Glory

The Civil War historian Shelby Foote says that the suicidal charge on the Confederate position at Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863, by the black soldiers in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment had little military value but enormous meaning. "It has relevance today because it's yet another instance of a black man proving what white man never had to prove," Foote said. "They took a giant step forward that day. " But as Edward Zwick's magnificent Glory so movingly reminds us, the price was terribly high.

An unidentified youngster is lost in a sea of flags during the Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of last night's session of the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas.

Last time the Phillies won the World Series - the only time, we're sorry to remind you - was in 1980. Twenty years ago. Seems like only yesterday, does it? Not to anyone under, say, 25, it doesn't. More than an entire generation has grown up aware only tangentially - from what Dad's told them or what they've read in the papers - that a Phillies team was ever good enough to go all the way. The sorry performance of the current Phillies does cast a shadow on this weekend's 20th-anniversary festivities commemorating That Championship Season.

The Rage's renewed progress came to a stop here last night as the Glory romped to an 88-73 victory at Morehouse Olympic Arena. It was the first time in four meetings this season that player-coach Teresa Edwards' squad defeated the Rage (7-11), who had won their last two games. Atlanta (9-9), which reached .500 for the first time this season, is beginning to play like the title contender it was expected to be because of the strength of its post players. That was apparent to the crowd of 3,575 who saw the Glory grab their sixth victory in their last seven games.

TO WHAT end is cloning? As do many people, I agree with Ms. Christine Flowers' Jan. 2 op-ed article ("I Love You Just the Way . . . I Am") regarding cloning humans. Even if every human being alive today were given the power to change his or her appearance, the human race would still be as versatile and beautiful as it is today. Jews and Christians believe that man was created in God's image. Muslims believe God created mankind in various colors, shapes and sizes, speaking a myriad of languages as testimony to his artistry and power.

A NY SISTAH GIRL knows that hair care is at the root of many an issue for some black folks. "The Tenderheaded Diaries" will explore this territory at the Painted Bride beginning tomorrow. The show will include skits on such familiar topics as "The Art of Greasing the Scalp" as well as video diaries of real people telling "unbeweavable" hair stories. The production, which premiered in Philly in December, was inspired by the book, "Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories" by Juliette Harris and Pamela Johnson, (Pocket Books, $14)

Glory, an account of the first black regiment organized to fight the Confederacy, is a splendidly cast film that examines two kinds of courage. The volunteers needed the valor to face the enemy and the strength to confront the massive prejudice they encountered behind their own lines. They acquitted themselves nobly on both counts. At once moving and inspiring, the movie is Hollywood's finest - and most accurate - look at the war. "Glory" at the Free Library of Philadelphia, Central Library, Montgomery Auditorium, Logan Square, at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Ridley senior defenseman Steve Naumowich has proved Sean Ralph wrong. Ralph, a former standout Ridley goalie, was Naumowich's youth-lacrosse coach back in sixth grade. "At the time, everybody wanted to be attackmen or midfielders," Naumowich said. "They wanted to score the goals, get all the glory. "Coach Ralph was looking for some people to make the switch to defense. I remember him telling us that defensemen never get their names in the paper, never get any attention.

WITH THE passing of Bobby Thomson yesterday, I started to think about the importance of his Great Home Run. Sure, many others are just as much or more prominent for winning bigger prizes, like Bill Mazeroski's and Joe Carter's, both ending the World Series. And who could forget Kirk Gibson's painful but joyous romp around the bases after his bolt ended a World Series game? And, true, Thomson's "Shot Heard Round the World" only put the New York Giants in the World Series, which they would eventually lose.

Dawn Staley was back in the neighborhood last night and played as if she had never left. The Rage point guard had a game-high 28 points, including six three-pointers, and her squad got back on the winning side with an 84-71 victory over Atlanta at the new Apollo on Temple's campus. Staley scored 10 of the last 11 points. "I'm scoring more because Lisa told me to be more aggressive," Staley said, referring to coach Lisa Boyer. The Apollo isn't far from Dobbins Tech, where Staley played her high school ball, or the North Philadelphia playground courts where she honed her game against the guys.

