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**Top** Under construction in 1954,
Allen Fieldhouse's old dirt floor shows
through support beams. The ground floor of
the fieldhouse remained dirt until 1972.
**Middle** The fieldhouse floor in the
1980s featured Jayhawks on the outer
corners of the boundary lines.
**Right** A Tartan floor was installed under
and around the wooden court floor in 1974.
A single Jayhawk sat in the mid-court circle.
Following photos courtesy of University Archives
There is a house in Lawrence that hosts parties so monumental and so physical that its wooden floors are in constant need of repair. The owners of this three-story house routinely invite 16,300 screaming fanatics through their doors, but allow only 10 guests to walk on the floor at a time.
Why are these Lawrence homeowners so protective of their floor?
The answer is that this 50-year-old house is not an ordinary dwelling, but is the legendary Allen Fieldhouse. Its residents are not only basketball players, coaches, fans and students, but also memories and traditions of one of the most storied college hoops programs in the history of the game.
Some even believe that the soul of college basketball resides in the building named after legendary Jayhawk Phog Allen and permeates through the court labeled after basketball's creator, James Naismith.
During games, the aura of the fieldhouse seemingly wills the Jayhawks to victory and produces an atmosphere unmached in college basketball.
It is this sense of mysticism that makes Allen Fieldhouse's base not just a floor, but the floor.
Every tweak and modification to the floor is the topic of heated debate among Kansas faithful.
Whenever the floor is redone, legions of Jayhawk fans bid on the pieces of the old floor, because every chunk of wood is not simply wood, but a small part of Kansas basketball history.
Fascination with the aging fieldhouse's ground floor is nothing new, though.
Since the building's inception at the Kansas-Kansas State men's basketball game on March 1, 1955, the fieldhouse has been a magnet for attention. An overflow crowd of
17. 228 flooded Phog Allen's house to see the debut of his namesake and came away satisfied with a 77-66 Jawayk victory. Given that there were no restrictions against larger-than-capacity attendance, that crowd stands as the largest attendance total for a basketball game in Kansas history. Fifty years later, the drawing power is just as potent.
Through the past five decades, the overall structure of the fieldhouse has remained relatively unchanged, but the floor has tailored its look to adapt to the changing personality of Kansas basketball.
The rugged early years of Allen, which endured home records of 5-5, 1-9 and 5-6, follow suit with the dirt floor that lies below its hardwood court.
Before a synthetic floor replaced its soil predecessor, the bare dirt underneath the wood occasionally impeded 1950s and 1960s teams. Prior to and immediately following each competition, the portable wood floor would have to be put up and taken down.
Practice time was also wasted when dealing with the issue of dirt in an indoor athletics facility.
After watering the surface in the early part of the day, the fieldhouse was effectively rendered useless to all athletic teams until the late afternoon.
"Now, the morning is wasted because they have to wet the dirt down so it won't be too dusty to play basketball or too wet to run around the track," Athletics Director Wade Stinson told The University Daily Kansas in 1972.
One solution introduced in 1972 to the dusty fieldhouse was the resurfacing of the ground with a Tartan synthetic layer, but the possibility drew controversy.
As competing conference schools, including Colorado, installed the Tartan floor, a debate about the safety and stability of the floor arose. Ted Owens, Kansas' coach from 1964 to 1983, favored the new flooring, but funding presented another roadblock.
A total of $380,000 would be needed to fund the improvements, but the cash-strapped athletics department was already in the midst of repaying loans for the expansion of Memorial Stadium. Eventually, a student referendum to take care of the expenses was passed, and both the Board of Regents and student fees paid for the Tartan flooring.
With a new foundation for the court, Kansas basketball was ready to move on, but not without its heritage.
In 1974, the original wooden floor was torn out from the fieldhouse to make room for
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