Somewhere underneath the new durable blue carpeting inside Bear Down Gym is the spot where one of the most amazing moments in the Arizona Wildcats’ sports history took place. Ernie McCray, one of the UA’s first black basketball players, scored his 46th point on Feb. 6, 1960. It’s still a team record.
Where cubicles now stand, the Wildcats won 81 straight basketball games from 1945-51.
Banners still hang in the rafters of Bear Down Gym, where the UA played every meaningful indoor sporting event until McKale Center opened in 1973.
Generations of students since have played pick-up basketball on the wood floors that still exist underneath that layer of carpet.
But Bear Down Gym isn’t a gym anymore.
It probably never will be again.
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In June, the Arizona Board of Regents approved a $13.5 million renovation of Old Main.
Read more about Bear Down Gym in Thursday's Arizona Daily Star.
