff (in addition to an office on the West Coast) as well as one of the most in-depth archives of jerseys, uniforms, athletic equipment and overall sports memorabilia imaginable.2
From Cooperstown to Canton … from Springfield, MA to Toronto, Canada. If there is a piece of kit that played an important role on the field, the hardwood, the gridiron, the diamond, the rink or on the sidelines, chances are that these Hall of Fame pieces of sports history are connected in one way or another to Mitchell & Ness and the scarlet-red brick building on the corner of 17th and Locust in downtown Philadelphia.
Designed by architect Frank Miles Day, the house is a labyrinth of hidden staircases, secret doors, leaded windows, and walls decorated with portraits and memorabilia of those who paved the way. Add in the fact that multiple of the building’s current residents are convinced that the premises are haunted and the House of Wisdom truly becomes a contemporary midtown version of the Hogwarts castle.
Ghost-busting required or not, there is no doubt about the house’s buoyant spirit. Joanne Graham, whose four-plus decades with the brand leave some of the most seasoned vets look like rookies, still roams the hallowed halls with a level of energy and enthusiasm that would leave the Energizer bunny thirsting for a RedBull. A grand dame of the sportswear industry, she has seen it all – through the 3XL jersey trend, the dress code that followed, and beyond.
And while Joanne has indeed shaken all the hands and kissed all the babies, she still makes it her daily priority to ensure that things at 235 S. 17th Street in Philly – and at M&N overall, for that matter – are kept as authentic and true to the game as she is.
Above all, the brand takes pride in authenticity, in being a stickler for details and historians of the game. The people who have converted Anna and Charlton’s old master bedroom into the Michael Jordan room3 are treasurers, not in an excel-heavy bookkeeping way, but as preservers of (sports) education and knowledge. Sound familiar? That’s what makes Mitchell & Ness the perfect residents for the House of Wisdom!
1. If you got that reference, you need to go outside and touch grass. You and me, we both do. ↩
2. Talk about real-deal pieces worn by the players themselves as well as retros for days. Fun fact from BSTN’s personal visit to M&N HQ: We randomly pulled a jersey from the racks upon racks pictured above and it turned out to be a Dominique Wilkins jersey, signed by the Human Highlight Film himself. Who knew!? ↩
3. The major meeting room, located right next to the Allen Iverson room, and one (or two? There were so many stairs.) floors down from the building’s own sports library. ↩
