Crawford Gym – UofL News

Health and Sport Sciences department reunited with new SAC location

Lacee Crail — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 18:50:06 +0000

The department of Health and Sport Sciences, a part of the College of ��ֱ�� and Human Development, has moved to the Swain Student Activities Center after spending nearly 40 years in the Crawford Gym.

This is the first time the department has been housed under the same roof. Most recently, it has been dispersed throughout three separate buildings around campus. The move was necessary because the Crawford Gym is to make way for a new academic building.

HSS has 39 employees and all of them made the move to the SAC during the first week of classes. The SAC location was picked because HSS frequently collaborates with athletics, which is also housed in the SAC.

While in Crawford, the department’s co-chairs — Margaret Pentecost, assistant dean for student for student services, and Meg Hancock, assistant professor — worked to build a strong work-family community. Some of the department’s employees said they will miss the rich history of the gym and having former athletes visit them.

Even so, they are excited about being in the SAC, the extra space for growth and having the team in one place. The new space allows for more hands-on activities for their growing department, which serves more than 1,000 students. HSS’ projects include working with NASA, studying juvenile diabetes and fitness evaluation programs.

The newly renovated space for HSS includes pediatric treadmills, a fitness wave hydrostatic body fat measurement tank and a sport marketing lab that includes phones and computers for ticket sales and video conferencing.

“This will be a great environment” Pentecost said.

“It will be an adventure but everyone is very excited and has been on board (with the move),” Hancock added.

The co-chairs also expressed their gratitude to those who planned, executed and helped make the move to the SAC.

Fans bid farewell to Crawford Gym

John Drees — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 17:49:05 +0000

Hundreds of coaches, former athletes and fans turned out Thursday, Aug. 4, to bid farewell to Crawford Gym.

Best known as the site of legendary basketball pick-up games, the 53-year-old facility served as home to the UofL men’s and women’s basketball teams, swim team and other sports. It also was home to countless physical education classes and intramural sports competitions.

Crawford is being taken down to make way for a new academic classroom building. Interior work will begin Monday, Aug. 8, with demolition of the building scheduled for later this month.

The open house featured a ceremony that included remarks from former coaches and players, a team photo of many basketball players from 1962 to 2001, and a ceremonial cutting of the nets. It also featured the presentation of an engraved starting block for former swim coach Rick Hill.

Hall of Fame basketball coach Denny Crum addressed the crowd and signed autographs throughout the day.

“I would like you to know how much the players and I, in particular, appreciate all of you being here to share this with us,” Crum said.

Dozens of visitors lined up to purchase pieces of the Crawford Gym floor. Crawford’s scoreboards, basketball goals and swimming platforms also are being sold at auction. All proceeds will support the Denny Crum Scholarship Fund, which provides support for incoming students.

The fund “is to help kids go to college,” Crum said. “That’s what we do here. This is a university, and that’s the way it should be.”

. Watch video from the event below:

Former players, coaches, fans to celebrate Crawford Gym

John Drees — Wed, 20 Jul 2016 15:48:18 +0000

For years, Crawford Gym was the site of intense practices and legendary summer afternoon pick-up games featuring Louisville’s best college and professional basketball players. It also housed the Cardinal swim teams and served thousands of students who took classes and competed in intramural sports ranging from racquetball to volleyball.

And, of course, it has been home to the faculty/staff for decades.

Now the historic structure, built in 1963, is coming down to make way for a new academic building – and the university invites fans to help send it out in style.

UofL will hold an open house at Crawford Gym for former players and fans from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4. Activities will include an 11 a.m. event in which Hall of Fame Coach Denny Crum and several former players will share memories of their days in Crawford. The open house is free and open to the public.

In addition, the university invites the community to share their memories of Crawford Gym in the comments section at . The university will collect the memories through Aug. 7, at which time the comments will be delivered to the University Archives.

Fans can also own a piece of Crawford Gym in one of two ways. The university will sell a limited number of 8-by-10-inch pieces of the Crawford Gym floor for $50 apiece. Go to for more details. Scoreboards, bleachers, goals and other items will be part of an online auction July 26 through Aug. 5. The auction site, which will go live on July 26, will be at: .

Net proceeds will benefit activities that support the Denny Crum Scholarship Foundation.

