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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, March 1, 1955
KU Basketball Has Grown Up With the School
Basketball and basketball playing facilities at the University have come a long way since Dr. James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was made an associate professor of physical training here in 1898. Soon after Dr. Naismith's arrival on Mt. Cread basketball became one of the more popular indoor sports on the campus.
Basketball has been played in Robinson gymnasium, in Hoch auditorium, and tonight will be played in the new 17,000-seat Allen fieldhouse, but few persons know where the game was played before these structures existed.
When Dr. Naismith took over his job 57 years ago the basement of Fraser hall housed the physical education department and was the scene of all the basketball games played on the campus.
As basketball became more and more popular and the rules were improved, the playing facilities at Fraser became inadequate and the department moved to a rather crude gymnasium in the basement of Old Snow hall.
Even Snow was not adequate for games so a skating rink near the Baptist church was often pressed into service for games.
Robinson, completed in 1907, was the first real basketball court on the campus. It soon became evident that even Robinson was not big enough for the huge basketball crowds which were thronging to the campus, so in 1927, the year Dr. Forrest C. "Phog" Allen became basketball coach, Hoch auditorium was opened. Hoch's 4,000 seats were thought to be more than enough to handle any crowd which should want to attend an indoor event at the University.
After 38 years of playing basketball in what opponents called the "old owera house" KU now has a $2 million ultra modern fieldhouse. Basketball has developed from a simple game in which a ball was thrown into a peach basket to the major American sport played and watched by millions, and KU's facilities have kept pace.
Many Jobs ForFieldhouse
The Allen fieldhouse will not only be one of the nation's finest basketball arenas, but will be the center of six football practice fields, a baseball field, and an indoor track.
In the future, when all sports departments have been moved to the fieldhouse, only football games and outdoor track will continue to be held in Memorial stadium.
The six football fields will be south of the fieldhouse. They will be sodded and planted with grass this summer, but this spring's practice probably will be held at the stadium.
The new baseball field will be northwest of the fieldhouse, but it is not known when the field will be ready for play. At present a landscaper is working on plans.
Press Box to Hold 150 Newsmen
Press box facilities in the new fieldhouse will provide accommodations for approximately 150 newspaper men and radio workers.
The press section will be located in the midst of the student section in the first few rows of elevated seats on the west side. When completed, the press section will have three rows of working desks, although only two are in place now.
TV-RADIO PHONOGRAPH REPAIR BELL'S Ph.375 925 Mass.
Fieldhouse Plans Date from 1927
By CLIFF MEYER
It was October, 1927, when Dr. Forrest C. Allen, then director of athletics, first announced that plans were being drawn up for a fieldhouse for the University, to cost between $350,000 and $500,000 and having a seating capacity of about 14,000 persons.
The athletic department appoint-
The athletic department appointed a committee which was headed by Dean DeWitt Carr of the School of Engineering. Other members were Albert Haas, A. B. Weaver, and Henry Bubb, alumni representatives, and Frank Stockton and Guy Smith, faculty representatives.
Deane W. Malot, chancellor at the time that the committee was formed, appointed J. J. Wilson, business manager, to head the University committee for the field-house. Other members were E. C. Quigley, director of athletics; Dr. Allen; A. C. Thomas, landscape architect; George Beal, professor of architecture, and Charles Marshall, state architect.
The committees were faced with three major problems:
1. A seating capacity had to be
determined which would accommo- date the expected crowds and yet not leave the fieldhouse only half- filled.
2. The size of the structure, in regard to other possible uses for which the fieldhouse might be used, was also considered. Rather than build a gymnasium in conjunction with the fieldhouse, as Kansas State college did, the committee felt it was not committed to include such subordinate facilities.
3. A site had to be found with an adequate expanse of land and accessibility to necessary power sources.
First funds for the fieldhouse,
$750,000, were voted by the 1949
Legislature, and the remaining
$1,863,000 by the 1953 Legislature.
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4. Longer Spark Plug Life
Conoco TCP will give you all this and more too. Stop in tonight after the game (we're open'til ten) and try a tankful of
Conoco TCP
—At Ninth and Indiana
CHUCK McBETH
CONOCO SERVICE
Concession Stands Within Easy Reach
Included among the many luxuries to be afforded by the new fieldhouse will be the number of concession stands in operation. No longer will patrons have to descend stairways, cross the playing court, or wait impatiently in a long line in order to satisfy their thirst or hunger.
PRESCRIPTIONS
K. A. Remick, campus concessions manager, said permanent stands will occupy the second floor while temporary stands will be set up on the first and third floors. Hot dogs, soft drinks, chewing gum, coffee, and cigarettes will be sold.
ROUND CORNER DRUG STORE
801 Mass.
Ph. 20
DRAKE BAKERY
With a Win
Let's Open Allen Fieldhouse
Here's to KU and to Phog
Use Kansan Classified Ads
907 Mass.
Phone 61
Congratulations,
Kansas University, on the opening of your new Allen Fieldhouse.
We feel it is an addition to Lawrence as well as to K.U.
Lawrence National Bank
7th and Massachusetts
Phone 70