Tag Archives: old gym

Old gym tour: Wittenberg

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Wittenberg's old gymnasiumEarlier this month I was at Wittenberg for a football game. I usually try to make a drive through campus either before or after the game — sometimes the drive through campus before the game is unplanned, if you know what I mean.

I’ve been to Wittenberg before, for a basketball game when Wooster and Wittenberg were the two top-ranked teams in the country. And the old building is connected to the current playing arena, Pam Evans Smith Arena. (It was still called the HPER Center when I visited.) But this time I saw the building from the outside and realized there was an older portion — and you know how it goes — some buildings just look like a gym from the outside. So I pulled over and went in to do a little exploring.

This gym clearly couldn’t have seated very many people, though the bleachers have been gone for decades. There’s a stage underneath one basket and a balcony all the way around that would have held more spectators.

Touring another old gymnasium

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DE PERE, Wis. — I got to see another old gym tonight. I’m at St. Norbert this weekend to see the Green Knights open a new football stadium against No. 5 St. Thomas and got the tour of campus from sports information director Dan Lukes.

When we drove by a particular building, Dan mentioned that it used to be the gym, and I asked if we could get out and see it. We couldn’t get in the gym itself, but it is indeed still a gymnasium. This being September, there were volleyball nets up. There are glass backboards, with “No Dunking Allowed” on the bottom of the glass.

The playing floor is just 77 feet long — just long enough to make a Grinnell game even more of a breakneck speed. If you have ever been in the old gym at Mount St. Mary’s, yes, the Division I school in Emmitsburg, Md., this looks exactly like it. It has a big wall with windows on the end — in this case, facing the Fox River instead of U.S. 15, a high vaulted ceiling, and was built in the 1930s. I could almost picture Jim Phelan stalking the sidelines in a bow tie, although in this case, I was told that Dick Bennett coached in the last game St. Norbert played in the gym, for UW-Stevens Point.

I’ve written about my fascination with old gymnasiums before. Since then, I’ve added the old gym at Wash U to my list (it’s connected to the new gym), as well as the old gym at Stevens. I think Randolph-Macon may be my favorite, however.