McKale Center
Encyclopedia
McKale Memorial Center is an athletic arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 located at 1756 E University Blvd on the campus of the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 in Tucson, Arizona. It is primarily used for basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, but also features state-of-the-art physical training and therapy facilities. Its construction is marked with a large copper cap that has turned brown over time. McKale Center is home to the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 Wildcats basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...

. The arena opened in February 1973 and has a capacity of 14,545 spectators. It hosted the 1988 Pacific-10 Conference men's basketball tournament.

McKale Center was named in honor of J.F. "Pop" McKale
Pop McKale
James Fred "Pop" McKale was an American football and baseball player, coach of football, basketball, baseball, and track, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at the University of Arizona from 1914 to 1930, compiling a record of 81–32–6...

, athletic director and coach of all sports at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 for a time, a figure at the university from 1914 to 1957. McKale was head basketball coach of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 from 1914 to 1921, where he recorded a 49-12 record.

McKale is also credited with giving the university its nickname, the Wildcats. McKale coached the 1914 school football team that played a tough game against California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 champions Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...

 on Thanksgiving Day, where the press deemed the Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 team "Wildcats", and McKale ensured that the nickname remained.

The University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...

 is in the Pacific-12 Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

.

Following the Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

 game on February 26, 2000, the University of Arizona athletic department honored head coach Lute Olson
Lute Olson
Robert Luther "Lute" Olson is a retired American men's basketball coach. He was most recently head coach at the University of Arizona for a period of 25 years. He was also head coach at the University of Iowa for 9 years and California State University, Long Beach for one season...

 with a ceremony to name the McKale Center floor, "Lute Olson Court". Then, during a memorial service in January 2001 for Olson's late wife, Bobbi, it was renamed, "Lute and Bobbi Olson Court" in recognition of the couple's impact on the university and the city of Tucson.

In 2002, the Eddie Lynch Athletics Pavilion, a state-of-the-art medical and strength/conditioning facility for Wildcat student athletes, was completed and opened. The pavilion (which cost $14 million) was a 36000 square feet (3,344.5 m²) addition to the north end of McKale Center. The upper level has a 10000 square feet (929 m²) museum-like display area, open to the public, showcasing the history of Arizona Wildcat athletics.

In terms of capacity, McKale Center is the second largest arena in the Pac-12 conference. Utah's Jon M. Huntsman Center
Jon M. Huntsman Center
Jon M. Huntsman Center is a 15,000-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah. The arena opened in 1969 and is named after chemicals entrepreneur and philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman, father of Utah's former governor Jon Huntsman, Jr....

 is the largest basketball arena in the conference, but Arizona averages greater attendance.

Major events

  • Host of the 1988 Pac-10 Conference men's basketball tournament.
  • On January 12, 2011 the McKale Center hosted a memorial service for the 2011 Tucson shooting
    2011 Tucson shooting
    On January 8, 2011, a mass shooting occurred near Tucson, Arizona. Nineteen people were shot, six of them fatally, with one other person injured at the scene during an open meeting that U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords was holding with members of her constituency in a Casas Adobes Safeway...

     victims in which President Barack Obama
    Barack Obama
    Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

     was the keynote speaker.
  • The arena has been a frequent site for games in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament since its opening. McKale Center hosted the first and second rounds of the tournament in 1979, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2005; the second and third rounds in 2011; and the West Regional semifinals and final in 1974 and 1980.

Inside McKale Center

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK