Armed and unarmed guards who weren’t paid for some of their hours patrolling Philadelphia public housing developments and other buildings have filed class-action complaints against their former employer, Sovereign Security LLC, owner Richard D. Cottom, and manager Maurice Dupree.
The guards are seeking back pay for unpaid work, sick and vacation days, overtime violations, damages under state law, and the return of uniform deposits.
The guards, led by plaintiff Shirell Williams, say Sovereign violated the state Minimum Wage Act and Wage Payment Collection Law and breached employment contracts over four years, starting in late 2021. Williams worked for Sovereign at PHA and at the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works, the Navy Yard business center, the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, and the former Delaware County Memorial Hospital.
Through their attorney, Center City labor lawyer Josh Dubinsky, the guards seek unpaid wages, damages, interest, and attorneys’ fees stemming from “systemic wage abuse” while working at Sovereign. They seek certification as a class including more than 100 current and former Sovereign staff.
Cottom, a former Drexel University security executive who founded Sovereign in 2004, and other Sovereign officials didn’t return calls seeking comment.
The lawsuit also named a Sovereign manager, Maurice Dupree, as codefendant. Guards have described Dupree as their off-site supervisor, who managed assignments, hired and fired, and scheduled their work, and who they turned to for help when paychecks were late or bounced.
Pennsylvania’s wage and hour law requires companies to set regular paydays and meet them. Sovereign’s contract with PHA required it to comply with city rules and applicable laws.
PHA renewed Sovereign’s contract last spring even after The Inquirer reported on late and bounced Sovereign paychecks.
The housing authority canceled Sovereign’s contract on July 9, giving owner Cottom two days to stop work and file final reports.
The official cancellation letter stated only that PHA and its property management unit had determined “that it is in the best interest” of the agencies to terminate Sovereign.
Correspondence collected under an Inquirer Right to Know request also shows PHA had warned Cottom that “it has come to the attention” of PHA that Sovereign “may be delinquent in paying its employees in a timely manner,” that late payment was “a breach of the contract,” and that it is “imperative” to ensure guards are paid and show up.
That letter was dated Jan. 27, 12 days after The Inquirer first reported on the late payments.
Sovereign had held the largest of at least three outside security guard contracts at PHA, which also has its own police department and a staff security force. PHA has paid Sovereign more than $7 million since 2021.
Tahazha Woodard, a guard at a jointly operated PHA and School District site in North Philadelphia, was the first in a stream of Sovereign Security LLC employees who tried to cash delayed Sovereign paychecks on Jan. 10. United was one of the few Philadelphia institutions willing to cash Sovereign checks at that time, after incidents when the company left its accounts underfunded and paychecks bounced, according to guards.
PGW ended its agreement with Sovereign in 2023. As of last summer, Sovereign no longer worked at the Navy Yard either.
The guards in the suit say a trial would show whether Sovereign had a “pattern or practice” of shorting their pay, failing to pay overtime, and not refunding uniform deposits. Other issues are whether Sovereign violated state wage laws and failed to keep required time and pay records, and the damages they are owed.
Williams, the lead plaintiff, was paid $14.40 an hour when she started in 2022.
Besides back pay,the suit also seeks to collect $500 or 25% of wages due for each violation, plus attorneys’ fees, under provisions of state law.
For a long time when it came to sports, Buffalo was Diet Philadelphia. Similar, but with a little less. A smaller city, yes. Half as many major pro franchises, yes. But those teams — the Bills in the NFL, the Sabres in the NHL — have always occupied an outsized importance within the culture of the region. They mattered to the people of Buffalo as much or more than the Eagles, the Phillies, the Sixers, and the Flyers mattered to the people of Philadelphia.
Oh, and there was one other common thread for decades: None of those teams ever won a championship.
Not ever ever, but close enough. The Bills won back-to-back titles in the American Football League in 1964 and ’65, and Philadelphia had that wonderful 10-year stretch, from 1973-83, when the Flyers won two Stanley Cups, the Phillies won a World Series, the Eagles reached a Super Bowl, and the Sixers won an NBA championship. But for 25 years — until the Phillies won the 2008 World Series — then another nine-plus, the towns could bond through being blue-collar bridesmaids.
Eagles fans cheer after the win against the hapless Raiders at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 14.
Recently, though, the Eagles have altered that dynamic. They won a Super Bowl in 2018, then another earlier this year, and as they prepare to face the Bills this Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., they have quelled much of the anger and anxiety that once characterized Philadelphia sports fandom. It might not seem that way, with the attention paid to Jalen Hurts’ play and the worry over the Eagles’ chance to repeat as league champs, but it’s true. The atmosphere was much worse during the Buddy Ryan and Andy Reid eras.
For Buffalo, though, there has been no great expulsion of joy and relief. In their 55 years of existence, the Sabres have never won a Stanley Cup and have reached the Final just twice, losing to the Flyers in 1975 and to the Dallas Stars (on Brett Hull’s disputed triple-overtime goal) in 1999. What’s arguably worse, for a city that loves hockey as much or more than any in the United States, is that the Sabres haven’t even qualified for the playoffs since 2011 and haven’t won a postseason series since 2007, when one of their best players was Danny Brière, now the Flyers’ general manager.
Steve Watson, a friend and former classmate of mine, has lived in the Buffalo region for most of his life. His son, Eli, is 12. Eli has never seen a Sabres playoff game.
“It’s sad,” Watson, 50, who has been a reporter for the Buffalo News since 2001, said by phone Tuesday. “When the Sabres are good, and they have been good for a lot of their history, you see the little flags people put on their cars. We embrace the team, but they’re losing this current fan generation. They took a great hockey town and tarnished it.”
The situation with the Bills has, if possible, been even more painful, for all their near misses. Even a casual football fan is familiar with the Bills’ four consecutive Super Bowl losses from 1991 to 1994 and all the tragic heroes from that period — Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, Frank Reich — and the comeback from 35-3 against the Houston Oilers, Scott Norwood and wide right against the New York Giants. But the aftermath has been just as rough.
A Bills fan sits among snow-covered seats before the start a wild-card playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Jan. 15, 2024.
The Bills went 17 years, from 2000 through 2016, without making the playoffs. Now they have Josh Allen, who was the NFL’s Most Valuable Player last season, who is regarded as the second- or third-best quarterback in the league at worst, and who has led the Bills to the postseason for seven straight seasons … and to no Super Bowls. Either Patrick Mahomes or Joe Burrow has been in their way, or they’ve had a bad day at the worst time and squandered home-field advantage, or they’ve stood under a ladder staring at a broken mirror while a clowder of black cats strutted past them. They’re 11-4 this season, and Allen has again been outstanding, but now their intradivisional nemeses, the New England Patriots, are back atop the AFC East after a few years of mediocrity. The cycle seems without end.
