Built in 1922, Marquette Gymnasium is the venerable Old Gym of the Marquette University campus. Imagine a building that once served as the first full-time home of Marquette men’s basketball before the team moved, originally part-time, to the MECCA Arena. In later years this same hall became a practice facility for the men’s squad and the home court for the women’s basketball and volleyball teams until the completion of the Al McGuire Center.
Coach Al McGuire and his Marquette teams of the 1960s and 1970s — an era when Marquette was a perennial NCAA tournament team and often ranked in the top 10 of national polls — practiced almost exclusively here. You can almost hear the footsteps and the names that passed through: George Thompson, Dean “The Dream” Meminger, Jim Chones, Bob Lackey, Maurice Lucas, Earl Tatum, Bo Ellis, and Allie McGuire. Today the Old Gym quietly houses offices for Intercollegiate Athletics, including Cross Country, Track, soccer, tennis and golf, as well as the school’s Army and Naval ROTC departments.
Notice the façade that once echoed with Al McGuire's teams, now quietly housing offices for Cross Country, Track and ROTC.