Butler played its first basketball game in the Fieldhouse on March 7, 1928 defeating Notre Dame 21-13 in overtime. It is widely reported that groundbreaking for Butler Fieldhouse was in the Fall of 1927. Who else finds it hard to believe that the construction took only 5-6 months?????????
I find it harder to believe Butler scored approx 13 points in a regulation game, AND then score at least 8 points in a 5 min OT period. I realize there was no shot clock, but the OT period must have felt like the Indianapolis 500, compared to the snooze fest for the first 40 minutes.
Does anyone know how old the football stadium is? I set it on fire, playing with matches in the pine trees behind the goal post one afternoon in 1956. A cloud of smoke engulfed the entire stadium. I ran like hell to get out of there and not get caught.
In 1928 as well, with seating for 36,000. There were plans to add an upper deck large enough to seat 70,000. Those plans were foiled by the great depression.
It was started in fall of 1926. Construction was mostly in 1927, so lots of places list that as the “built in” year. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app
I had always heard their plan was to be football-friendly enough to join the Big10, but if we were to build the super stadium, we wouldn’t have the money to build a library, and thus would lose accreditation. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app
More likely late summer-early Fall, but still pretty darn quick. But remember it wasn’t a high level finish—packed dirt floor, etc. and the West Gym/EFG was still being completed when the building opened in March.
Several things happened at once to foil those plans. The 35,000 stadium was plenty big by existing Western Conference standards. But as seadawg noted the Depression happened and concurrently BU was placed on probation by the accreditation entity that had concerns about the amount of funding going to athletics. As a way of getting back in their good graces, Butler agreed to amp up the library collection among other concessions. May seem far fetched but I do wonder how much of a lasting impression the accreditation snafu left on future BOT’s and Administrations in regards to Athletic funding and prominence vis a vis academics. Doing more with less was ingrained from the get-go. Tony Hinkle had to scramble to make $$ on the Fieldhouse to support BU athletics.
To add a little more perspective about the "Butler Bowl", Ross-ade Stadium at PU was built in 1924 and could seat 13,500. The original Memorial Stadium at IU was completed in 1925 with a capacity for 20,000. Not to be out done by BU, ND completed it's stadium in 1930 to seat 50,000.
In doing some added research on this subject it should be mentioned that it would decades before any other Indiana schools would match or surpass Butler Fieldhouse (Hinkle). One interesting find was that IU was the first school to install glass backboards in the country. In 1917 after spectators complained no being to view the game in the "Mens' gymnasium" now the HYPER building, which had an original seating capacity of 2,500. Later the seating was increased to 8,000.
Funny to put that in perspective and remember that currently the largest high school basketball gyms are all in Indiana and are that number and higher. Sent from my iPhone using Butler Hoops mobile app
There was an ongoing debate about who's gym is the largest between Seymour and New Castle, as far as seating capacity. New Castle added over 400 seats in 2021 to retake the title.
Even though in all probability it will never be filled again. Sent from my iPad using Butler Hoops mobile app
