BU to keep Field House floor

[Stryker]

Not sure if this was public knowledge or not before tonight, but I heard on the 6 o'clock news that BU will be keeping most of the Field House basketball court floor. Apparently it is going into the new practice facility? Anyway, that was something I was sure people would be interested in getting a piece of, but I am glad that BU decided to keep it.

[amckillip]

Not sure if this was public knowledge or not before tonight, but I heard on the 6 o'clock news that BU will be keeping most of the Field House basketball court floor. Apparently it is going into the new practice facility? Anyway, that was something I was sure people would be interested in getting a piece of, but I am glad that BU decided to keep it.

I would sell parts of my body to own a piece of that floor.

I wish they would decide to sell it, surely they'd make they're money back for a new floor!

[jmp]

before you part with a limb, you might want to check on this... i'm pretty sure the FH is on it's second floor. i don't think much of the men's history, if any, was played on the current floor. i could be wrong. not much sleep the past couple of days and everything is fuzzy at the moment, but my sleep deprived mind has that little nugget of knowledge rattling around. i swear i've heard that a company in town had a conference table made from a portion of the first floor.

other FH randomness... it's not built out of two hangars. it's one surplus hangar plus one custom steel structure to match. the original hangar is the back portion of the building by holmes hall, the U's steam plant. the main street end of the FH is the "fake" hangar. the back part was put up first and served as kind of an all purpose lecture hall, rec-plex for several years before the addition was added and it became the home of the braves. i think this was mentioned in the newspaper thingee. squirrel and i were talking about the surplus hangar at the second to last women's game and he was wondering where they landed the planes. i just shook my head.

edit: just remembered seeing single strips of the floor planking with little brass plaques on them from what was the first floor - i think. i'm a little more certain i'm not totally full of crap but it's still up for debate.

[Stryker]

That could certainly be the case with the floor. As far as the hanger goes, it was moved to Peoria from it's original location, no planes ever used it after leaving it's original location.

[jmp]

That could certainly be the case with the floor. As far as the hanger goes, it was moved to Peoria from it's original location, no planes ever used it after leaving it's original location.

yeah, i got that point home to squirrel but it took a few tries. i don't think the hangar was ever assembled prior to BU. once gain, not 100% on that but pretty sure it was surplus in every sense of the word, never used / erected.

[tornado]

I would sell parts of my body to own a piece of that floor.

The Fieldhouse floor has been torn out and replaced a couple times before, and each time it was sectioned up and sold as souveniers.....
and just about every time I go out to a flea market at Expo Gardens, or to the antique malls in East Peoria or downtown Peoria, someone out there has one of those old pieces for sale....or look in the Trading Post, or run your own ad asking people to call YOU if they have any of those old souveniers for sale....I suspect you should be able to find one!

[Da Coach]

Speaking of raised floors, the NCAA regional in Detroit at Ford Field will have a raised floor, 27" off the field, and the team benches will be below the floor, so that most players will be watching from close to the floor level. Sounds like the Robertson floor!--

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/GPG020103/803280530/1228/GPGsports

[Da Coach]

before you part with a limb, you might want to check on this... i'm pretty sure the FH is on it's second floor. i don't think much of the men's history, if any, was played on the current floor. i could be wrong. not much sleep the past couple of days and everything is fuzzy at the moment, but my sleep deprived mind has that little nugget of knowledge rattling around. i swear i've heard that a company in town had a conference table made from a portion of the first floor.

other FH randomness... it's not built out of two hangars. it's one surplus hangar plus one custom steel structure to match. the original hangar is the back portion of the building by holmes hall, the U's steam plant. the main street end of the FH is the "fake" hangar. the back part was put up first and served as kind of an all purpose lecture hall, rec-plex for several years before the addition was added and it became the home of the braves. i think this was mentioned in the newspaper thingee. squirrel and i were talking about the surplus hangar at the second to last women's game and he was wondering where they landed the planes. i just shook my head.

edit: just remembered seeing single strips of the floor planking with little brass plaques on them from what was the first floor - i think. i'm a little more certain i'm not totally full of crap but it's still up for debate.

It is true that the current floor is not the original floor, and it is not even the original raised floor. The current floor is not removeable, and the earlier one was. Before there was a Civic Center, the Fieldhouse was used for circuses, carnivals, concerts and many events in Peoria that required removal of the floor. After the Civic Center took over hosting many of those events, the floor was changed in the mid-1980's to the current, non-removable permanent fixture.

But according to historical articles I can find, both of the hangars used to construct Robertson Fieldhouse were war-surplus hangars. But ther were purchased and re-constructed 3 years apart from each other.--
See history timeline at bottom--

http://www.bradley.edu/hilltopics/feature2/

[DG Murph]

I have a piece of the prevous floor that was used from 1949-1971. I am pretty sure they didn't replace it again after that.

[DG Murph]

edit: just remembered seeing single strips of the floor planking with little brass plaques on them from what was the first floor - i think. i'm a little more certain i'm not totally full of crap but it's still up for debate.

You are 100% correct. It is a single strip about 2 inches x 6 inches and does have the brass plaque noting the years. Good memory

[Double D]

It is true that the current floor is not the original floor, and it is not even the original raised floor. The current floor is not removeable, and the earlier one was. Before there was a Civic Center, the Fieldhouse was used for circuses, carnivals, concerts and many events in Peoria that required removal of the floor. After the Civic Center took over hosting many of those events, the floor was changed in the mid-1980's to the current, non-removable permanent fixture.