This excruciating history wouldn’t generate much sympathy from anyone, let alone from Philly’s famously competitive and insecure sports fans (“Oh, you think you’ve had it rough? Lemme tell ya about the night Joe Carter …”), if we were talking about an area of the country whose lifers didn’t care so much. But that ain’t Buffalo. The people there bleed for their teams just like everyone down here does. After all, sports is their only salvation from spending three-quarters of the year with snowshoes strapped to their feet.
“It’s up there with chicken wings,” Watson said. “It’s up there with our lovely weather. It’s our identity. We are blue collar. We are the city of good neighbors. And we’re a big sports town. I used to write more obituaries for the News, and it was always painful for me to write, ‘Lifelong Bills fan … Lifelong Sabres fan.’ They never got that payoff for their years of suffering.”
Look, if you’re an Eagles fan, you don’t have to root for the Bills — certainly not on Sunday, certainly not if the two teams end up facing each other at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8. In many regards, though, you and those fans near Niagara Falls were kindred spirits for years. So if and when the Eagles do bow out of the playoffs, and if Buffalo’s hopes for a Super Bowl victory are still alive, send some good thoughts toward western New York. They’re still waiting for their moment in the warm sun up there, and Lord knows they’ve already suffered enough.
NEWARK, N.J. — More than an hour before the game, Kevin Willard was on and around the basketball court at the Prudential Center, the place he called home for 12 seasons as Seton Hall’s head coach.
The first-year Villanova coach, like most head coaches, normally is tucked away going over final game preparations while assistants get his players loose. But Willard was home. It was an emotional couple of days since the Wildcats arrived here Monday evening.
“This place helped raise my family in a very special way,” Willard said. The family saw the same security guards who used to carry his children — one now a college freshman, the other a high school senior — around after games.
Before tipoff, Willard embraced Seton Hall coach Shaheen Holloway, who coached under Willard for 11 seasons at Iona and Seton Hall. A video that played before the national anthem showed highlights of Willard’s tenure at Seton Hall, and the sellout crowd of 11,153 mostly responded with a nice ovation for the coach who left in 2022 for Maryland and returned Tuesday for his first game against his old program with one of its bitter Big East rivals.
The show at that point was over. “Walking out, once I got out, we got to win a game,” Willard said.
It was a sloppy-at-times Big East fight during the first half, but Villanova used an emphatic 16-0 run early in the second half and pulled away from Seton Hall in a 64-56 victory that wasn’t as close as the final score suggested. Villanova led by as many as 20 midway through the second half.
Kevin Willard spent 12 seasons from 2010 to 2022 with Seton Hall before taking a job at Maryland.
The Big East opener was a matchup of teams off to hot starts. Willard’s Wildcats improved to 10-2 and handed Seton Hall (11-2) its second loss of the season.
The Wildcats entered Tuesday ranked 30th in the NCAA’s NET rankings, and they shot up to 20th on Wednesday morning after winning their first Quad 1 game of the season. By 10 p.m. Tuesday, the metrics site KenPom had Villanova ranked 24th. Seton Hall was just outside the Associated Press Top 25 this week. The Pirates were 27th, based on ballot points. Surely, Villanova will be in the conversation to be ranked for the first time since November 2023 next week.
The Wildcats’ two losses are to then-No. 8 BYU and No. 2 Michigan. They hit the holiday break with a home victory over Pittsburgh and road wins at Wisconsin and Seton Hall.
“We’re trending in the right direction,” Willard said. “I like the fact that no one’s really talking about us.”
They are now. It was a light day on the college basketball calendar, and, given Seton Hall’s surprising start to the season and Willard making his return to Newark, there were plenty of eyeballs watching Villanova pass the eye test.
Freshman point guard Acaden Lewis “controlled the game,” Holloway said, after he led all scorers with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting to go with five rebounds, two assists, and three steals (to cancel out three turnovers) in a season-high 37 minutes. Redshirt freshman Matt Hodge added 12 points and six rebounds, and redshirt sophomore Bryce Lindsay scored 15 points on nine shots.
The night was far from perfect for Villanova. The Wildcats turned the ball over 18 times and had trouble with Seton Hall’s press after the lead ballooned late in the game. They allowed 16 offensive rebounds and had just eight of their own.
Villanova freshman guard Acaden Lewis played a season-high 37 minutes in a 64-56 win over Seton Hall on Tuesday night.
But Villanova had an answer every time Seton Hall pushed back in the second half. Devin Askew hit a three-pointer to push the lead back to 17 (50-33). Hodge put back a Lewis miss with just over eight minutes to play that stopped a 6-0 Seton Hall run and bumped the lead back to 16. The Pirates then cut their deficit to 13 before Lindsay made a three-pointer. He made 3 of 7 attempts on the night.
“We’re battle-tested,” Willard said. “We played BYU on the road, Michigan on the road, Wisconsin on the road, three Big 5 games … so I have a lot of confidence in the fact that our guys have played against a lot of good teams.”
Villanova overcame its struggles because of its defense. Willard said the game plan was to make dynamic Seton Hall point guard Adam “Budd” Clark, a West Catholic graduate, be a scorer and not a “sprayer.” The Wildcats, who utilized a zone defense, forced him into tough spots and limited his driving opportunities. He also was limited to just five minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, and Seton Hall’s offense was disjointed without him. Clark finished 1-for-11 from the floor, and Seton Hall converted just 33.3% of its shot attempts.
The Pirates were 15-for-30 on what were considered layups by the official stats, but the majority of their shots were well-contested. The 16-0 run happened mostly because of Villanova’s active hands, which forced steals and easy transition buckets.
Earlier in the season, defense was one of Willard’s major concerns. It recently has become a strength. Why? Lewis said physical practices where fouls aren’t called have translated into higher-intensity stretches of defense during games.
Villanova returns home on New Year’s Eve for a game vs. DePaul (8-5). But first, a few days off to celebrate the holiday, a break that got a little merrier with Tuesday’s win.
“We’re trending up,” Lewis said. “Since that Michigan game, we really locked in and built with each other. [Michigan] showed us there’s levels, and we’re building up to that level to see them again when March comes around and we want a different look when that happens.”
After Tuesday, playing meaningful basketball in March seems like a real possibility.
