Eagles Pro Bowl quarterback Carson Wentz donated a signed Eagles helmet as a token of support.

Even before the Philadelphia Eagles – finally – won the Super Bowl to allow the city to join the exclusive club of cities that have won championships in the other three major sports and a Super Bowl (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York are the others) Philadelphia had as rich a sports history as anywhere. Soon, there will be a museum celebrating that history

The Museum of Sports is one step closer to being a reality, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day (no city loves sports as much as Philadelphia) the plans for the museum were announced at its future site in the Jetro warehouse on Darien St. across from Lincoln Financial Field in South Philadelphia.

It’s scheduled to open sometime in 2019 and hopes to draw on the nearly nine million fans who attend about 400 events a year at the sports complex.

Additionally, the museum will be educational and interactive making it a destination for families visiting the city and school kids on field trips.

The museum – getting inspiration from two sportsmen who have passed on, Ed Snider and Lewis Katz – is headed by founder and CEO Lou Scheinfeld, who is a longtime sports executive. Dr. Nicholas DePace, a cardiologist with a renowned sports memorabilia collection, some of which is on display at the DePace Sports Museum in Collingswood, NJ, is vice president. Ken Goldin, head of Goldin Auctions, a leading auction house in the sports collectibles industry, is a principal.

Goldin and Dr. DePace emphasized that many of the displays will change regularly using memorabilia from both DePace’s collection and items that are up for bid from Goldin Auctions, making nearly every visit to the museum unique.

“The museum will have things you can touch,” Dr. DePace said as he held up a game-used football from the recent NFC Championship game between the Eagles and Minnesota Vikings.

Tossing it to Philadelphia City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson, DePace added, “people are going to be able to touch these things. It’s not a baseball card, it’s not manufactured memorabilia, it’s history. The mission of this museum goes far beyond just looking at [memorabilia].”

Goldin also stressed that all items on display will be authenticated.

Former Pennsylvania governor and Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell is in charge of fund raising for the museum which is a non-profit 501c3 corporation. They are seeking $ 10 million to help change the 20,000 square feet of space that has been leased from Jetro into the museum and they’re hoping fans will help by making donations via the website themuseumofsports.org. In addition, they’ll be holding an auction of donated items with the proceeds going to the museum.

Besides the educational aspects, Rendell gave two more reasons for having a sports museum in Philadelphia.

“Sports it the great leveler,” he said, “it brings people together. There’s nothing in our society that brings all people together. It doesn’t matter what your race is, what your religion is. It doesn’t matter how old you are – old, young, middle aged – we can talk about our teams. That shoe shine guy, his opinion about who should start at quarterback next year for the Eagles is as relevant as the richest guy in town.

“Secondly, in my judgment – and in my year as DNC Chair I traveled to every major city in the country numerous times – this is the city that cares more about sports,” he added as he pounded the podium for emphasis. “This is a city that lives and dies with its teams, There’s no question about that.” *