Along with 15,210 other folk we attended the University of New Mexico men’s basketball game against the Air Force Academy at University Arena in Albuquerque tonight. The Lobos beat the Falcons 78-53.
It was the 750th men’s game at The Pit, designated 13th among American sports venues of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Tonight’s crowd was below average in attendance — the Lobos have averaged 15,559 per game over 42 years.
It’s called The Pit because the arena floor is 37 feet below grade. It’s the loudest basketball venue in America, beating out Cameron Indoor at Duke University in some study done in 1999. One hopes the $60 million renovation that begins in April won’t decrease the noise.
The original cost to build the arena in 1966 was just $1.4 million. Current capacity is 18,018.
I hope Alford makes a better impression on folks than he did here at Iowa. We didn’t mind the Hawks dropping out of the top 25 so much. It was his personality and his recruits being featured on America’s Most Wanted that turned everyone off.
Since you mentioned Cameron: when I lived in Raleigh, I heard stories about how tough the crowd would get.
One of the players on a visiting team had just been accused of rape, so the crowd threw condoms at him when he ran by.
The Duke newspaper published a cartoon of the Space Shuttle in Cameron, with the crowd chanting “O-rings, O-rings…”
More here from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/page2/s/cameron/hits.html