The Eagles have clinched their second straight NFC East title and a return to the postseason, meaning much of the focus in the coming days will center on how far they can advance. With that in mind, we turned to The Inquirer’s Eagles writers, Jeff McLane, Olivia Reiner, and Jeff Neiburg, to discuss some of the biggest issues surrounding the team — including the injury situation, biggest 2025 surprises, and how the staff might look different beyond the postseason:
Could Jalen Hurts and Co. be looking at an Eagles-Rams rematch in the playoffs?
Who should the Eagles least want to see in the NFC portion of the playoffs?
McLane: Honestly, I don’t spend my waking hours caring who the Eagles should least want to face in the playoffs, but I guess for the sake of this exercise I’ll choose the Rams. Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford know what it takes to win a title and have arguably a better offense than when they won the Super Bowl four years ago. The Rams are imperfect, as their overtime loss to the Seahawks last week showed. And the Eagles have had McVay’s number, winning six of seven since he took over in Los Angeles. But the law of averages may finally benefit the coach. I’d also be wary of the peaking 49ers.
Reiner: The Rams. Yes, the Eagles are 4-0 against them under Nick Sirianni, including last year’s divisional-round game and the Week 3 victory this season. But Stafford has been playing at an MVP level this year. He has one of the NFL’s top receiving duos in Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. Kyren Williams is a top-10 running back. The Rams’ defensive front, led by Jared Verse and Byron Young, is among the best in the league. The Eagles have a chance against any team in the NFC, but the Rams would provide the most difficult test.
Neiburg: I wanted to say the Rams, because I do believe they are the best team in the NFC, but the Eagles seem to have their number, and, as of right now, a playoff game vs. the Rams would be at Lincoln Financial Field. Instead, I’ll go with the Seahawks. I don’t trust Sam Darnold to win a big game, but the Eagles’ offense having to go up against that defense in front of that home crowd on the other side of the country in what would likely be the NFC title game is a daunting task.
Jalen Carter is the Eagles’ only Pro Bowl starter. But the team has managed to get by without him at various times in 2025.
Who’s more important to have fully healthy for the playoffs, Lane Johnson or Jalen Carter?
Reiner: Yes. Is that an acceptable answer? Thankfully for the Eagles, they won’t have to pick, because both are expected to return in time for the playoffs. But for the sake of the exercise, I’ll pick Johnson. Fred Johnson has been solid in his absence, but the All-Pro right tackle is one of the best in the league at his position. Carter hasn’t been healthy for most of the year and the Eagles’ defensive front has fared well enough without him recently.
Neiburg: Nothing against Carter, but the clear answer is Johnson. Right tackle is a singular position, and Johnson is a singular player, a future Hall of Famer who is still among the best players at his position. The Eagles’ defensive front has played well without Carter, and while getting him back and at full strength is a big deal, it’s not quite the same as inserting Lane Johnson in over Fred Johnson.
McLane: “Fully healthy” is rare for any player at this stage of the season, but assuming either is cleared to return for the playoffs, close to 90% should be good enough. Johnson has played through worse than his Lisfranc foot injury. He delayed surgery to repair a torn adductor two years ago and didn’t miss a beat. History has shown that when he isn’t in the lineup the Eagles struggle, going 15-27 since 2013. Carter’s absence hurt vs. the Giants in October, but the D-line has done a better job of covering for his loss these last three games. So I guess my answer is Johnson.
Saquon Barkley came up well short of another 2,000-yard season while working behind a battered line that has struggled at times.
Based on your observations of this team in training camp, what’s the single biggest surprise about the Eagles from your vantage point here in December?
Neiburg: That an offense that returned 10 of 11 starters and hired a coordinator who had been on staff for years tailed off the way it has — especially in the running game. I knew Saquon Barkley wasn’t going to run for 2,000 yards again. I knew the Eagles were going to face stacked boxes. I didn’t expect the offensive line to struggle to run block this way and didn’t think moving the ball and getting first downs would be as much of a chore as it has at times this season.
Reiner: The offensive line’s overall regression. Even with Landon Dickerson’s meniscus injury in camp, it seemed unlikely that the group would struggle so much, especially in the run game. The unit has been better over the last few weeks, as evidenced by Barkley’s recent surge. But for most of the season, the offensive line wasn’t the juggernaut that the Eagles have leaned on in the past.
McLane: I kind of saw the offensive regression coming, and certainly Barkley’s struggles, but not to the extent it’s been. That said, that the Eagles would have another first-time offensive coordinator come under fire for most of the season wasn’t a surprise either. So I’ll look at other phases.
On defense, I thought Carter would be primed to take his game to another level with a contract extension potentially on the table this offseason. I know he was voted to the Pro Bowl and has been dealing with shoulder injuries, but he hasn’t had the desired impact. On special teams, Jake Elliott has hit rough patches before. But he had a great camp and first half of the season. That’s why the kicker’s late-season woes have come out of the blue for me.
If you don’t yet know DBs coach Christian Parker’s name, you will.
The NFL coaching carousel is about to start spinning. Which members of the Eagles staff would you expect to garner outside interest for head or assistant roles? Any future head coaches on this staff?
McLane: Vic Fangio has the best pedigree and should get another chance to be a head coach. But he’s 67 and has said he has no desire to be in that chair again, which is good news for the Eagles. I think special teams coordinator Michael Clay could be a CEO-type head coach some day. Of the assistants, defensive backs coach Christian Parker is likely to get poached to head a defense sooner rather than later.
Reiner: The 33-year-old Parker has become a rising star in the league, getting the most out of young cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean in their first two seasons in the NFL. He has a long career ahead of him, and it might not be possible for Fangio to keep him around for much longer.
Neiburg: If I had to guess one coach from this list who gets a promotion next year, it’s Parker.Defensive line coach Clint Hurtt has already been a coordinator (with the Seahawks in 2022-23) and could do it again. Clay has a bright future in this league. And Kevin Patullo — yes, that one — might be a head coach one day. Just not this next coaching cycle.
Dallas Goedert (88) and DeVonta Smith (6) have both demonstrated their value to an offense that has struggled at times.
Who would be No. 1 on your ballot for offensive MVP, if the season ended today?
Neiburg: This one was tough, and it feels like we’re just giving out a participation trophy. You don’t need me to tell you that the Eagles’ offense hasn’t been very good this season, despite the amount of money the team dedicates to offensive players. A few weeks ago, I’d have said DeVonta Smith, but he’s sort of tailed off a little. I’ll go with Dallas Goedert, who has been a major red zone weapon and has more touchdowns (10) than he had in the last three seasons combined.
