Nov. 9, 2011
Bronx. N.Y. -
ESPN The Magazine Feature on College Basketball Cathedrals |
N.Y. Daily News Season Preview
Fordham's historic Rose Hill Gym is featured in the latest issue of ESPN The Magazine, the publication's annual College Preview Issue. The Rams' home court is listed as one of four college basketball cathedrals.
The article's author, LaRue Cook describes the arenas as being "designed in the early 20th century in Collegiate Gothic style, back when architects focused on how lofty clerestory windows and cathedral ceilings commanded natural light, before luxury boxes and hi-def JumboTrons became the order."
Fordham University's home court, the Rose Hill Gymnasium, is the oldest gym still being used by an NCAA Division I team. The 3,200 seat gym opened on January 16, 1925 for a game between Fordham and Boston College. The Rams took the opener 46-16 in a game refereed by one of the University's most prominent alumni, "The Fordham Flash", Frankie Frisch.
The Gym was one of the largest on-campus facilities at the time it was built, earning the nickname "The Prairie" because of its large floor space. The original configuration had no end zone stands and a seating capacity of 2,100 but several standing room crowds of 6,000 were reported in the late 1920's. Since its opening in 1925, the gym has seen numerous renovations, adding new seating, scoreboards and public address systems.
The most recent major renovation occurred in the summer of 2002 when the gym received new lighting, new stands, a new public address systems, new windows and doors, a new heating system and new scoreboards. New for the 2011-12 season are video displays boards in front of the scorers table and along press row.
The arena has been in continuous use by Fordham's basketball teams since it's opening with the exception of the World War II years, when it was used for a barracks.
The Rose Hill Gym has been the site of many legendary college and high school basketball games including Kareem Abdul Jabbar's final high school game and the 1988 Tolentine-Archbishop Molloy Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Championship game, billed by New York Newsday as the "Best High School Game of the 80's". The Rose Hill Gym continues to host the CHSAA Championships annually.
The other venues showcased in the magazine were The Palestra in Philadelphia, Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse and Yale' Lee Amphitheater.
