A boxing ring with heavy bags, an updated gymnasium, and a revived pool now greet visitors at the Johnny Sample Recreation Center in Cobbs Creek, following a $15 million renovation that officials and community members celebrated with a ribbon-cutting on August 3. The West Philadelphia facility, tucked inside Cobbs Creek Park, also received new HVAC and roofing systems and improved accessibility connecting it to the park's trail network.
Mayor Cherelle Parker, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, State Senator Anthony H. Williams, and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier all attended the reopening ceremony, according to the City of Philadelphia. The project, part of the city's Rebuild initiative, was designed by SITIO Architecture + Urbanism, built by Daniel J. Keating Company as general contractor, and shepherded through community engagement and design management by Fairmount Park Conservancy, which served as the designated Rebuild project user.
Per PHILADELPHIA.Today, the overhaul also added a two-story addition with flexible activity rooms and a multipurpose space alongside the new boxing training room. Aparna Palantino, deputy managing director of Philadelphia's Capital Program Office, said people closely connected to communities should participate in the building process, according to the same report. WHYY also reported on the reopening and renovation, per PHILADELPHIA.Today's account of the ceremony.
Honoring a Three-League Champion Who Settled in Cobbs Creek
The recreation center was renamed in honor of Johnny Sample in 2019, and the name carries real weight in professional football history. Sample stands as the only player ever to win an NFL Championship, in 1958 with the Baltimore Colts, an AFL Championship, in 1968 with the New York Jets, and a Super Bowl, in Super Bowl III in 1969, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.
After his playing career ended, Sample settled in Cobbs Creek, where he became known for mentoring neighborhood children, playing competitive tennis, and hosting a sports radio show. He went on to earn a U.S. Tennis Association national number-one ranking in the 45-and-older division and hosted talk shows on local stations WHAT and WYSP, according to Mural Arts Philadelphia, which notes a public mural at the rec center commemorates his football, tennis, and broadcasting legacy.
His daughter, Evelyn Sample, said she and her brother wanted their father's name and legacy to live on in the community, and she recalled that her father coached young people at the center, according to PHILADELPHIA.Today's reporting. Her comments echo the spirit of the ribbon-cutting, which drew both political leaders and longtime neighborhood residents to the site along Cobbs Creek Parkway.
A $15 Million Stack of Public and Philanthropic Funding
The renovation's funding largely came from Philadelphia's beverage tax and the city's Rebuild initiative, with additional support from state and local partners. Financial backing for the project included $900,000 from Pennsylvania's Local Share Account grant program, $300,000 in municipal capital funds secured by Gauthier, and $200,000 from the Knight Foundation layered on top of core beverage tax revenues, according to the City of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia's 1.5-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, enacted in 2016 to fund Rebuild, universal pre-K, and community schools, generated roughly $68 million in 2024, according to Children First, even as city council members continue debating its economic impact on local merchants. As of late 2025, Rebuild had completed 23 of its 72 planned capital projects across city parks, recreation centers, and libraries, representing nearly $63 million in construction out of a total planned investment exceeding $500 million, per Green Building United.
Youth Craftsmanship and a Broader Corridor Revival
Inside the new lobby, custom benches, desks, and reception millwork were handcrafted by local youth through Tiny WPA's Building Heroes program, using reclaimed wood salvaged from the center's old gymnasium floor, according to Fairmount Park Conservancy. The detail ties the renovation directly to the young people the center is meant to serve, turning salvaged materials from the old building into fixtures in the new one.
The Johnny Sample project sits within a larger wave of investment along Cobbs Creek Parkway, part of a combined public spend exceeding $30 million that also includes ongoing upgrades to the neighboring Cobbs Creek Environmental Center, per Fairmount Park Conservancy. The recreation center itself sits within Cobbs Creek Park, an 851-acre greenspace that also contains Philadelphia's oldest municipal golf course and the Laura Sims Skate House.
Hoodline previously covered a planting day at the site during construction, and the rec center's reopening follows other recent Rebuild milestones nearby, including the reopening of Southwest Philly's Kingsessing Rec Center after a $27 million makeover and the debut of the Tiger Woods-designed short course at the adjacent Cobbs Creek Golf & Education Campus. Together, the projects mark a sustained push to modernize West Philadelphia's public recreation infrastructure through the city's beverage-tax-funded Rebuild program.
