Wildcats basketball filled Bear Down Gym, this 300-seat brick arena on the University of Arizona campus, from 1926 until 1973. Built in 1926 to house the Wildcats basketball team, this compact brick building carried the cheers of generations until the McKale Center opened in 1973 and the team moved on. Its profile is more than sport: designed by Lyman & Place with Roy Place as architect and built by Clinton Campbell, the gym earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, listed as Men's Gymnasium, University of Arizona.
If you like movie trivia, you'll recognize this spot from the 1984 blockbuster Revenge of the Nerds — it doubled as the gym of fictional Adams College and even stood in for the Nerds' temporary home after they were kicked out of Cochise Hall. Inside and around, the university has renovated and updated the building to meet student needs: today it hosts housing resources and the Think Tank, where students receive tutoring. Plans are in the works to add a three-story building over the spot currently holding an old swimming pool.
Look now toward the pool site and the building's worn facade, and imagine the layers of campus life here.