Family & Education

In the Ring With Rocky Balboa: Some Advice for Young Men  

Young men can find inspiration in Rocky’s determination and sense of mission.
In the Ring With Rocky Balboa: Some Advice for Young Men  
If you want your dreams to come true, you need to lay the groundwork— just as Rocky did. Biba Kayewich
Jeff Minick
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In Sylvester Stallone’s first movie about Rocky Balboa, the boxer ends his morning jog by trying to run up the 72 steps leading up to the Philadelphia Art Museum. When he finally makes it, Rocky does a victory dance at the top, looking down at the city of Philadelphia. That moment of triumph is one of Hollywood’s great iconic scenes. To this day some visitors to the city imitate this run up the steps.

For use in his movie “Rocky III,” Stallone commissioned a 2,000-pound, 8-foot-6-inch bronze statue of Rocky and had it placed at the top of the stairs outside the art museum. After filming, he left the statue in place as a gift to the city. Although it attracted hordes of fans and tourists, some critics complained that the statue was kitsch, and after a few months, it was moved for a time to the city’s sports arena. Today, it stands near the bottom of the art museum’s steps and still draws thousands of viewers annually.
Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
Author
Jeff Minick has four children and a growing platoon of grandchildren. For 20 years, he taught history, literature, and Latin to seminars of homeschooling students in Asheville, N.C. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.” Today, he lives and writes in Front Royal, Va.