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In some ways, another of Omaha's athletic landmarks is about to fade into memory.

While UNO's volleyball and women's basketball teams will still compete at Sapp Fieldhouse for the foreseeable future, the last scheduled men's basketball game at the 63-year-old building is Wednesday's 7 p.m. game between UNO and the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

The UNO men's basketball team will continue to practice at the fieldhouse, but will play its games at the new arena in Ralston beginning next season.

While the fieldhouse has hosted several national wrestling tournaments, has seen an indoor world record set in track and field and has seen high-level Division II competition in a number of sports, the biggest memories it has produced have likely, for most, come in men's basketball.

"The night we won our first NCC championship stands out for me," said Gary Anderson, the school's recently retired long-time sports information director, referring to a February night in 1979. "The crowd was electric that night, and it was jam-packed. It was a neat moment.

"And the night that Dean (Thompson Jr.) broke the scoring record (in 1984) would have to be right up there, too."

Those were the days.

But the proliferation of televised college basketball games, beginning in the early 1980s, an extended dry spell of on-court success for much of the 1990s and increasing frustration with the lack of week-night parking near the on-campus arena conspired to keep crowds away — even after the program began experiencing success again in the early 2000s. The switch from the Friday-Saturday scheduling pattern that had been a staple until the end of the North Central Conference era in 2008 didn't help attendance, either.

As UNO has gone from the NCC to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association and now to Division I, many newcomers have come into the old barn, sized it up and professed how much they love the old-school feel.

Still, despite the video boards installed two years ago, there isn't a lot to help entice recruits.

"I've loved the competition and the games and the players and the coaches that have come through in the 14 years I've been here," said seventh-year UNO coach Derrin Hansen, who previously served as an assistant. "It's been great to be part of. But to try to recruit at the Division I level, I think where we're going now, for us, is the right move — as much as I love the Sapp Fieldhouse."

Construction was completed on the facility in 1949.

"It was one of the best facilities in the region back then," said Anderson, an Omahan who began attending games at UNO as a kid in the 1950s. "It was just a different time. It was so functional, and so versatile."

Up until 1970, the floor of the fieldhouse was dirt. Basketball games were played on an elevated portable court.

"They had to water it all the time to keep the dust down, so it was really humid in there," Anderson said. "And at halftime of games, they'd come through with those big brooms on the floor and it was like a Zamboni on the ice. You could see where the dust had accumulated."

Former UNO coach Bob Hanson, who took over in 1969, helped oversee the transition from the old dirt-floor fieldhouse to the updated one.

A Tartan surface, similar to the flooring that's still around the outside of the main basketball-playing surface, was put down in 1970.

The current incarnation of bleachers is the third set. The first set met its end when the dirt floor was removed.

"Human beings couldn't pull out the old bleachers, you needed a tractor to do it," Hanson said. "And we would have to sweep the floor two to four times a day during practice — it was important to have good managers who were good sweepers."

While the Tartan flooring was somewhat in vogue back in the 1970s, most players didn't like it much. Still, it dressed the place up a little bit.

"That was our big game of the year back then," said UNK co-coach Tom Kropp, who starred for the former Kearney State in the 1970s. "They had so many great players there, and it was a great facility to play in. Coming into that fieldhouse to play was a thrill."

The record crowd from the 1979 South Dakota game is listed officially as 5,200, though most — including the fire marshal — say capacity was actually about 3,800.

But there were plenty of big crowds back in the day.

Stan Schaetzle, who finished as UNO's career scoring leader, and Don Claussen starred for UNO in the 1950s. Dean Thompson Sr. was one of Schaetzle's teammates, and Dean Thompson Jr. became the school's leading scorer with 1,816 points in a career that stretched from 1980 through 1984 — once the Forrest brothers, first Calvin, then Dennis, took over the school's scoring lead in the 1970s.

Mitch Albers, a UNO senior playing his final home game Wednesday, needs 66 points in his final three games to pass Thompson on the all-time scoring list. He, too, has a history at the fieldhouse, having played in Metro Conference tournament games there while at Papillion-La Vista.

"This has been a nice facility for us as a Division II team," Albers said. "Transitioning to Division I like we are, I'm sure the team and the coaches and the administration are excited about the Ralston arena.

"And even though I would have liked to play at the Ralston arena this year, I think it's also good that we were able to give the fieldhouse a final year. There have been a lot of great players and historic games there, and I think having a lot of the alumni coming back is a good way to send it out."

Thompson Jr. and his former coach, Hanson, are among many former UNO alumni expected to be on hand Wednesday night.

"For me, it's a lifetime symbol," said Thompson Jr., who, like others, will still play plenty of pickup ball there. "My dad played there, and he started taking me to games there early on. I remember seeing guys like Leo Grimes and Paul Potter, the Forrest brothers, Steve Criss.

"It's sentimental and sad, but I also went to a Creighton women's game (at the new Sokol Arena) and that's a fun place to watch basketball. So hopefully the same thing can be recreated (in Ralston) as we take the next step in UNO basketball history."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1027, rob.white@owh.com

twitter.com/RWhiteOWH

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