{"id":10061,"date":"2003-06-01T19:45:13","date_gmt":"2003-06-01T23:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/?p=10061"},"modified":"2018-08-02T19:48:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-02T23:48:30","slug":"rocky-statue-up-for-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/2003\/06\/01\/rocky-statue-up-for-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Statue Up For Bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Image courtesy and \u00a9 Schomberg Studios.<\/center><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

Harvey Abrams<\/b>,\u00a0President<\/b>\u00a0of the\u00a0International Institute for Sport and Olympic History<\/b>\u00a0sent me the following press release<\/p>\n

\n

YO!<\/span><\/p>\n

ROCKY<\/b>\u00a0can be yours!<\/p>\n

The bronze statue of\u00a0Rocky Balboa<\/b>, the boxer made famous in the\u00a0Sylvester Stallone<\/b>\u00a0movies\u00a0ROCKY III<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0ROCKY V<\/b>, is available to any benefactor who is willing to donate at least $5 million ($5,000,000) to a Pennsylvania non-profit corporation by June 18, 2003.<\/p>\n

Don’t bother bringing your moving van to\u00a0Philadelphia<\/b>, though. The statue that stands in front of the\u00a0First Union Spectrum<\/b>\u00a0isn’t the one available. It’s the other one that’s available. Actually — it’s\u00a0ROCKY # 3<\/b>\u00a0that’s available.<\/p>\n

The monumental bronze statue of\u00a0ROCKY<\/b>\u00a0is world famous and once stood atop the 72 steps of the\u00a0Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/b>. The statue was made in 1982 for the\u00a0Sylvester Stallone\u00a0<\/b>movie\u00a0ROCKY III<\/b>. After the filming was over,\u00a0Stallone<\/b>\u00a0graciously donated the statue to the City of\u00a0Philadelphia<\/b>. What followed was a firestorm of debate.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The Art Museum didn’t want the statue on their steps because they claimed it wasn’t art, but rather just a movie prop. The media and public jumped into the debate. In the end, the statue was moved. The\u00a0Philadelphia Art Commission<\/b>, the people responsible for public art in the city, moved the 1,500-pound statue to a new location. Today it stands in front of the\u00a0First Union Spectrum<\/b>\u00a0in\u00a0South Philadelphia<\/b>, where other sports art can also be found.<\/p>\n

But in\u00a0State College, Pennsylvania<\/b>\u00a0— the hometown of\u00a0Penn State University<\/b>\u00a0— a new organization was seeking sports art from around the world to decorate its planned sports museum. The\u00a0International Institute for Sport and Olympic History (IISOH)<\/b>\u00a0was planning to open a Library and Museum devoted to the History of Sport, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, Sport in Art and the Olympic Games.
\nThe\u00a0IISOH<\/b>, a non-profit educational, literary and research corporation, originally was planning to purchase a 25,000-square-foot building to begin operations in 2005.<\/p>\n

But plans changed. Now the group is planning to build a 25,000-square-foot library, 100,000-square-foot museum and a theatre\/auditorium, restaurant\/cafe, outdoor sculpture gardens, and lots of sports fields and facilities on a campus up to 300 acres in order to enhance its educational mission.<\/p>\n

Then along came\u00a0ROCKY #2<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0ROCKY # 3<\/b>. The president of the\u00a0IISOH<\/b>,\u00a0Harvey Abrams<\/b>, found that the artist had actually made the\u00a0ROCKY<\/b>\u00a0statue in a limited edition of three. So the\u00a0IISOH<\/b>\u00a0signed a contract to buy the remaining statues that have been in storage for 20 years. In fact — they are not even statues — they are still only in the original mold and would be cast in bronze as\u00a0ROCKY #2\/3<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0ROCKY #3\/3<\/b>.
\nThe Institute decided that\u00a0ROCKY # 2<\/b>\u00a0will grace its museum in central\u00a0Pennsylvania<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0ROCKY # 3<\/b>\u00a0will be given away as a gift to a major donor. The benefactor has to donate a minimum of $5 million dollars. The\u00a0IISOH<\/b>is raising money for the\u00a0Institute<\/b>‘s Boxing endowment and Operating Fund. The benefactor is donating money to the non-profit Institute and will eligible for a tax write-off less the actual cost of the statue which will only be revealed after the donation. IRS rules prevail, of course!<\/p>\n

The bronze statue is the creation of artist\u00a0A. Thomas Schomberg<\/b>, whose monumental bronzes grace museums and estates worldwide.\u00a0Schomberg<\/b>\u00a0created\u00a0ROCKY<\/b>\u00a0in 1982 for\u00a0Sylvester Stallone<\/b>\u00a0and the movie\u00a0ROCKY III<\/b>. The statue has been used in other films such as\u00a0MANNIQUIN<\/b>\u00a0(Andrew McCarthy<\/b>) and PHILADELPHIA (Tom Hanks<\/b>) as a backdrop. It was used again in\u00a0ROCKY V<\/b>\u00a0and for that film the statue was moved to the Art Museum for filming, then returned to the\u00a0Spectrum<\/b>\u00a0permanently.<\/p>\n

Why does the benefactor have until June 18? Well — according to\u00a0Abrams<\/b>\u00a0— a donation of $5 million creates the Boxing Endowment and will also allow the Institute to make the land acquisition and start the design process with architects. Hey — what’s $5 million these days? The\u00a0IISOH<\/b>\u00a0still has to work on the larger $25 million donations that will endow the Library, the Museum and the Theatre.<\/p>\n

So — boxing fans —\u00a0ROCKY<\/b>\u00a0can grace your estate if you have the money.
\nThen after you get it you can build 72 steps so you can run and jump to your heart’s content.<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact Information:<\/p>\n

International Institute for Sport and Olympic History<\/b>
\nPO Box 175
\nState College, PA 16804
\ntel: (814) 237-8331
\nfax: (814) 237-8332<\/p>\n

Harvey Abrams<\/b>, President
\nBruce Lorich<\/b>, Treasurer<\/p>\n

email: Olympicbks@aol.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.harveyabramsbooks.com\/press1.html
\nhttp:\/\/www.harveyabramsbooks.com\/501c3directory.html
\nhttp:\/\/www.harveyabramsbooks.com\/Rocky.html
\nhttp:\/\/www.harveyabramsbooks.com\/501c3board.html<\/p>\n

The International Institute for Sport and Olympic History is a Pennsylvania non-profit educational, literary and research corporation under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. The IISOH is organized to operate a Library and Museum devoted to the History of Sport, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, Sport in Art and the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\n

I wonder if anyone will make a donation.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0Craig Zablo<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image courtesy and \u00a9 Schomberg Studios. Harvey Abrams,\u00a0President\u00a0of the\u00a0International Institute for Sport and Olympic History\u00a0sent me the following press release YO! ROCKY\u00a0can be yours! The bronze statue of\u00a0Rocky Balboa, the boxer made famous in the\u00a0Sylvester Stallone\u00a0movies\u00a0ROCKY III\u00a0and\u00a0ROCKY V, is available to any benefactor who is willing to donate at least $5 million ($5,000,000) to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,43,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-78","category-rocky-3","category-rocky-4"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3r2Pe-2Ch","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10062,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061\/revisions\/10062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallonezone.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}