The Fieldhouse

tm3308

tm3308

Well-Known Member
Hey everybody, I'm writing a profile story on the Fieldhouse for a class assignment, and I'm just asking those of you who got to see some of the games in there to maybe offer a little insight into what the experience was like. What was the environment like? What are some memories that stick out above the rest? What about the building itself (temperature, seating, lighting, etc.)? Plus anything else that you can think of and would like to add.

I already have an interview with George Wine, and I'm trying to get one with Bob Brooks, so I should hopefully have quite a bit of material to work with. But I'd love to get some stuff from the fans' perspective. My deadline is 6:30 p.m. Thursday night, so I'd need stories/info probably by tomorrow night. If you don't care to share, that's perfectly fine. But I hope you will :D Thanks in advance!
 
Interesting idea for a story. I grew up in Iowa City, but was too young to ever attend a game at the Fieldhouse (born in '76).

However, my dad still talks about how much fun it was to attend games there. What I recall most from his stories is the sensation of the bleachers. He said everyone stood during the games, and when Iowa needed a lift or went on a run, everyone would stomp their feet and the bleachers would shake and tremble. He said there were several times he was sure they would crumble on the spot. Obviously the stomping made incredible noise, too.

I'm curious about the heat. I always imagine the Fieldhouse being about 90 degrees during games, but I don't know if I actually heard stories to support this or just picture it that way in my mind.
 
I was at Iowa during the 75 through 77 basketball and wrestling seasons. My student season ticket seats my 1st year at Iowa were in the balcony on the bench side. The seats were steel, not metal bleacher seats but the whole balcony upstairs was riveted pieces of steel. Many seats were restricted vision due to the pillars. The noise created when people stomped their feet on those steel floors was incredible.
My senior season I sat opposition the benches underneath the over hang of the balcony. The seats were closer to the court but you really got a "tunnel vision" effect. They were slotted wooden bleacher seats as I remember and quarters were very tight. My roomate was a 6th med student so I had great student seats, no pillars to block my view.

Hot.....man it was hot in there and loud, always loud.

They would put 10 foot high tarps around the perimeter of the court during practice to keep people away.

Those were Dick Schultz's last teams and Lute Olson's 1st teams and the play was not very good, but as I remember attendance was good. The place was a "pit" to opponents.

I remember the Iowa vs. Iowa St wrestling meets during those years, crazy!!!

I officiated the 1976 Men's Intramural one on one championship match during halftime of the Iowa vs. NW basketball game on the floor, what a thrill.

Great Memories.


Iahwkfn
class of 77
 
Of course the noise/stomping of feet is my #1 memory. And the seats were very close to the court (think a miniature indoor Kinnick stadium). Also, the large flying Herky on the wall.

My favorite memories are from the 1969-70 season. The scoreboard only went to 99, so it was always a big deal to the crowd for the Hawks to go over 100 points (which they did a LOT that season) so the score would be back down around double zero.

You could buy popcorn in small cardboard megaphones.
 
I was a freshman during the 1980-81 season, right after the Final Four year. The place was electric and loud. It was the loudest place, especially where my seats were because we were stuck up in the rafters. It was a tremendous home court advantage. Carver Hawkeye was a huge disappointment from a fan perspective as it just couldn't give you the raw noise, and it seemed sterile and too comfortable.

My seats were obstructed view too...I had to peer around a support beam, but you really just wanted to be in the building. When the Hawks got on a run, it was so freaking loud. I believe I saw urine running down a few opposing players legs. The place was intimidating and it literally shook when the crowd would get going.

The Fieldhouse was home court advantage...Carver, not so much. I would equate the feeling to what you see at Cameron Indoor at Duke...crazy.
 
@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; Ahhhh.. the memories from the Iowa Field House from ’73 to ’77 w/ Dick Shultz and how he gave us the worst 3 years in IA BB history (before Lick) and before Lute showed up and recruited Ronnie and the program enjoyed a 20 year run of “success.”
First of all…. thanks for asking for some of our stories from us old timers. Not that you haven’t thought or asked but you need to interview some of the old natives such as Mike Gatens, Bobby Hansen and assistant coach Kirk Speraw about the home court advantage the IA Field House provided .

My memories are that we barely won more than often and included incredible individual performances from Candy La Prince right up through the 70’s and the Bruce “Sky” King.

Unfortunately for those few years we had too many locals, like Neil Fegebank and Jim Collins and Rob Williams… really great Iowa boys yet we needed to recruit “nationally” or even regionally then and now.

This was way before Cameron Crazies and the Izzy Zone but I will tell you this. I have very limited college BB in-person viewing experience… Hilton Coliseum.. very good, the Iowa Field House followed by Carmichael Auditorium , the Greensboro Coliseum ( when the Hawks beat VCU and NC State and Hawkeye Whitney (w/o Ronnie,, still rehabbing) and on to the Final Four and then the Dean Dome… (watched Roy Marble grab the ball from Ed and hit 2 free throws) the new Carver Hawkeye and of course Cameron Indoor Stadium (saw the last game Chris Street played in).

Without a doubt!!!!

THE LOUDEST WAS THE FIELD HOUSE!

We were students up in the plastic. Fiber glass(?) seats and pounded our feet (Love Little Feat.. another story) behind the obstructed view and tried to out loud the sound the bleacher folks could do..

Yeah the Field House was good… very good.
 
I saw the final four team beat lewis loyd's drake team in the field house!! it was a dive, but the Place got loud, loved that Hawkeye team, then celebrated all night down town, one of my favorite college memories!!!
 
Biggest crowd at the Fieldhouse was for the 1975 Iowa vs Iowa State wrestling match. They let in an overflow crowd around the mat (guess they were hoping that the fire marshall would not show up).

Dan Gable was still an assistant to Gary Kurdelmeir. Iowa was losing to ISU 19-13 going into the heavyweight match. Then John Bowlsby was able to turn the ISU heavyweight (could have been Robin Whisman) and pin him to end the match in a 19-19 tie. The overflow crowd in the Field House went crazy (the loudest I could ever remember).

I certainly have more fun memories of John Bowlsby than his brother Bob :)
 
hawkincal said:
Biggest crowd at the Fieldhouse was for the 1975 Iowa vs Iowa State wrestling match. They let in an overflow crowd around the mat (guess they were hoping that the fire marshall would not show up).

Dan Gable was still an assistant to Gary Kurdelmeir. Iowa was losing to ISU 19-13 going into the heavyweight match. Then John Bowlsby was able to turn the ISU heavyweight (could have been Robin Whisman) and pin him to end the match in a 19-19 tie. The overflow crowd in the Field House went crazy (the loudest I could ever remember).

I certainly have more fun memories of John Bowlsby than his brother Bob :)
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I read in the files today that they couldn't have an announced crowd over like 13,500, but they had several events over the years where they fit 15,000+ in SRO. Can't even imagine how intimidating that place was. Carver is just a pretty sterile environment, even when it's packed and rocking, compared to some of the older arenas out there.
 
I only remember going to several games and a couple meets there, and the only things I remember were the dang obstructed views and the depth of the noise. carver was new and all, but it sure lost that intimacy.

thanks for the reminder of the big herky on the wall, I can visualize that now and had forgotten it.
 
You should try to get in touch with Ron Gonder or Jim Zabel. They more than likely attended more games at the Fieldhouse than anyone else alive today.
 
I remember the old school Herky on the East wall. Still like the old Herky the best!
Not all the games were on TV back in those days. When the Saturday afternoon game was in Iowa City, always a big deal. We take it for granted today.
Great place!
 
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