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As Frank Malfitano traveled the country working in the music industry, he saw dozens of murals on the sides of buildings in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. The murals honor significant people in the cities’ cultures and histories, and he wondered if Syracuse could have one, too. When the pandemic shut down music festivals, he got to work turning a mural into a reality.  

Malfitano began meeting with artists and sponsors to bring his idea into existence. After months of planning, it was finalized — a six-story mural honoring four Syracuse basketball legends on East Onondaga Street in downtown Syracuse.

“(Murals) are a prominent part of the landscape. They become a part of the fabric of the community,” Malfitano said.

The project has received strong support from the Syracuse Common Council and multiple corporate sponsors. The plan features four trailblazers of basketball from Syracuse: WNBA superstar and Syracuse native Breanna Stewart, Syracuse University’s Manny Breland and Syracuse Nationals champions Earl Lloyd and Dolph Schayes.

The four athletes all represent different struggles that face our society, Malfitano said. Breland and Lloyd experienced racism at SU and in the NBA, respectively. Schayes was one of the most notable Jewish athletes of his day and dealt with anti-Semitism in his career. And Stewart is facing sexism as one of the world’s most notable female athletes today.

“We’ve seen a renewed wave of misogyny and anti-Semitism and racism, and we can never progress as a city until we get rid of that,” Malfitano said. “We need creative ways to address it, and that’s what I love about (the mural).”

Breland is a Syracuse native and was one of the first Black players to be on scholarship for SU basketball in 1953. As a senior, he led the Orange to their first NCAA tournament in 1957, where they advanced to the Elite Eight. He later became the first Black varsity high school basketball coach in New York state and a principal in the Syracuse City School District.

A look at the before and after of the proposed mural’s installment.

Schayes played alongside Lloyd on the 1955 Syracuse Nationals championship team. Throughout his career, he was named to 12 All-Star games, received six All-NBA First Team selections and later coached the Philadelphia 76ers. His son Danny played basketball at SU in the late 1970s and was drafted in the first round by the Utah Jazz in 1981.

Lloyd was the NBA’s first Black player in 1950. The Virginia native played most of his career with the Nationals and won an NBA Championship in 1955. He became the NBA’s first Black assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons in 1968 and later served as the Pistons’ head coach for the 1971-72 season. Both Schayes and Lloyd are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Stewart graduated from Cicero-North Syracuse High School in 2012 and won AP Player of the Year three times at UConn. She won four consecutive NCAA Championships with the Huskies and two WNBA championships in 2018 and 2020. She was also named a Sportsperson of the Year by Sports Illustrated in 2020 because of her outspoken support for social justice causes.

“What those four people we’re going to honor exemplify about Syracuse is resilience and grit, persevering through a lot of difficult times but being triumphant in the end,” said Common Councilor Pat Hogan, of the 2nd District. “That’s what a lot of people in the neighborhoods here have done over the last year, and that’s always been the Syracuse spirit.”

Malfitano enlisted Los Angeles-based muralist Jonas Never, who’s painted several murals of athletes, for the project in Syracuse. Never’s photorealistic style is what made him stick out, Malfitano said.

“Several years ago, I think the first thing I saw by him was a mural he did of Kobe Bryant, and I thought, ‘This is our guy,’” Malfitano said.

Malfitano wants to start the project in July, but that relies on funding. He estimated the total cost of the project to be about $150,000, with a potential $75,000 commitment from the city. The council passed a funding resolution unanimously last week, but it still needs approval from Mayor Ben Walsh. 

The mayor’s office has some reservations about the funding, however, citing that the council did not specify where the $75,000 would come from. Syracuse Chief Policy Officer Greg Loh said that the administration is listening to community input and that the mural could be a “positive addition” to the downtown landscape.

The project has also received private support from local business and organizations, including SU. Malfitano is still looking for more sponsors to help cover the cost, especially if the funding from the city doesn’t pan out.

Malfitano wants the mural to be the first of a series of murals in the city. He wants to showcase Syracuse’s notable figures of all backgrounds and make the murals an inspiration to those who see them.

“I hope (people) look deeper into the stories of these four individuals and realize that there’s a thread here that connects all of us and that Syracuse has played a major role in social justice,” Malfitano said.

The goal of the project is to use public art as a tool of unity, Malfitano and Hogan said. It would also draw people to downtown and revitalize the community both aesthetically and economically, Hogan said.

“This is probably one of the most important public art projects ever considered by the city of Syracuse,” he said.

Published on April 7, 2021 at 10:39 pm

Contact Nick: nickrobertson@dailyorange.com | @NickRobertsonSU