North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: A Reynolds Renovation
11/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- On Dec. 2, 1949, when the first NC State men's basketball game was played at Reynolds Coliseum, not all the seats were installed. Some fans had to sit on empty concrete risers in the stands of the building that eventually hosted more college basketball games than any other on-campus facility in the country.
Even the massive basement underneath the coliseum wasn't completed before Everett Case's team opened with a 67-47 victory over Washington & Lee. And the elephant doors used when the circus came to town were a post-opening retro-fit.
So let's just say NC State women's coach Kay Yow has reason to feel even more connected to Case, who is enshrined along with Yow in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
That's because Reynolds will still have a slightly unfinished feel to it for the first game or two in the refurbished coliseum. But in the end, the women's program will have a significant upgrade in terms of playing and practice facilities, locker rooms and support facilities, like sports medicine, weight training and player accommodations.
For now, beginning with Tuesday night's exhibition victory over EA Sports and Friday night's season-opener against UNC-Greensboro (7 p.m.), both end zones will be without seats and the seats along the two sidelines will be folding chairs without risers.
"(Coach Case's team) had pretty good success here after that first game," Yow said.
Indeed. The 1949-50 Wolfpack went 27-6, won both the Southern Conference and regular-season championships and advanced to the Final Four for the only time in Case's 18-year tenure at NC State.
So while Yow won't be fond of the empty areas in the arena, she'll take any good karma that will come from the déjà vu experience of playing in a somewhat unfinished environment, especially since all seating in the end zones and on the sidelines are expected to be installed by the women's next home game on Nov. 30 against Vanderbilt, according to NC State Assistant Athletics Director for Indoor Facilities Barry Joyce.
It's all part of a two-year, $4 million renovation of Reynolds, the permanent home for the NC State women's basketball team, as well as volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling.
"It's all going to be very nice," Yow said. "Especially as we get one thing completed and then another and then another."
The renovation project had some setbacks over the summer, when a June electrical fire destroyed two ROTC classrooms on the east side of the building.
That was just before the installation of the new permanent wooden floor, which covers the entire length and width of the coliseum. It replaced the portable wooden flooring that had been used ever since the coliseum opened in 1949, except for the 17 years that the Wolfpack men's and women's teams played on a rubberize Tartan surface, from the mid-1970s until 1990.
Last week, Yow, her assistant coaches and administrative task went through the arduous task of moving their offices from Case Athletics Center to their new offices in Reynolds. There are actually three new office suites, one for Yow, her coaches and administrative staff, one for NC State Senior Associate Athletics Director Nora Lynn Finch and her assistant and one for video equipment and an office for the director of basketball operations.
For Yow, having her office inside of Reynolds is special, even if it will take months to sort through all the stuff she brought over from her old office. That monumental task will probably be left until after the season, after she and her staff decide what they want to keep, what they want to display and what they want to store.
"It's just nice to be here in the arena," Yow said. "Basketball coaches have a fondness for the hardwoods. Our secretaries in the office can hear us out here practicing.
"I think the entire office suite will be very nice when we get it completed, especially all the graphic design stuff done."
But Yow's office, always cluttered with the mementos from her 30-year tenure here, is currently decorated with moving boxes. She's taking her time to sort through everything, which means it might be a while before it looks like normal again.
While most of the court-level renovations are nearly complete, the basement renovations are just getting started. The first phase of the basement renovation includes new lockerrooms, a recruiting room and a players' lounge for women's basketball, a new equipment room, sports medicine facilities, weight-training area, a new lockerroom for game officials, offices for the softball team and a game-day operations office. All of it is supposed to be done by the end of September, with the possibility the women's basketball team will get new lockerrooms, a recruiting room and a players' lounge. Game officials will get a new lockerroom and dressing area as well. All of it should be done by the end of December, with the possibility of moving the team in sometime in January, Joyce said.
However, Yow said her team may not make a permanent move until after the season is over.
"I try to be patient and not have a specific date in mind, because in construction you never really know when everything is going to be done the way you want it," Yow said.
The second phase of the basement renovation includes team rooms for volleyball and gymnastics and lockerrooms for softball, women's golf and visiting women's basketball.
In the end, Reynolds will accommodate so what it has always done in its 56 years as a landmark on the NC State campus: serve as the home for a premier basketball team and serve the needs of several other sports, with updated amenities.
"All Wolfpack fans have a special fondness for Reynolds Coliseum," Yow said. "It is a privilege for us to maintain the tradition and the honors and everything that has been bestowed on this facility.
"We are the basketball team that is going to play the games here. We look at it as a privilege and an honor."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