McLane: Smith has slipped some since we last had this question at the bye. But that’s more circumstantial than anything related to his performance. Smith’s success in the first half of the season led to defenses clouding him more, which has created space for fellow receiver A.J. Brown. Smith has still delivered when called upon and is on track to have the third 1,000-yard season of his career. He’s also a willing blocker as he showed on Saquon Barkley’s 48-yard run vs. the Commanders.
Reiner: Goedert. He’s been the star of the Eagles’ top-ranked red zone offense, leading the team with nine touchdowns inside the 20 (10 touchdowns on the season overall). For a player who didn’t look like he was returning to the Eagles this offseason, he’s had one of the better seasons of his eight-year career.
Quinyon Mitchell (left) and Cooper DeJean (right) have both been vital to the defense’s success.
How about defensive MVP?
Reiner: Quinyon Mitchell. In his second season, he earned more responsibility in Fangio’s defense, whether he’s traveling with opposing teams’ top receivers or lining up on the boundary side. He’s risen to the challenge. Mitchell leads the league with 17 pass breakups. He’s also conceded catches on just 42.3% of his targets, the lowest rate among cornerbacks with at least 400 coverage snaps.
Neiburg: Jordan Davis. Has he been the overall best performer on the defense? Probably not, but we sort of already knew what to expect out of Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Zack Baun, and Co. But with Davis, the talk in the offseason was about a transformed body and how he was ready to take the next step. He walked the walk.
McLane: This may be controversial, but I’m going with Cooper DeJean. Mitchell is also deserving — quarterbacks have stayed away from testing him and when they have, he’s often answered the bell. But DeJean has a more difficult job in the slot, in my opinion. It’s why Fangio has refused to move him exclusively to the outside. The second-year corner has to match up vs. faster receivers and bigger-bodied tight ends, while also supporting the run defense from an inside position.
It’s the best time of the year, the holiday season, and for hockey fans, that also means the annual gift of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s World Junior Championship.
The premier under-20 hockey tournament in the world, which starts the day after Christmas each year, showcases the next wave of NHL superstars, many of whom have already been drafted and others who won’t wait long to hear their names called come June. This year’s tournament is in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and runs through Jan. 5. Here are four reasons that Flyers fans should be tuned in to NHL Network and ESPN+ over the next few weeks:
Let’s not bury the lead here. Porter Martone is the biggest reason for Flyers fans to watch this tournament, as the 6-foot-3, 208-pound power forward will be counted on as one of the key cogs and the captain for heavy favorite Canada. Martone, the No. 6 overall draft pick in June, looks poised to be a pillar of the Flyers’ future and should be ready to make the jump to the NHL next season.
The winger, who tore apart the Ontario Hockey League last year with 98 points in 57 games, has been just as dominant as a freshman in the NCAA, as he leads No. 3 Michigan State with 11 goals, 20 points, and 58 penalty minutes in 16 games. With a rare combination of size, skill, playmaking ability, scoring touch, and snarl, Martone projects as a front-line winger at the next level. Martone’s skating, while hardly a weakness, remains a work in progress, but Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr recently told The Inquirer that he thinks Martone “has a chance to be a special player” and that he has the “it factor.”
Martone has been playing on Canada’s top line with Michael Misa and Tij Iginla but has also seen time alongside Gavin McKenna. The World Juniors can serve as a launching pad for future NHL stars, so don’t be surprised to see the Flyers prospect have a huge tournament.
2. More Flyers prospects
While Martone is the unquestioned headliner, the Flyers will have six prospects lacing them up in the Twin Cities, including Martone and Jett Luchanko (Canada), Shane Vansaghi (United States), Jack Berglund (Sweden), and Heikki Ruohonen and Max Westergård (Finland).
Flyers prospect Jett Luchanko will be competing in his second straight World Juniors with Canada.
Luchanko and Berglund will draw the most attention, especially with the Flyers badly needing one or two of their young center prospects to pan out. The speedy Luchanko likely will play a third-line/checking role — he’s been used some on the wing in preliminary games — with Canada, but Flyers fans will want to see him utilize his playmaking skills with better players around him. Since being traded to Brantford of the OHL last month, Luchanko has two goals and eight points in six games. The Flyers want Luchanko to continue shooting the puck more, and it will be interesting to see how he’s utilized a year after Danny Brière said he wasn’t happy with his deployment at this tournament.
Berglund, meanwhile, probably is the least-talked-about prospect in the Flyers system. A big, strong centerman listed at 6-4 and 209 pounds, the Swede will have the responsibility of captaining his country at this illustrious tournament, something Emil Andrae did in 2022. After impressing at Flyers development camp and the World Junior Summer Showcase, Berglund will look to continue his momentum. The early signs are good, as the 19-year-old recently scored twice against Canada in a preliminary game. The question with Berglund will always be his skating, but Flahr believes it has steadily improved and says that Berglund’s size, strength, and details project him to be a valuable player at the next level.
The bruising but skilled Vansaghi figures to be a depth piece for the Americans, while Ruohonen, a Harvard man who also impressed at the World Junior Summer Showcase, will play in a top-six role with Finland. Westergård, 18, also earned a spot on the roster after a strong first half in Sweden at the under-20 level.
While McKenna has long been viewed as the prize of the 2026 draft, the Penn State phenom no longer seems to be a lock to go No. 1. Two of the players challenging for that spot also will be playing in the tournament: towering Canadian defenseman Keaton Verhoeff and exciting Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg.
While the Flyers, who currently are in a playoff spot, don’t look to be genuine contenders for McKenna, Verhoeff, and some of the others at the top, they surely will be scouting the tournament with a close eye. Sweden’s Viggo Björck (C) and William Håkansson (LD), USA’s Chase Reid (RD), Canada’s Carson Carels (LD), Finland’s Oliver Suvanto (C) and Juho Piiparinen (RD), and Czechia’s Adam Novotny are among the other draft-eligible players to watch.
Penn State’s Gavin McKenna, once viewed as a lock to be the No. 1 pick in 2026, has a lot to prove over the next few weeks with Team Canada.
4. Team USA three-peat?
USA Hockey only won its first World Juniors gold in 2004. It has won the tournament seven times, including the last two years. So can the U.S., which had never won two in a row before last year, make it three straight?
It will be a tough task as Canada brings a star-studded roster headlined by McKenna, Misa, and Martone, not to mention a new head coach in Dale Hunter who knows what it takes to lead a group of young men to gold.
