ASSEMBLY HALL (BLOOMINGTON)

'Assembly Hall' is a 17,456-seat arena on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the home of the Indiana Hoosiers basketball teams. It opened in 1972[2], replacing the current Gladstein Fieldhouse. The court is named after Branch McCracken, the men's basketball coach who led the school to its first two NCAA National Championships in 1940 and 1953. Indiana installed a new state-of-the-art playing surface during the summer of 1995. The floor is the latest in court science, which includes added shock absorbers. The new floor also is permanent and covers the entire floor area. New bleacher seats were added, as well, along with a media row and end seating platforms on Lobby Level to give Assembly Hall a "new look".
Sportscaster Dick Vitale called for Assembly Hall to be renamed in honor of former coach Bobby Knight in a column for ESPN in 2003.[3] This was unlikely to take place, because the controversial Knight was fired by the university in 2000.
In 2005 the school completed construction of a state-of-the-art, $1.9 million scoreboard-video board. It is expected to pull in yearly advertising revenue without costing the athletics department any out-of-pocket expenses. Some Hoosier purists feared the advertisements, which had never before been in Assembly Hall, would ruin the aura and aesthetics.
The building has hosted the NCAA basketball tournament three times, with sub-regional games in 1977 and 1979, and the Midwest regional finals in 1981.

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See also

See also

★ Indiana Hoosiers

★ Indiana University Bloomington