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Cole Field House opened in 1955. When it was built,
it set the standard for arena sized basketball venues in college sports.
It was one of those places that inspired and defined the term "home court
advantage." It got hot inside there. It got noisy inside there.
And when it rained it got wet inside there. As the years went by, the
design and the facility became more and more outdated and the decision was made
to build the new Comcast Center that just opened in November, 2002.
Cole was also a place where people could go walking,
running, swimming, wrestling, gymnasticing, and even studying. High school
graduations were held there. Exams were given there. High school
basketball tournaments were held there.
Now they're tearing up the floor in Cole. Pieces of
it are for sale or auction. Here's an FM1081 exclusive
photo of the floor operation going on.
As usual, it's a thumbnail... click on the little picture so you can see a
bigger one. The painted logo sections up for auction are still in place.
Floor sections that have been removed are in piles all around the court.
After the team played their way into the
Final Four this year, hundreds of fans showed up in the middle of the night
behind Cole to greet the team. Here's one of my favorite shots:
Byron Mouton giving a young fan an autograph.
Same kid, different player. Chris Wilcox.
Here's the absolute last public basketball event to have
been held in Cole Field House. The ceremony honoring the team who had just
won the NCAA basketball tournament in Atlanta. If you are going to close
an arena, this is the way to do it. The "tough act to follow" cliché
applies here. Here are the exclusive FM1081 photos
from this event.
The crowd was huge. These were some happy people. There were
students, little kids, and some genuinely elderly folks there too. Among
people old enough to have been out of Maryland more than a couple years, the
most commonly spoken sentence was, "I've waited (X) years to see this and I
wouldn't miss seeing this for anything." The team filed onto the stage and
several of them got to address the crowd. They didn't have the Terp noise
meters going when the team filed in, but if they did, it would have broken
anyway. Here's what it looked like with the whole team lined up on the
stage. Here's
Gary Williams speaking to the crowd. This whole speaking in a normal tone
of voice inside Cole Field House without screaming gave him a little trouble at
first but he warmed up to it. Look at all the people and the news media.
This was big stuff... as big as it gets.
Speaking of acoustics, as each of the players spoke, most of us in the audience
wondered what in the world was just said. It really didn't matter.
We all went home and read it on the internet anyway.
Last but not least... remember this guy?
Testudo's eaten a lot of Blue Devils, Tar Heels, and Demon Deacons along the
way. He and I got to be really good buddies after someone told me
that if you rubbed his nose before you took a test you would get a good grade.
Not that I am superstitious, but I didn't want to take any chances. They
moved him from the lobby at Cole to outside the entrance to Comcast Center.
I remember his nose being a lot shinier, though.
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