The Ohio basketball program is not only known for its track record of a winning tradition, but also for its historic venues that have stood against the test of time.
The first university-sponsored varsity team hit the court in 1907 when the Bobcats played in the basement of Ewing Hall. The team played there for one season before moving into the Ohio Gymnasium, which was constructed in 1908 near the site of Alden Library for a cost of $55,000, according to Ohio Athletics records.
The men moved out of the Ohio Gymnasium in 1924 in favor of a new setup in what is now known as Bentley Hall — then called the Men’s Gymnasium. Concurrently, the Ohio Gymnasium was renamed the Women’s Gymnasium.
After World War II, though, university officials felt the Men’s Gymnasium, which was built for a cost of $220,000 and seated 2,500 patrons, was too small, and that Ohio needed to expand to a larger gym because of an influx in enrollment.
In 1960, the men’s team moved into the Grover Center, named in honor of Brandon Grover, who coached the Bobcats to a .598 winning percentage during his 16-season tenure leading the Bobcats. Only Ohio coaches Jim Snyder and Larry Hunter have coached the Bobcats to more wins, all-time.
Grover cost $2 million to build and seated 6,800 people. It was dedicated before tipoff of a 1960 matchup against Ohio State, which resulted in a 21-point loss to a Buckeye squad that featured future NBA greats Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek. Tickets for the game were sold out more than a month ahead of time, and the contest was shown in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium via closed-circuit television, according to university archives.
Mike Schuler, a 1962 Ohio graduate and 1986–87 NBA coach of the year, played for the Bobcats in Grover. He said the opening game in Grover was electric.
“It was packed that night,” Schuler said. “Ohio State had won a national championship a year before, and it was just great excitement, great enthusiasm. It was just a culmination of people’s dreams. I don’t think anybody ever imagined they would leave that building for a long time, but it was just a great, great evening.”
Ohio posted a 60–16 record over eight years in Grover, and at one point reeled off 29 wins in a row — the most in school history.
Grover featured five courts for intramural purposes and a sixth main court for the basketball team. It also had a balcony, which was used for golf and baseball practice, among other things. Retractable bleachers lined the balcony and main court.
Craig Love, an all-MAC selection in 1969–70 and the following season, who was also a 1971 NBA draft pick, said the team benches in Grover were located behind the basket and that the facility was small and dark. Love was inducted into Ohio Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992.
“(Grover) was a small cracker-box gym,” Love said. “It reminded me a little bit, honestly, of playing in my high school gym. … I came to college to play Division I basketball at a place that wasn’t that much bigger than where I played in high school.”
However, the Bobcats’ time in Grover was short-lived because of three major floods in the 1960s that created warps in the court.
Dick Woolison, the Bobcats’ timekeeper for the last 43 seasons, said when proper funding became available, Ohio was quick to move to a new home — The Convo.
“I think Grover was becoming too small, and some money was available or they thought was going to be available, and they wanted to advance the looks of Ohio University,” Woolison said. “The Convocation Center is still one of the tops in the conference (and) also around the state for its age.”
The Bobcats christened the opening of their new $8.5 million facility in 1968 with a 10-point win against Indiana.
John Canine, an all-MAC player who was drafted 78th overall in the 1970 NBA draft and inducted into the Ohio Athletics Hall of Fame in 1991, said the transition from Grover to The Convo was drastic.
“The thing that I remember most about it was that it was the best venue we played in,” he said. “It was better than Purdue’s at the time; it was better than Ohio State — St. John (Arena). We played all those teams my junior and senior year. (The Convo) was the best. Little old Ohio University in southeastern Ohio had the best basketball facility in all the Big Ten.”
Canine said The Convo created a psychological advantage for the home team because of its tremendous atmosphere. The numbers back him up, as Ohio won 35 of its first 37 games in its new building. From 1970–79, Ohio went 87–32 at home.
Since, Ohio has continued to create a winning atmosphere in The Convo. During the past 15 years, the Bobcats have put forth some of their best crowds ever, reaching attendance levels of more than 13,000 four times since making the move to their current building.
Still, the most impressive crowd to ever grace The Convo was in 1970, when the Bobcats hosted Bowling Green in front of 14,102 onlookers to take the MAC Championship.
Canine said that after the win against the Falcons, it took the team 45 minutes to leave The Convo floor because of the mass of people gathered there. He noted the expanse of The Convo gave the Bobcats a “feeling of bigness.”
As it turns out, that’s the emotion Ohio had always looked for.
“Going from Grover to The Convo was like night and day,” Canine said. “It was just like we were going to some other planet to play basketball because Grover was like a big high school gym. … We went over to The Convo and it was just, ‘Oh my gosh, what is this?’ And it was great.”
mk277809@ohiou.edu
