The Old Field House

[Improviser]

What were your memories of it?

 

[Waquoit]

Worst sprained ankle of my life playing hoop because the roof leaked.

 

[mussels]

There was a long hall with the coaches offices on one side and team pictures of every sport going way back. Thought that was cool.

Also the guy's who used to hand you a roll with a towel, shorts, shirt, and a jock all seemed to be cut from exactly the same cloth. As I remember it, they were all older, somewhat muscular and wore white.

 

[60'sfan]

Great place to watch a basketball game. Created its own excitment.

 

[Peacefrog]

Got wrecked in an intramural basketball game by a team that had John Gwynn and Mark Suhr on it.

 

[TRest]

Blew out my knee for the first time playing pickup there. Best game experience was sitting the floor by the baseline for a BC game where Corny and Bagley were lighting it up.

 

[hansonel-amin]

What were your memories of it?

Somewhere in the '75 to '77 timeframe, going to a game that was sold out, and convincing JV player, Keith "Sugar Bear" Hamilton, to let us sneak in a locker room window, and then watching the game from the floor under the basket.

 

[mauconnfan]

First UConn game with dad and bro, age 7 got to see Wes B. Will never forget but easily #1 game of many for me at Field House is front row under the basket vs Phil Stinnie and VCU on the way to the NIT championship. Crowd was amazing, loudest in the FH I had ever heard. The beginning of the program becoming top notch under that guy from Northeastern, won't forget that one.

 

[alphasigko]

Back around '69 or '70 watched Doug Melody give a Marques Haynes type of dribbling exhibition throughout a four-corners/slow-down game against URI. What a great display of dribbling skill that was! (I just looked up the game and UConn won 35-32) The game happened on Feb 28, 1970.

Also saw Dr J there as well!

 

[SoFla Steve]

My first season tickets were up against one of those curved beams. Uncomfortable!

 

[Hey Adrien!]

In '05, I invited everyone on my floor to play on an intramural basketball team. There were like 21 of us on the roster, we played full court press 100% of the time, none of us played for our high school teams and we lost every game. There was even one game where I was the leading scorer because I made one three.

My roommate tore his ACL the previous spring, so he dressed up each game in a full suit, acting like a crazed basketball coach from the '50s. A rolled up Daily Campus in hand, talking like Red Auerbach.

There was one team we played against called "We Only Shoot Threes", and apropos to the name, their only field goal attempts were three pointers. If any BY'ers played on that team, hat tip to you.

We were god awful, but it was so much fun.

 

[Umami Zen]

Only place I saw Dr J playing in a UMass jersey

 

[dennismenace]

Reminiscent of a giant ping pong table when they put the green floor in. They used to play my alma mater
(Manhattan) over Christmas break during the late 60's so I could enjoy the game on the road (while I was really at home).

 

[FrostyNuggets]

Getting dunked on by an intramural team named the “Swinging Johnsons”.

 

[Vuce]

1988-89 season UMass played us there. Our student section was on a baseline near the UMass bench. That UConn team had future pros like Cliffy, Smitty and Tate as well as many of the Dream Season kids. The coach for UMass at the time? Calipari! The Huskies took UMass to the woodshed scoring 100 pts and winning by 30. We were yapping at Cal all night and he was engaging us which is why I remember it so well.
The other non game thing I remember. Played baseball at UConn for two years and our batting cage was right on the end near the hoops court and sometimes our BP would be the same time as JCs practice. Could easily hear his voice over everything else

 

[Palatine]

We played intramural basketball on the same court that the varsity played. Kind of cool. Do current students get to play at Gampel?

 

[Watchdog]

Seeing Calvin Murphy in the state playoffs..............at least I think I did. There was a 5'9" kid, besides Murphy, who could dunk like he was 6'6" that was really fun to watch.

 

[Lamble]

You could sit under the basket and literally be about 3 feet away from the players. I remember tormenting Ramon Ramos from Seton Hall. I think the poor guy has passed away and I still feel a little guilty. We won that game, and I still personally take a little credit. My vocal defense on Ramos clearly intimidated him. If you played on the court next to main floor, the hoops were too high. The main court had the wood flooring, the court next to it did not, and the hoops were the same height. So on the court beside the true field house court, the hoops were like 10 feet 2 inches - or whatever height the hard wood floor measured , the hoops were that much too high on the court next to it. Just better to play in the gym on the center court.

 

[HooperScooper]

What were your memories of it?

What's with all the questions? Just curious.

 

[ucp990411]

First UCONN game ever for me was 1967 vs New Hampshire. Bialasuknia scored 42, I was in basketball heaven, hooked for life.

Also, my alma mater ECHS won the 1972 class L state championship there vs Warren Harding.

 

[cohenzone]

A few. I was the same class as Wes B. That freshman team was great. We got in free with student IDs. That team was so good that the place got totally packed including the aisles to watch them before the varsity game, the team that had Kimball and Perno that beat Bill Bradley’s Princeton in the NCAAs. As a result of those crowds, the next year students were charged fifty cents a ticket to control seating, the end of students getting in free.

Students had the best seats. When the game started, all lights went off except over the court. The end zone bleachers were so close to end court that big nets hung at each end so players would be protected from crashing into the seats. Dust rose in clouds when fans got into it and stomped on the wooden bleachers.

Our Towers dorm intramural league hoops team made the finals one year, the only game played on the varsity court. I had never played on a portable floor before and I got a lot of respect for the varsity players. Dribbling was different because there were a lot of dead spots and then you would hit a seam and the ball would take a hard bounce. It took getting used to.

I saw Roger Staubach in his Annapolis uniform in the back hallway there. I imagine he was there to visit our head FB coach, Rick Forzano, who had been a Navy assistant.

 

[Waquoit]

Great place to watch a basketball game. Created its own excitment.

Students got the best seats. One quibble, the bleachers were pretty far back from the floor. I think that hurt our home court advantage. When they filled in that space with folding chairs for the epic VCU game it was incredible.

 

[Improviser]

What's with all the questions? Just curious.

It is just one question for this thread.

 

[aburks41]

We played intramural basketball on the same court that the varsity played. Kind of cool. Do current students get to play at Gampel?

I think the intramural championships take place in Gampel, but when I played all of our games were in the gym or field house.

Soccer gets to play in Shenkman which was awesome

 

[dvegas]

Our volunteer assistant swim coach used to be in charge of hiring the (student) ticket takers (circa 1981-85).

The swimmers with work-study got the jobs. The rest of us got into the free games via the back door