Alumni Gymnasium - Men's Basketball 1940-41
The 1940-1941 Dickinson College men's basketball team played in 16
games and had a respectable record of ten wins and six losses. Their schedule
and results look like this:
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Elizabethtown...................Win..........49-38 Western Maryland............Win..........45-37 American University..........Win..........46-34 Lehigh University...............Loss.........45-59 Delaware..........................Win..........49-34 Gettysburg.........................Loss........19-46 Lebanon Valley..................Loss........27-47 Washington & Jefferson.....Loss........32-45 Drexel...............................Win.........55-36 Swarthmore......................Win..........38-24 Rutgers.............................Win..........57-55 Susquehanna....................Win...........54-50 Ursinus.............................Win..........54-48 Franklin & Marshall..........Loss.........35-47 Gettysburg........................Loss.........37-39 Bucknell...........................Win..........51-50 **All scores according to the 1941 Dickinson Microcosm |
The coach of the Dickinson College Men's Basketball team in 1940-1941 was the legendary Coach "Mac" MacAndrews.
The Alumni Gymnasium was built at the location where old South College
had been and was opened on January 9th, 1929. The building signified a
"triumph" because the General Alumni Association had succeeded in a fund-raising
attempt when a church-oriented group before them had failed. This allowed
them to bring a new gymnasium to the campus. The total cost was $232,621
dollars and the fundraising breakdown went as follows:
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Other Contributors.............................$62,410.19 Current Funds....................................$54,004.65 Miscellaneous(estates)........................$11,000.00 LOAN Carlisle Trust Company..........$88,500.00 TOTAL.............................................$284,994.39 **All this information from Dickinson College archives in drop file of Alumni Gymnasium |
The previous gymnasium, built in 1885, by 1928 had many shortcomings which made the decision to build the new facility that much easier. The Alumni Gymnasium was built for a series of reasons - the College needed more space for both spectators and athletes, better locker room and shower facilities were needed, a swimming pool was a top priority and the College's athletic program, especially basketball, was thriving. All of these factors called for better facilities and a new gymnasium. Perhaps, the strongest reason why the new gymnasium was built, though, was because the financial strength of the College was healthy during this time and the College was expanding.
The Alumni Gymnasium had three floors. It had a basement which provided ample space for toilet rooms and storage rooms and also an exercise room. The ground or first floor had locker room space, offices for the physical director, rooms for conferences and also the
25x75-foot swimming pool. The second floor was home to the main floor, which was 89 feet wide and 129 feet long. The facility had ample space for spectators and it also had a training room.
The Alumni Gymnasium was finally opened on January 9th, 1929 with a basketball game between Dickinson College and the University of Pennsylvania, won by Penn 37-28. Thirteen hundred people packed the new gymnasium which boasted a 600 seat reserved section. This first game in the Alumni Gymnasium was met with great anticipation as the opening of the gym had been delayed for almost one month. The building was originally scheduled to be open for the first game of the basketball season on December 8th, 1928 against Mt. Alto. Instead the "hoopsters" from Dickinson College had to play all of their "home" games at Carlisle High School because the Alumni Gymnasium could not be opened until January 8th owing to the balcony not being completed.
In 1980, with the completion of the new Kline Life Sports Learning Center, the Alumni Gymnasium ended its career as center for campus athletic activity, to open two years later as the completely refurbished Wiess Center for the Arts.
