Lydia Hope Victor often jokes about how much worse off she’d be if she’d grown up in Ohio instead of Philadelphia.
Her parents arrived there from India before settling in Philly. Her father learned about American culture through Ohio State and then Eagles football. He came to love the brutal sport and passed his fandom down to his children, but who knows what would have happened if the family had been forced to root for the Cleveland Browns.
“Obviously, thankfully [he] became a Birds fan,” she said.
Victor, 22, is a graphic designer and multimedia artist based in Elkins Park whose work is focused on sports and the overlooked elements that shape them. Her work across mediums is for the casuals and diehards alike, including an Allen Iverson sweater vest, fan zines, and banners reading, “Find a New Slant” and “I’m Sorry I Just Wanted a Frosty”.
She’s in the middle of a season-long Sixers project that she’s sharing on social media called 82 Games. After every contest, Victor is creating an illustration based upon what happened on the court, with easter egg references, too.
Victor’s passion for basketball was molded by post-The Process-era Sixers and Allen Iverson YouTube highlights, despite being born after his 2001 MVP season. She was raised on Philly talk radio car rides with her dad, and her fondest sports memory is watching people flood the streets from her brother’s Temple University dorm after the Eagles’ first Super Bowl win.
“It’s hard to live in Philly and not be an insane Philly sports fan,” she said.
Victor spoke with The Inquirer about her 82 Games project and how it represents relentless Philly fandom and community, being a Joel Embiid truther, and aspiring to consume sports a little more healthily.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
This is an endurance art project. How do you come up with a new design every game? And how do you stay committed to it, even when the Sixers are more or less a fringe playoff team?
I think that’s the fun of it, pushing myself to think of new ways to interpret the story. Some of the joy of it is also being able to look back and be like, I committed to doing that, I was able to finish it.
I originally did this project in high school, it was honestly to teach myself how to draw. [Now] I have a lot more experience in design and illustration, and I’m just seeking out some of the community again. I think that’s what really brought me back to it. Even the most niche reference I try to make in games, someone will understand it somewhere.
That fandom is so important to finding a community of people.
Philly fans are all a little crazy, we’re all so committed to support our teams. Even if we’re in a slump. I think Philly fans have a reputation — oh we booed Santa. But it’s coming from a place of — I’m still here and I’m gonna show up no matter what.
A through-line of your work is holding a player-centric point of view. Why do you feel like that’s an important perspective to emphasize? What do you think of the way sports are typically covered in media or online?
It’s kind of just rage-baiting. They want people to engage, but there’s no intention to do it through healthy conversation. People watch sports because they enjoy it at some level and sometimes those perspectives take away from that joy.
It’s easy to center the fan, but none of these things would exist without the player, too.
I’m a Joel Embiid truther ‘til the day I die. People give him a lot of flack for not giving his all for the team, and I don’t think you can really point to his history and in good faith say that about him. He was playing with a mask. He was playing with [Bell’s palsy].
You made a sweater vest inspired by Allen Iverson and his tattoos. How did that project come to be?
I’m 4’11, so I immediately connected to Allen Iverson and his story and just the way he played. I remember watching his Hall of Fame speech and crying. When you think about how the media treated him or general narratives about him as a player, it all seemed negative. And I think it’s exciting to see him get his flowers.
I just love experimenting with different mediums. If I have an idea in my head, I wanna get it out into the world. Last season I was like, a jersey looks just like a sweater vest, what is something I could do to explore that? I immediately was like, do something about Allen Iverson.
What are some of other ways you’ve focused your work on player perspectives and other overlooked parts of sports?
I try to think of things from systems point of view. I think there’s really a story behind every single thing in sports.
The project I’m working on right now is about the Women’s Basketball League, which was the first women’s basketball league in America in the 1970s. It only lasted for three seasons, but there was a team that was based in Philadelphia called the Philadelphia Fox, which only lasted for 10 games.
Some of those people are doctors and lawyers and basketball coaches, their lives took such a different turn. Title IX was just starting, so there weren’t a lot of [opportunities] for women to play sports in general. I’ve been interviewing some of those women which is pretty cool, getting to hear their stories.
So just thinking about how these systems exist and operate and how to make them more equitable. Understanding where we started is so important.
Who are your Letterboxd-style four favorite Philly athletes of all time?
Allen Iverson, Nick Foles, Joel Embiid, and Michael Vick.
