The Gene Banks Years
Joe Goldenberg had the rare distinction of coming home to coach his own high school. A West Philadelphia alumnus and former Speedboys player himself, he took over the West Philadelphia basketball program in 1970 and, over the next 21 seasons, built one of the most dominant Public League programs of the 1970s.
His defining stretch came in the middle of that decade: five consecutive Public League championships from 1974 through 1978, each one followed by a City Title game against the Catholic League champion. West Philadelphia won the first four of those (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977) before the 1978 City Title game — won 67-64 over Roman Catholic — extended the streak.
The 1977 Perfect Season
The peak was 1977. West Philadelphia finished 30-0, the first Speedboys team to go unbeaten through an entire season of league and non-league play. Gene Banks, then a 6-7 junior forward, averaged 25.4 points per game — the same number he would post as a senior in 1978 — on his way to becoming one of the most recruited high school players in the country. Banks would go on to Duke and then to the NBA.
The Four-Year City Title Run
Between 1974 and 1977, West Philadelphia won the Public League championship and then the City Title four years running — a stretch of dominance matched by almost nobody in the old Public League/Catholic League City Title series. The 1978 team made it five consecutive PL titles and a fourth City Title in five years by beating Roman Catholic 67-64. That Roman Catholic game was the last one in the pre-Gene Banks era; by then Banks was a senior and on his way out.
