The 2003-04 basketball season was the last to be played in Memorial Fieldhouse, and the men's and women's teams did their part to give the forty-eight-year-old building a royal sendoff. To wit:
- A combined record of 44-11.
- The first Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association's regular-season and tournament championships for the women's team.
- The first NCAA tournament appearance by the women's team.
- Another ECAC Upstate New York tournament appearance by the men's team.
- And, for the first time in the same year, the fieldhouse was the host site for both the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament and the ECAC Upstate New York Tournament.
Constructed in 1955 as a tribute to America's war veterans, Memorial Fieldhouse's dirt floor was covered in the early 1970s with a Tartan surface, allowing the men's basketball team to move from Alumni Gym. Under construction, to be ready for the 2004-05 season, is the two-story Viniar Pavilion, made possible by gifts from the Viniar Family Foundation and David Viniar '76. The new building will include two basketball practice courts and one performance court, with spectator seating for 1,000. It will be located southeast of Memorial Fieldhouse, with connections to the fieldhouse's locker rooms and equipment facilities. The fieldhouse will continue to be the home of the indoor track teams and the spring teams, which begin their preseason practices in February.
“There are a lot of great memories in this building,” said former coach Bill Scanlon, whose 300 victories are the most in the men's basketball program's history. “There were a lot of great games, a lot of great teams, and most importantly, a lot of great individuals who played in Memorial Fieldhouse. The Tartan surface and the atmosphere of the field house certainly gave us a true home- court advantage. But it is time to move on. Union is one of the last schools to play on a court other than wood.”
Current head coaches Bob Montana and Mary Ellen Burt agree that they are looking forward to moving into the Viniar Pavilion.
“I am very appreciative of Dave Viniar for his generosity and continued support of the men's basketball program and his major gift of the Viniar Pavilion,” Montana says. “I know the kids are impressed with the gift of the Viniar family and are excited to be able to play on a wood surface next year.”
“I'm excited about moving into the Viniar Pavilion next year,” adds Burt. “Not only will it be a great place to play, it will be an outstanding recruiting tool for our program and for the College as a whole.
“It was nice to have won the last game we played here,” she continues. “Since Union is my first head coaching job, this building holds some good memories for me.”
This year certainly is one of them. The Dutchwomen enjoyed the best season in their twenty-nine-year history with a record of 24-4. In addition to winning league regular season and tournament championships, the team hosted Mount Saint Mary in the first women's national tournament game in the fieldhouse, beating the Knights 78-47. The year capped a string of five-straight .500 or above seasons that have produced a record of 92-42.
The men's team enjoyed a 20-7 season and was the top seed for the ECAC Upstate New York tournament. This year's winning record marked the third time that the Dutchmen have enjoyed at least six consecutive winning seasons. Montana, who just completed his eighth year as head coach, has a career record of 121-94 and led his team to an NCAA berth in 2001-02.
Montana recalls two games that stand out among the many he has been a part of in Memorial Fieldhouse.
“My second game, which was my first year with Bill (Scanlon), as his assistant, was winning the Capital District tournament against Albany State in triple overtime. It was a great win for us. I remember the Albany State pep band playing our fieldhouse, which I thought was strange. That win seemed to give our kids confidence, and they went on to our first NCAA bid.
“The other game that comes to mind,” Montana continues, “was when we hosted our first NCAA game on Feb. 28, 2002. Seeing Memorial Fieldhouse packed, seeing our players get our first NCAA win against Lasell-it was a great reward for the kids to play in that environment and have that crowd support them.”
The memories of Memorial Fieldhouse, and the anticipation of basketball in a new home, were summed up by Montana when he said, “It always comes back to the people. Our new facility will be the same; it will be the people who make the facility special.”
Improved sports web site debuts
Thanks to a new web site, all the Union scores and sports stories are just a few mouse clicks away.
The site (http://www.union.edu/Athletics) was the result of a months-long redesign by the Office of Communications and the Department of Athletics.
With a garnet background and topped with regularly-changing photos of Union student-athletes, the site has a convenient summary of recent scores with links to game recaps, a schedule of upcoming events, feature stories, links to team pages, and a fan poll.
“This new site gives our many fans a front-row seat to all the action by providing up-to-date results, news, features, and photos in an attractive and user-friendly format,” said Val Belmonte, director of athletics. “I'm thrilled to have this new site represent the College's programs and our student-athletes. It combines the proud tradition of Union athletics with the bells and whistles of the web.”Jim Feck, the College's web director, said that what may be most exciting is what visitors won't see. “The site displays scores, stories, and photos from a database, speeding the process by which information is entered and making it possible to share the very latest news-even in-game scores and recaps from road games.”