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Old gym series: Doremus Gymnasium, W&L

On my recent, and presumably final, trip to Salem for the Division III men’s basketball Final Four, I stopped off I-81 and did some multi-tasking, picking up an interview for the D3football.com Around the Nation Podcast. In chatting with both football coach Garrett LeRose and sports information director Brian Laubscher, it was mentioned that the “newer” half of the athletic building, Warner Center was built in 1972 and the office portion of the building is in desperate need of rehab.

The historic side of the building, Doremus Gymnasium, is another lovely example of early-20th century gymnasium architecture. This is the oldest of the old gyms I’ve had a chance to write about, as it was built in 1915.

The floor was recently refinished and is in really good shape. Robert P. Doremus came to campus at W&L, the story goes, in 1913, unannounced. Doremus was looking to bestow money on a Southern school in honor of his mother and was so struck by the student’s courtesy that he made his decision without even looking at the University of Virginia. This facility was built at a cost of between $80,000 and $100,000, and Doremus’ entire estate was given to W&L 21 years later, a gift of $1.5 million.

I really enjoy these looks back in time, picturing students from the 1920s all the way up through the 1960s and 1970s crammed into a tiny space. While I sometimes mourn what we’ve lost in small college athletics, I certainly recognize the need to play in spacious areas with room for a couple thousand fans, to have practice space for multiple sports, to have enough locker rooms to host weekend tournaments, and to have office space for 20-some sports.

Meanwhile, though, I’m going to pass on jogging on this wooden track suspended above the Doremus Gymnasium floor. No thanks.

Old gym series: Loras Fieldhouse

I havent written a blog post about old gymnasiums in years, but I still enjoy walking through them and seek them out when I am on Division III campuses.

The Loras Fieldhouse still stands, overlooking the Rock Bowl, home to the school’s field sports in Dubuque, Iowa. This gym was in use when D3hoops.com started and it remained in use until 2007, when it was replaced by a sparkling athletics center elsewhere on campus. But it’s hard to picture college basketball being played here.

The cement balcony rings the playing surface. A 3-pointer from the corner was legimitately in danger of hitting the underside of the balcony, which juts pretty far out.

Partially neglected by deferred maintenance, the building is currently set up to host a band or orchestra concert. Football coach Steve Helminiak and his assistant, Jake Olsen, still have offices here, as does Sports Information Director Jim Naprstek. The banners reflect the time in which it was used — a women’s basketball banner celebrates the team’s NCAA Tournament trip in 2003. The banners for each team in the Iowa Conference do not include recent addition Nebraska Wesleyan, although they do reflect the departure of Upper Iowa and William Penn more than 15 years ago.

Seating is minimal. The listed capacity of 1,100 is hard to fathom. A fire marshall would likely have a fit over anything more than about 700 people here. And some of those would be standing.

But for every flashy new building that we celebrate in Division III, somewhere there is, or was, a building like this. Converted into office space. Or an architecture studio. Or classrooms. Or recreational space.

This one, which opened in 1924, still stands.