But the U.S. boasts a strong roster of its own led by James Hagens, Cole Eiserman, and Max Plante. While the depth or star power might not be at the level of past U.S. teams, the Americans will go into this tournament as the two-time defending champions and have home-ice advantage. The U.S. also is sure to have a chip on its shoulder, especially given all the “dream team” talk surrounding Canada. All the pressure is on Canada to win gold and atone for last year’s shocking quarterfinal upset. That could work to the Americans’ advantage.
Heather Huot, the top executive at Catholic Charities, named her only daughter after Lidia, a homeless, mentally ill, and often cranky elderly woman she met as a young social worker at Women of Hope Vine, a transitional housing facility run by the organization Huot now leads.
As “mean spirited” as Lidia was, Huot said, Lidia still celebrated forsythia.
When their bright yellow blossoms heralded winter’s end, Lidia would drag Huot outside to marvel. “Despite all the hardships,” Huot said, “there are things to be celebrated.”
Which brings us to the Christmas holiday season.
Even if it were possible, which it’s not, to overlook all the troubles in our world, with wars and starvation, or even to overlook all the troubles in our nation, there would still be the troubles of the season — too much work, too much loneliness, too many struggles.
Where’s the forsythia?
Two weeks ago, it was outside the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in the form of a living Nativity scene, complete with a wee baby goat named Lady, an artificial-snow machine, an actual camel, and an elementary school choir in their Catholic school uniforms singing “Joy To the World.”
Yes, “Joy To The World,” because 500 children, some of whom live in tough circumstances, got a chance to celebrate Christmas and with it, maybe, the hope that the holiday brings. It was the 70th annual Archbishop’s Benefit for Children, a Catholic Charities of Philadelphia event funded by a grant from the Riley Family Foundation. No expense was spared.
Heather Huot, the chief of Catholic Charities Philadelphia, pets a calf during a living Christmas scene in front of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center in Center City Philadelphia.
More than 60 volunteers from area high schools lunched on pizza and cookies before heading across the street to a lavishly decorated ballroom in the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. Balloons, banners, party favors, huge plates of cookies, a container of ice cream cups, and a bucket of all different flavors of milk awaited at each table. Kids and chaperones crowded the dance floor, only to make way for an appearance by Santa, who high-fived his way around the ballroom. At the party’s end, the volunteers sprang into action distributing bags of toys — all beautifully wrapped.
In a way, the party is a metaphor for Catholic Charities as a whole. Both the party and the organization are big and multifaceted with lots of moving parts, involving all types of people, not only Catholics.
Each year, Catholic Charities spends about $158 million to run about 40 different programs in four main categories — care for seniors; support for at-risk children, youth, and families; food and shelter; and its biggest category, many-pronged assistance for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
As an overview, there’s housing for at-risk youth in Bensalem. In Philadelphia, people may be familiar with St. John’s Hospice on Race Street, which provides food, showers, shelter, and case management to men. There are several smaller transitional housing shelters for women in the city.
Social workers funded by Catholic Charities assist students at six Catholic high schools across the region. Other social workers handle case management under contract with the City of Philadelphia. A program teaches teenagers involved in the juvenile justice system about conflict resolution. Family navigators step in to assist families with issues ranging from employment to parenting support. There are adoption and foster-care services.
For the elderly, Catholic Charities supports senior centers and works to help seniors stay independent through case management.
Archbishop Nelson Pérez poses with students during a holiday party.
Just over half of Catholic Charities’ annual budget is allocated to supporting people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. A major focus is housing for adults. For example, at the Divine Providence Village in Springfield, Delaware County, 72 women live in six cottages on a 22-acre campus with a pool, greenhouse, and picnic pavilion.
In addition, there is employment support, a day program, field trips, a family-living program, and respite care to help families overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities.
Nearly 80% of Catholic Charities’ funding comes from government sources, which, these days, requires Huot to focus her prayers. “I ask God to help me get through this and to give me the strength and the people around me to get through this,” she said. “At the same time, we have to recognize that God provides in ways you don’t expect.
“We’ve been blessed with generous benefactors who have stepped in,” she said. “The Philadelphia community is incredibly generous. We get a bad rap as the people who throw snowballs at Santa Claus, but Philadelphians will give you the shirt off their backs. They are passionate about caring for one another.”
The generosity moved Lakisha Brown to tears as she shepherded her two children and a third to the party earlier this month. Brown, 44, lives in a three-bedroom subsidized housing apartment at Catholic Charities’ Visitation Homes in Kensington.
“This is the best I ever lived,” she said. But, she said, just outside her door “is a constant reminder of where I came from and where I never want to go.”
Brown’s father died when she was in elementary school and her mother struggled with alcohol addiction. Brown left home when she was 16 under the protection of a man who started their relationship with gifts and ended it with beatings.
“He left me in a coma,” she said.
Brown had her own struggles with addiction. She spent many nights without a roof over her head. If lucky, she could sleep in safety in an abandoned car on a quiet block. One night, she went to a party in a hotel. When she woke up, her clothes were off. Whatever happened wasn’t consensual.
Soon after, she learned she was pregnant and, knowing that, she vowed to give her baby a clean birth. She found a drug program and a place to live. Slowly, through housing and support from Catholic Charities, she rebuilt her life.
Erika Hollender holds up her grandchild so Layani, 3, can touch Percy the camel.
“They help us with budgeting, with money management,” said Brown, who relies on disability, welfare, and food benefits while trying to cope with her own mental health issues. “When we get some money, we want to spend it on the children. We were parenting out of guilt and shame.”
Those are the big things, but what Brown wants people to understand is that the level of care is deep, personal, and specific. It’s being able to ask a staff person for a roll of toilet paper and trash bags — basics that are sometimes unaffordable when money must be allocated to food and shelter.
“A mom’s job is never done,” she said, explaining why people should donate to Catholic Charities. “It is needed for mothers who come from nothing. It is needed.”
For more information about Philly Gives, including how to donate, visit phillygives.org.
About Catholic Charities of Philadelphia
People served: 294,000 annually (in the 2023-24 fiscal year)
Annual spending: $158.6 million across four pillars of mercy and charity
Point of pride: Catholic Charities of Philadelphia is the heart of the church’s mission in action, serving all people regardless of background. With decades of experience, nearly 40 comprehensive programs, and deep community partnerships, Catholic Charities turns compassion into action, and action into lasting and impactful change.
