By Tom Mattingly
Most Tennessee basketball fans today know a great deal about Thompson- Boling Arena, a passable amount about Stokely Athletics Center, and darned little about the Armory-Fieldhouse. That’s too bad, because the precursors to TBA were the site of some historic basketball happenings in the late 1950s and the early- to mid-1960s.
It’s been more than 50 years since the Vols last played at the Fieldhouse, home court from the 1958-59 season through 1965-66. The Fieldhouse seated 7,000 fans, with permanent seats on the west side and bleachers at the north and south ends. The north end football stands from Shields-Watkins Field were brought in for spectators on the east side, with accompanying radio and television broadcast locations.
At a cost of $1.5 million, the Armory-Fieldhouse seated 7,000 fans. The architect’s plan was drawn so that the structure could eventually seat 12,700. Adjacent to the Fieldhouse were offices, classrooms, and supply rooms for Army and Air Force units.
Stokely Athletics Center was the expanded version of the Fieldhouse and served through the years following until 1987, with a seating capacity of 12,700.
Emmett Lowery had been hired as a football scout, assistant ends coach and also served as head basketball coach, chosen by Gen. Neyland from a pool of nearly 100 applicants. “My experience as a football coach had a lot to do with my being chosen,” said Lowery.
Head hoops coach since 1947-48, he had led the push for the Fieldhouse and coached there one year (1958-59) before resigning to go into private business in Clearwater, Fla. John Sines coached the next three years before Ray Mears arrived to start revolutionizing hoops on campus.
Lowery wanted Tennessee to keep up with the basketball Joneses, mentioning “full-time recruiting personnel, a new arena, and a larger budget” to make it happen. .
Emmett was a hoops guy, having been an Indiana “Mr. Basketball” from the 1920s. He threw himself into his position full-bore, even overseeing the construction process from the athletic department’s perspective.
“My responsibility was to do the best I could under the conditions, and, at the same time, try and convince school officials we needed to upgrade the basketball program,” said Lowery.
In 1965, William B. Stokely, Jr., a Tennessee alum and benefactor, provided an unprecedented half-million-dollar gift that enabled U.T. to double the size of the Fieldhouse. The powers-that-be were reaching for the stars, and the sky was the limit for the visionaries of those days. The trustees named the expanded building “The William B. Stokely Athletic Center. “
The answer was the Fieldhouse, funded by a combination of federal and state monies. Neyland had wanted a facility twice as big, looking beyond the needs of that specific time. However, Lowery was happy with the new arena, terming it much better than what he had before.
The Fieldhouse years featured some of the big names of Tennessee hoops: Gene Tormohlen, Dalen Showalter and Orbie Lee Bowling in the 1950s, Danny Schultz and A. W. Davis in the early 1960s, and Red Robbins and Ron Widby midway through the decade.
Adolph Rupp, who always seemed to be complaining about the lighting at Alumni Gym, likely found the Fieldhouse more to his liking, winning five of the eight games played there, although losing three of the final four games played in the early Ray Mears years (1962-66).
The facility had a hardwood floor with the old-fashioned interlocking “T” at the center circle. The team benches were on each end of the floor in the early days, later moving to side court.
There was a scoreboard and “count-down” clock at each end of the floor, nothing remotely close to the bells and whistles found in arenas today. It was “pure vanilla,” but legends are made of such venues.
The first game played there in December 1958 was something special, as Maryville’s Kenny Coulter hit an 11th-hour jump shot to upset Wyoming, 72-71. In the arena’s finale in March 1966, Ron Widby and Red Robbins led the way as Tennessee captured a memorable 69-62 victory over No. 1-ranked Kentucky, known popularly as “Rupp’s Runts.”
When you consider the transition from the Fieldhouse to Stokely Center to Thompson-Boling Arena from 1958 to the present, fans might wonder if it’s the same game they see today at TBA. The essential concept is the same, putting the ball in the basket, but that’s where the similarity ends.
A great many Tennessee supporters have made significant commitments over the years to bring a new flavor and home court advantage to Vol basketball. They have always found ways to make the dreams of the fan base become reality. That’s always been the Tennessee way.