But according to historical articles I can find, both of the hangars used to construct Robertson Fieldhouse were war-surplus hangars. But ther were purchased and re-constructed 3 years apart from each other.--
See history timeline at bottom--
http://www.bradley.edu/hilltopics/feature2/

My Dad went to BU from 60-64. He told us of several University events he and my Mother attended at the FH with the floor taken up. One that comes to mind is the annual ROTC ball that they used to have. At the time it was Air Force ROTC at BU.

[ph]

Speaking of raised floors, the NCAA regional in Detroit at Ford Field will have a raised floor, 27" off the field, and the team benches will be below the floor, so that most players will be watching from close to the floor level. Sounds like the Robertson floor!--

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/...1228/GPGsports

Speaking of raised floors. Did the crowd ever rush the raised Robertson floor?

[jmp]

But according to historical articles I can find, both of the hangars used to construct Robertson Fieldhouse were war-surplus hangars. But ther were purchased and re-constructed 3 years apart from each other.--
See history timeline at bottom--
http://www.bradley.edu/hilltopics/feature2/

Hilltopics is wrong. i hate it when we can't get our own history right. here's the text from the 50-51 media guide.

Faced in 1946 with a vastly-increased post-war enrollment and the possibility that such an enrollment would completely overtax any existing facilities for adequate auditorium space for the extensive lecture-arts series and other all-school meetings, Bradley University surveyed various possibilities for an additional structure that would fulfill such a need.

Discarding the possibility of a conventional auditorium due to the unsettled construction picture at the time, Bradley contracted for the purchase of a war-surplus 140' x 162 1/2' airplane hanger at a basic cost of $15,000, and, after doubling the trusses, insulating the roof, constructing a state and laying a combination clay and sand floor had, at a total cost of approximately $150,000, a heated, insulated fieldhouse seating over 3,000 people.

Again in 1949 the University was faced with a seating problem, this time from a different source. For many years, the University had played its basketball games in the Peoria Armory, seating only 4,800 people.

It became apparent in 1949 that this facility could not furnish adequate space for the now-expanded enrollment, and the decision of the United States Government to ask to be released from its obligation to the University due to expanded National Guard activities necessitated an immediate answer to the question of an auditorium for the 1949-1950 basketball season.

Seeing in the fieldhouse the nucleus not only for such a building but also an expanded general auditorium, the University decided that if a logical method of financing could be determined, the fieldhouse could be expanded to double its length and a basketball floor could be erected in the center.

A plan was therefore presented to Bradley Alumni and other supporters whereby applications for five-year season tickets (at a cost of $125 for a bleacher type and $175 for theater-type seats, exclusive of tax) would be solicited during a two week period, with the building program contigent upon adequate support indicated during this period.

Interest was overwhelming and well within the allocated time more than the requisite number of applications had been received, with the only change from the original plans being a greater interest in the theater-type seats than had been anticipated. A total of 1,200 five-year applications were received for these theater-type seats, and 900 for the five-year bleacher seats.

Finding that war-surplus hangers were no longer available at an advantageous cost, a contract was let to the Mississippi Steel Company of Decatur, Illinois and St. Louis, and Missouri to provide the necessary steel for the duplication of the existing structure, with the Valentine Jobst Company of Peoria doing the construction under the direction of the architects of Emerson, Gregg and Briggs, also of Peoria.

When completed the 140' x 320' structure contained a regulation basketball floor and a seating capacity in the semi-permanent steel-supported stands of 8,300, 7,800 of which were between the basketbs due to the unique method of locating the floor, purchased from the Chief Manufacturing Company of Salt Lake City, Utah at a cost of $16,000, was composed of approximately 150 fitted sections erected approximately 30" above the floor of the fieldhouse.

Along one entire length of the fieldhouse proper a 175' x 36' brick foyer and ticket office and three dressing rooms (one of which provided for the officials) were erected and connected to the fieldhouse proper by 20 doors. The entire outside wall of the foyer was composed of ceiling-length plate glass windows and a marquee extended the entire length of the foyer on the outside.

Heat for the fieldhouse and foyer were provided by 12 unit heater and lighting for the floor by fifty-six 1,000 watt lamps with a 62 foot-candle intensity on the floor. Houselights were provided by thirty 1,500 watt lamps. A fully-automatic emergency lighting system from 32 automobile batteries capable of running three 1,000 watt lamps for two hours supplemented
the basic lighting system. The entire cost of the fieldhouse addition, together with the foyer and dressing rooms, was approximately $400,000.

At the dedication game Dec. 17, 1949 with Purdue University, the fieldhouse was designated the A.J. Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse in memory of the late beloved A.J. Robertson, athletic director and coach of Bradley football, basketball and baseball teams for twenty-seven years. On the basis of unit seating cost, specator and player facilities and beauty, the A.J. Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse can truly be considered as one of the finest in the United States.

my family was one that purchased season tickets to finance the construction on the FH. we had the same bleacher seats for every game played until they moved downtown. i don't remember the seat locations but my mother can spout them off without even thinking. i wasn't able to get our seats when they tore out the bleachers but when they put in the new weight room i got a section of bleachers about eight feet long. i'd love to hang it on a wall but the dang thing weighs more than i do. not sure how to go about that yet.

[MacabreMob]

Speaking of raised floors. Did the crowd ever rush the raised Robertson floor?

Not sure about fans rushing the floor.... but even back when I was at Bradley, "Rush Week" climaxed at RMFH. Fraternities would have sections just off the floor, pledges would go to the podium at center court, get their name and House called, active members would holler and go wild as the pledge would run up and dive into the "pit" of active fraternity members.... you'd get your shirt ripped off and a new shirt given to you with the Greek letters on it.

Ahhhh... those were the days.