Bound by basketball: employees celebrate 52 years of play in Crawford Gym

Niki King — Fri, 20 May 2016 18:23:58 +0000

The Noontime Basketball Association gathered recently to pay homage to the 52 years they’ve played together and the beloved building that made their countless games possible.

As is typical of the motley group of UofL faculty and staff, it was more in the spirit of fun than formality.

After all, since its inception in 1964, the NBA, as the group laughingly calls itself, has never been an actual league. They’ve never collected dues, elected leaders or had any of the trappings of a formal organization.

They’ve just had an open door policy — any university employee who wants to play basketball can show up at lunchtime on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Crawford Gym.

“One of the great things about these games is there is no distinctions, as long as you get a UofL pay check, you’re welcome. We’ve had everyone from janitors to vice presidents,” said Steve Skaggs, professor of graphic design, who acts as the group’s impromptu leader. “You get everyone in their underwear and everyone looks alike. Status falls away.”

Over the years, players have come and gone, some have gotten a little grayer, softer and more prone to injury.

But one thing remained the same, they always played in Crawford Gym, which was also the varsity basketball team’s practice facility for decades. The facility was hot — it never had air-conditioning — but the court was good and long and the floors had great bounce, they say.

The tradition will end this summer when the gym is torn down to make way for a new academic building.

The NBA held a decommissioning ceremony to mark the occasion, in which they reminisced and read a proclamation.

“We hereby celebrate the fellowship, the layup, the blocked shots, the fights, the injuries and the laughter this facility made possible,” Skaggs said.

The group also will hand over their only documents to University Libraries Archives and Special Collections, which includes a roster of about 120 players (that’s everyone they can remember) — and the “Monroe Doctrine,” as their rules are called, so named for biology professor Burt Monroe who penned them years ago.

“It’s a tattered sheet of paper we always kept in a locker just in case there was a dispute, but there never was,” Skaggs said.

He can remember only one change to it: In the 1980s, 3-point and 2-point shots were added. Before that, there had only been 1-point baskets.

Players describe their games as competitive and physical, even as skill and talent vary. For example, physical plant worker Adam Walter Davis, or “Ice,” as the group calls him, played on his junior college’s basketball team, and can really shoot.

But, he was quick to share the ball “to get everyone involved,” even if that was to team members who weren’t as quick to the basket as he was, “like my man right here,” he said with a laugh, clapping Guruprasad Giridharan on the back.

Giridharan, associate chair of bioengineering, didn’t know how to play basketball when he started with the NBA in 2003. He’d newly moved to Louisville and came out to get some exercise. While his shot hasn’t improved a lot, he’s made lots of friends; the kind you can have a bourbon with after work, he said.

The NBA has brought together people who otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to meet, and even resulted in occasional collaborations, said Skaggs, who once worked with bioengineering professor and fellow player Steven Koenig to write a grant.

“Basketball has a way of bringing people together,” Skaggs said.

Like any community, they’ve experienced losses through the years, as regulars have gotten sick or passed away. Former Western Kentucky player Granville Bunton, who worked in UofL’s libraries, died in 1996 after having a heart attack following a game at Crawford. A plaque honoring Granville signed by “his noontime basketball friends” is on display in the gym lobby.

“Part of it is a brotherhood,” Koenig said.

Occasionally, women have also played. Skaggs remembers guarding Patty Jo Hedges Ward, who played at the University of Kentucky from 1979-83. She was named to the 1982 SEC All-Tournament team after helping the Cats win their first SEC Tournament championship. She also was a member of the Pan American Gold Medal team in 1983.

“She was crafty with the ball to say the least,” Skaggs said.

And, there have been serendipitous moments, too.

Scott Davenport, Bellarmine University’s basketball coach whose team clinched the 2011 NCAA Division II national championship, was once a freshman at UofL, just hanging out in Crawford Gym, watching the NBA play.

Someone left and they needed another player. They asked Davenport to join. He did, and he played well. He was so good that former athletic director Bill Olsen, who was present at the time, noticed and invited him to try out for the junior varsity team. Davenport did, and his storied career in basketball was born.

The NBA plans to play through the summer. Following Crawford’s removal, they’ll move to another gym on campus.

to view more photos. Watch a story about the NBA below.