You can help: By serving meals, volunteering at a food pantry or shelter, hosting a food or clothing drive, and sharing your gifts and passions with seniors.
Donald Trump, a spray-tanned, 21st-century version of Ebenezer Scrooge, claims the affordability crisis is a “Democratic hoax,” and that parents should deal with it by buying fewer toys. With a heart that’s at least two sizes too small, he just can’t relate to those who scrape to get by. The only struggle he can relate to has to do with pronouncing the word acetaminophen.
Like the main character in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Trump enjoys demeaning people — as he did last week when he unveiled a series of plaques near the Oval Office, deliberately distorting the legacies of former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Trump isn’t in the same league with either of them. Not even close. Same thing with President John F. Kennedy, but that didn’t stop him from having his name slapped onto the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts last week.
Please, Santa, make sure your sleigh doesn’t drop off any presents at the White House on Christmas Eve. Same thing with Mar-a-Lago. Remember Trump’s posting an AI-generated meme dropping what looks like feces on “No Kings” protesters back in October?Just tell Dasher, Dancer, Rudolph, and the rest to fly right on by both of these locations.
President Donald Trump speaks during an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington in December.
Unemployment rose to 4.6% last month, the highest increase since 2021. For African Americans, it’s way higher, at 8.3%. Kudos to Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.), among others, for demanding answers about what’s going on. Please don’t forget to drop off something really nice for them.
Also, as I’m sure you’re aware, America is on the verge of a healthcare crisis. Once federal subsidies to the Affordable Care Act expire Dec. 31, millions will see their health insurance costs skyrocket. This isn’t the kind of thing you and the elves typically work on up at the North Pole, but members of Congress have failed to come up with a solution.
If something drastic doesn’t happen soon, millions may wind up dropping their policies, which could prove catastrophic. We can’t count on that old Scrooge, I mean the president, who campaigned claiming he had a “concept of a plan” to fix healthcare. He hasn’t done it yet, and I doubt he ever will. Instead of boxed gifts, anything you can do to help us resolve this important issue would be deeply appreciated.
Trump really deserves that No. 1 spot on your naughty list this year. It’s one thing to try to secure America’s borders, but it’s a whole other thing to allow masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to carry out a reign of terror on undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
There have been many other lowlights from the first 11 months of his second term: imposing tariffs on foreign countries that have raised costs for American consumers, dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, and stopping diversity, equity, and inclusion in the federal government and anywhere else he can.
On top of everything else, Trump doesn’t even bother to hide his bigotry anymore. Under his leadership, officials have admitted white Afrikaners — descendants of the European colonizers whose segregationist practices led to the formalization of apartheid in South Africa — granting them refugee status while doing everything in his power to deport Black and brown migrants. I haven’t recovered from his calling Somalis “garbage” and saying that they should leave the country.
They and anyone else Trump doesn’t like have to go because he’s worried about “chain migration,” but first lady Melania Trump, who brought her parents to the States using the same process, can stay? Make it make sense.
Volunteers take phone calls from children asking where Santa is and when he will deliver presents to their house, during the annual NORAD Tracks Santa Operation, at the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, at Peterson Air Force Base, in Colorado Springs, Colo., last Christmas Eve.
I could go on and on, but I’m trying to embrace the holiday spirit. Please give my regards to Mrs. Claus and to all of the elves who work so hard to make the Yuletide season jolly.
When you make your way down my chimney, you will find your cookies and milk in their usual place. I don’t need anything personally, but please do what you can to make life easier for Americans scraping to get by in the so-called golden age of Trump. As a certain humbug himself might say, thank you for your attention to this matter!
For 29% of the world, the world’s 2.3 billion Christians, the days leading up to Dec. 25 are filled with traditions to help us prepare for one of the two most important religious celebrations of the year.
On Christmas Day, the mangers in Nativity scenes in front of churches across the nation, empty until now, will feature depictions of the infant Jesus.
Christians can then, as the carol goes, know the thrill of hope, and the weary world can rejoice.
For a day, an hour, a moment, Christians in the U.S. will seem to be one body in Christ — but perhaps not even the Nativity can bridge the gulf that has grown between Christians over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.
In fact, this holiday season, some of that deep division has flared up publicly, centered on Nativity scenes at churches — across denominations and geographies — that depict the Holy Family behind barbed wire, or flanked by federal agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
An “ICE WAS HERE” sign is posted in the empty spot for the baby Jesus at a Nativity scene displayed at St. Susanna Church in Dedham, Mass., earlier this month.
In Massachusetts, at the Roman Catholic St. Susanna Church, the Holy Family is missing — replaced by a sign saying “ICE WAS HERE.” At Oak Lawn Methodist in Dallas, the Holy Family is behind a barbed wire fence, with a sign that says “Holy is the refugee.” At Missiongathering Church in Charlotte, N.C., ICE agents wearing bulletproof vests surround the Holy Family.
At Oak Lawn United Methodist Church’s nativity, Mary and Joseph are silhouettes, surrounded by a chain link fence topped with razor wire. Their halos are old bicycle wheels. A shopping cart and two metal bins, frequently used by the unhoused as firepits, flank the scene.
And at Lake Street Church of Evanston, in Evanston, Ill., not only are ICE and CBP figures included, but Mary wears a gas mask, and the infant Jesus has his hands zip-tied together — the way a witness describes federal agents from ICE and CBP zip-tying children together after raiding an apartment building in Chicago in October — and is swaddled in a Mylar blanket like those used in detention centers.
The pastors involved say the Nativities remind everyone that “God is with us” now. The scene “reflects the context that Jesus would be coming into if he were born today,” St. Susanna’s Father Stephen Josoma told the National Catholic Reporter.
The Rev. Michael Woolf, pastor of Lake Street, was even more direct when he posted on Instagram after someone had removed the zip ties from the Jesus figure in his church’s Nativity:
“We restored the zip ties on baby Jesus. The #Christmas story is literally about an authoritarian ruler using violence, causing fear, and eventually driving the holy family to become refugees in Egypt. The parallels couldn’t be more clear between Scripture and our nativity. We’re not going anywhere.”
There is a long tradition of having Nativity scenes reflect contemporary concerns and realities. For example, during World War I, according to Emma Cieslik, a museum professional and religious scholar writing for the website Hyperallergic, the Holy Family huddled in the trenches. More recently, the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem created a Nativity scene with the infant Jesus cradled by rubble from the bombing of Gaza, and the Vatican itself hosted Nativity scenes depicting the war in Ukraine.