London, ho! Two Philadelphia-based companies will be seeking gold-medal performances at the Summer Olympics: food vendor Aramark and media giant Comcast Corp., whose NBC Sports division holds the U.S. broadcast rights. Officials from both companies spoke last week about the Games, scheduled for July 27 through Aug. 12, at a meeting hosted by the British American Business Council of Greater Philadelphia at the Cira Centre. It kicked off the fanfare for the global event, which Nick McInnes, a deputy consul-general with the British Consulate, said could generate $35 billion in economic activity.

Among the 400-meter hurdles contestants who took to the track at Franklin Field for the opening race of the Friday program at the 1976 Penn Relays was a tall and slender man wearing glasses, whom few people recognized by his face or his name. But Edwin Moses, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, was familiar with Franklin Field, having trained there in each of the two previous summers in the hours away from his work as an industrial engineering intern with Lukens Steel Co. of Coatesville.

Archbishop Carroll coach Chuck Creighton has been through these hectic, pre-title-game days before. Tuesday night, the Patriots celebrated a 65-43 win over Spring-Ford that propelled them into their third state final in the four years since the Catholic League joined the PIAA. That left only Wednesday and Thursday for the team to practice for three hours and for Creighton to watch several hours of game film on Oakland Catholic, Carroll's opponent in the PIAA Class AAAA girls' basketball final.

The Academy Awards ceremony is, by nature, a rite of self-congratulation and self-love - the movie industry showers plaudits and prizes on itself for the work of the last year, but also for achievements of a lifetime. Venerable stars and filmmakers are honored for the length and breadth of their careers, vintage clips are spliced into thematic reels, the actors, screenwriters, shooters, costumers, composers, and directors who passed away in the preceding 12 months are remembered.

The most worthless thing one can do at Niagara Falls is merely stop and look at the falls. If you don't get wet, you haven't gotten your time or money's worth out of your trip. For those who don't know their way around this world wonder, here is a Niagara Falls primer. Where exactly is Niagara Falls? There is a two-part answer to this question since there are the cities and the water. First, the cities. Niagara Falls, N.Y., sits across the Niagara River from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The moment you enter "Van Gogh Up Close" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the exhibition tells you that it's something special, one of those uncommon revelations of artistic soul that once seen, can never be forgotten. The trigger is a small painting of several sunflower heads, brilliant yellow against an azure background. Sunflowers are Vincent van Gogh's painterly signature, so why does this image, lent by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, make such a powerful impact? It even overshadows a much larger, and more typical, still life of sunflowers in a vase that hangs within arm's length.

Amos Alonzo Stagg, Glenn "Pop" Warner, Knute Rockne, Paul "Bear" Bryant, and now Joe Paterno. The legendary Penn State coach, who died Sunday after battling lung cancer, has joined a pantheon of departed gridiron generals who pushed college football to its lofty place among America's pastimes. Even the tarnish to his reputation that Paterno deserved, for failing to act more decisively after the alleged rape of a young boy was reported to him, won't keep football historians from giving him his due as one of the greatest coaches ever to walk the sidelines.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author of the just-released The End of Sparta In Greek mythology, the prophetess Cassandra was doomed both to tell the truth and to be ignored. Our modern version is a bankrupt Greece that we seem to discount. News accounts abound now of impoverished Athens residents scrounging pharmacies for scarce aspirin - as Greece is squeezed to make interest payments to the supposedly euro-pinching German banks.

AT TIMES, Aaron McKie gets that feeling again, the one he carries around in his pocket as if it is his license. Andre Iguodala feathers a pass to Evan Turner in midflight for a slam and the Wells Fargo crowd collectively hits its feet. Elton Brand hits the deck for a loose ball under his own basket. Evan Turner finishes off a tic-tac-toe fastbreak slam. Jrue Holiday goes behind his back on a drive down the lane in traffic, slamming it as punctuation, and the 15,201 hit their feet again.

There was a sign on the door outside the famous old gymnasium: "Camden High Basketball - Worth The Price Of Admission. " Finally, truth in advertising. Camden might not be a South Jersey power anymore, although the Panthers are moving back in that direction in a serious hurry. They might not be threats to win the program's 12th state title this March and force maintenance to repaint that center circle on the floor of Clarence Turner Gymnasium. But something is happening with this proud, old program.