Still, there has been plenty of pushback. The bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston has been critical of St. Susanna’s Nativity, for example, and online comments at X dispute any characterization of the Holy Family as migrants or refugees. (Ahem, Matthew 2:13-14 anybody?)
But the strongest reactions have taken place at the churches in places that were impacted by Trump-directed immigration surges.
At Missiongathering in Charlotte, a person was caught on video knocking over the ICE figures in the Nativity and tearing up the “Know Your Rights” signs around it. At Lake Street Church on Chicago’s North Side, vandals knocked down the ICE and CBP figures, then battered and decapitated the Mary figure.
The violence is symbolic, but the fury is undeniable. This administration has so thoroughly demonized migrants and refugees, labeling all as criminals, that any hint of resemblance between today’s migrants and refugees and the Holy Family reads as anathema to some Christians. But anyone who thinks the parallels are politically driven needs to get their history straight. Way back in 1952, Pope Pius XII was writing in his Exsul Familia Nazarethana that “the migrant Holy Family of Nazareth, fleeing into Egypt, is the archetype of every refugee family.”
And here’s the thing: These Nativities that have enraged people aren’t exclusively reflecting the reality of migrants and refugees who are endangered by the Trump administration policies — they are reflecting the danger to all of us.
Folks may feel safe in their own status, but anyone can be treated the same way the administration is treating migrants and refugees. It is happening already, in fact, with federal agents refusing to accept valid U.S. birth certificates and passports as proof of citizenship.
“No document will protect you,” Malka Older, who heads up the international community of writers and human rights activists Global Voices, and has years of experience working at humanitarian aid, disaster risk reduction, and emergency preparedness organizations, wrote recently on Bluesky.
“All they have to do is take it from you and ‘lose’ it; take it from you and say you never gave it to them; claim it’s fake; make a new rule that you need another document. Citizenship is a made-up status that governments decide the rules for.”
Older said “it has never been about immigration. It’s racism, and it’s intimidation, and profit for some. Allowing it to happen to any group means it’s a possibility for everyone, and that’s how fascism maintains power.”
Which brings me back to Christmas Day, and what every pastor who has placed one of those ICE Nativity scenes knows.
It is a broken world now, and it was a broken world when Christ was born into it.
Amid the soaring Glorias, the sparkle of lights, and the colorful paper wrapped around gifts we give each other in echo of the gifts brought to the Christ child by the Magi, we should remember that three days after Christmas Day, Christians will be marking the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. The one the Holy Family fled from, the one that made them refugees.
They were warned, as we are warned, that authoritarian rulers will stop at nothing to get their way.
The tree in the corner of the family room in the Haddon Heights home is decorated simply with lights and balls.
Gold letters spelling Krissy and dated 1978 festoon a red ball hung in the middle of the tree. On a lower branch, white glitter on a blue ball spells Mom, 2012.
Other colored balls are scripted with various dates and the names Sophia, Nick, and Emily.
Kristin Corson-Ricci is both Krissy and Mom. Emily, now 20; Sophia, 18; and Nick, 14, are her children.
Kristin Corson-Ricci sits in front of her hearth, where stockings hang for Christmas, holding a copy of her new book.A table is decorated with Byers’ Choice caroler dolls.Even the powder room is decorated for the holiday, with snowflakes and flocked trees.The stairs are decorated with poinsettias and Christmas trees.
Corson-Ricci grew up in the two-story home where she now raises her family.
The balls were purchased over the years at the holiday bazaar at St. Rose, a Catholic elementary school in Haddon Heights. Corson-Ricci, now a physician liaison, and her children attended the school.
Corson-Ricci purchased the three-bedroom home from her parents, Phyllis and Rodger Corson, in 2002 when she was engaged.
She and her husband added a family room and powder room to the first floor and a primary bedroom with a beamed ceiling and bath on the second floor. The screened porch was enclosed for an office. The couple later divorced, and she kept the house.
A row of miniature wooden homes is on display in Corson-Ricci’s home.The Christmas tree is completely decorated with ornaments made at St. Rose elementary school. Corson-Ricci and her children were all students at the school.
Corson-Ricci retained the traditional decor of the 95-year-old home, painting the breakfast nook bright yellow. Kitchen cabinets and backsplash were green. “It was warm and homey,” she said.
Calamity came in 2022. Corson-Ricci returned to the house after four days at the Shore to find it flooded. Workers repairing the heating system had left water running.
The oak floors inlaid with mahogany were soaked, as were walls, ceilings, and furnishings. Fortunately, photo albums and books were stacked on shelves that did not get wet. And the family’s collections of Christmas balls, 47 Byers’ Choice caroler dolls, and seven nutcrackers were stored in the dry attic.
For over a year, Corsin-Ricci and her kids camped out in hotels and then in a rented condo. Professionals told her it would make more sense to tear the house down, but she said, “No. I wanted my home back,” she recalls.
A corner shelf is decorated with Byers’ Choice caroler dolls.The dining table is decorated with holiday-printed china and florals.
With the help of Reliance Contracting in Medford, Corson-Ricci rebuilt.
The project gave her an opportunity to open up the first floor, removing walls between the dining room, kitchen, and breakfast nook.
Now there are sleek black chairs, a white dining table, and white kitchen cabinets, which store contents of the buffet and china cabinet that were ruined in the flooding. Walls are heather gray in the dining area, kitchen, and living room with its original fireplace. The pale-blue family room is furnished with a blue couch and blue-patterned chair.
The new layout is “great for entertaining,” Corson-Ricci said, and her more “monotone” decor is a good backdrop for Christmas decorations she and her parents have acquired.
On Dec. 5 she hung a giant lighted wreath on the gray siding over her front door and opened her home to over 400 people attending the annual Haddon Heights Library Holiday House Tour.
The kitchen counters, light fixtures, and cabinets are adorned with festive candles, garland, ornaments, and wreaths.
Visitors admired the holly-patterned white china plates and cookie jar Phyllis Corson purchased in the 1970s.
A Byers’ Choice dancing couple Corson-Ricci bought her parents tops a corner etagere. On the shelf below is a singing baker she and Rodger bought for Phyllis the month before he died in 2015.
Nutcrackers in red and green velvet stand at attention on the wine cooler.
To entertain children on the tour, Corson-Ricci hid a miniature elf in the refrigerator and another behind the window of a closet door.
The third elf was seated on the etagere reading a tiny version of her mystery novel, published last month. Copies of The Game of Life … The Final Clue, Corson-Ricci’s first novel, were discreetly stacked nearby. Several tour-goers bought them.
An Elf on the Shelf is holding a miniature version of Ricci’s new book.A cozy-looking Elf on the Shelf is on display behind the window of a closet door.
Besides displaying family treasures, including her mother’s dollhouse decorated for the holidays, Corson-Ricci crafted Christmas trees out of stacked books and purchased snowflakes to hang in the powder room.
The day before the tour she decided the pendant lights above the kitchen island needed embellishing. Gold balls ordered from Amazon arrived on time.
Sometimes you want something new to go with the old.
Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.
Harry Kalas loved Christmas. The holiday combined two of his favorite things: singing and making people happy. So when Andy Wheeler, a producer at CBS3, approached the broadcaster about reading ’Twas the Night Before Christmas in 2002, Kalas didn’t have to give it much thought.
“I’ll come right in,” he replied.
The station was recording a segment of five local broadcasters reciting the poem. Kalas would be featured alongside Marc Zumoff and Tom McGinnis of the 76ers, Merrill Reese of the Eagles, and Jim Jackson of the Flyers.
It aired Dec. 24, and a few years later, while cleaning out his desk, Wheeler found the unedited Kalas video. He watched it through, and suddenly, an idea popped into his mind.
They had the footage. Why not use the Kalas version in its entirety?
Wheeler (no relation to longtime Phillies announcer Chris Wheeler)presented it to producer Paul Pozniak and sports director Beasley Reece, who signed off. Christmas Eve was always a slow news day. This would give them something seasonal that undoubtedly would resonate with their audience.
A decades-long tradition was born. Barring breaking news (and Eagles games), the station has aired Kalas’ reading of the poem every Dec. 24 since 2005.
Management hasno plans to change that.
“Obviously, people love Christmas and people love Harry Kalas,” Wheeler said. “And having him read that story, with his voice that everybody is so used to … I think people miss him and miss hearing him.
“It’s almost like watching a home movie of Christmases past.”
A broadcaster for all seasons
To Phillies employees, Kalas’ voice was as synonymous with Christmas as it was with summer. He loved carols and often sang them at the team’s holiday party.
The broadcaster would do this in a way only he could. Toward the end of the evening’s festivities, Kalas would ask those gathered to join hands to “sing the greatest Christmas song ever.” As they swayed back and forth, he’d belt out “Silent Night” in his baritone voice.
Dan Stephenson, the Phillies’ longtime video productions manager, compared it to a star gracing a stage.
“We knew at some point in the evening that Harry was going to be the entertainment,” he said. “And that was good enough for all of us.”
Harry Kalas in the booth at the Vet in July 2000.
This wasn’t Kalas’ only December tradition. In the early 2000s, he visited retirement homes in the Philadelphia area to provide seasonal cheer.
Like the Phillies’ holiday party, these visits inevitably ended with Christmas carols. John Brazer, who worked in the team’s marketing department for 33 years, remembered driving Kalas to a retirement community in Media in 2005.
On the ride there, Brazer asked the broadcaster if he enjoyed singing to the retirees.
“John, I tell you what,” Brazer recalled Kalas saying. “I love it. I love Christmastime. But the songs I really love doing are the religious songs — ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Silent Night.’”
He got emotional for a moment, then abruptly changed his tune.
“But I really don’t like when they do a secular song. I’m not a big fan of ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ and stuff like that.”
Brazer and Kalas arrived at the retirement home a few minutes later. Kalas began taking requests, as an employee played along on the piano.
The first four songs were religious in nature. The fifth was not.
“Someone said, ‘Hey, Harry, can you sing ‘Jingle Bells?’” Brazer said. “And he [turned to] me with this disgusted look.”
Despite his personal opinions, Kalas launched into an upbeat rendition of the song with a big smile on his face, as if it were his favorite carol of all.
Harry Kalas was legendary within the community of Phillies fans.
Brazer relayed the story to Stephenson, who wasn’t surprised. Kalas would sign every autograph with glee. He’d get all sorts of requests — fans asking him to record voicemail greetings, or to read the names of their bridal parties — and would always oblige.
It was about making people feel like they mattered.
“There was no way he wasn’t going to sing it,” Stephenson said with a laugh. “That was classic Harry.”
Harry Kalas couldn’t resist tossing a reference to longtime broadcast partner Richie Ashburn (right) into his Christmas recitation.
‘Like he was reading to his grandkids’
Wheeler had a December tradition, too. When he was a kid, growing up in Aston, his parents would read ’Twas the Night Before Christmas every Dec. 24.
The idea of having play-by-play announcers recite the poem on air was exciting, but when it came to Kalas, the young producer was nervous.
He grew up listening to the voice of the Phillies, and was worried about coming off as inexperienced (or worse, clueless). But when Kalas arrived to KYW’s studios at 5th and Market, he brought calm to a chaotic scene.
The only Christmas tree the producers could find was in the lobby, so they had Kalas do his taping there. Station employees filtered in and out, causing quite a bit of background noise. A gaggle of children with limited attention spans sat in front of him.
But none of that seemed to faze Kalas. Wheeler handed him the book (bought from a nearby Borders), and the broadcaster began to read.
His audience was entranced.
“It was almost like he played the role of Santa Claus,” Pozniak said. “With his voice, and the way he relates to people. He wasn’t too big to be talking to kids he didn’t know. It was like he was reading to his grandkids or something.”
Kalas sat in front of the tree for about 40 minutes, asking producers for feedback and reciting lines until he was satisfied. He even added his own creative flair.
Near the end of the poem, the broadcaster realized there was a reference to a pipe. He decided to give a nod to his partner, Richie Ashburn, who famously smoked in the booth.
“And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow,” Kalas read. “The stump of a pipe — like Whitey’s — he held tight in his teeth …”
Kalas grinned at Wheeler.
“Had to get that in there,” he said.
Harry Kalas and CBS3 producer Andy Wheeler at the 2008 World Series.
It wasn’t until a few years later, when Wheeler found the old recording, that he realized just how special Kalas’ version was. So KYW, and subsequently CBS3, began running it every Christmas Eve.
After Kalas died of heart disease in April 2009, the station considered ending the tradition. Wheeler and Pozniak were concerned that it would be in poor taste.
But Reece insisted they continue.
“This is a way of keeping him close,” he told the producers.
Years later, the recitation still has that effect. From start to finish, it captures Kalas perfectly. You can see his humanity, and his humor. You can hear the richness in his voice.
And if you listen closely enough, you can even catch his favorite carol, softly humming in the background: “Silent Night.”
