McArthur Court, also known as Mac Court and “The Pit” to students, fans and players, is the University’s ivy-coated home to men and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and men’s wrestling. It is also home to history and legends.
The arena is named for Clifton N. (Pat) McArthur, the University’s first student body president and a student athlete, according to the University admissions office Web site. Built with student funds in 1926, McArthur Court was first the site of a game in 1927 when the Oregon Tall Firs, as the men’s basketball team was then known, beat Willamette University, 38-10. In 1939, the Tall Firs were the first team to win the newly inaugurated NCAA Championship.
Originally designed to hold 6,000 fans, McArthur Court has been progressively expanded. It now seats 9,738 and is the oldest active basketball stadium in the country, according to the University admissions office Web site.
George Beres, the University’s sports information director from 1976-82, recalled how the issue of seating once caused some internal controversy.
Part of Beres’ job was to report attendance at the basketball games to the league. But a former basketball coach liked to pad the numbers a little, Beres said.
“(He) always insisted that we put down that the attendance at a sold-out game was 10,000. It looked better for him. It was only after (he) left for Penn State was I approached by (current associate athletic director) Herb Yamanaka and told that the attendance of a full game should be reported as 9,738. It was only then that I realized we could not actually fit 10,000 people,” Beres said. Beres also remembered former men’s basketball coach Dick Harter, who had an unusual defensive strategy called the “Kamikaze Kids.” During games, the players would go skidding around the floor diving after the ball, Beres said.
Throughout its history, the court has also been renovated several times. In 1992, renovations added new locker rooms, a team room and coaches’ offices, and in 1993, women’s basketball, volleyball and softball received new quarters. During the 1995-96 academic year, a $400,000 renovation of the outer concourse on the street level was completed, and the academic area for student athletes was completely updated and redesigned.
In the summer of 1996, the court received a new roof with a price tag of $1.7 million, and in an attempt to make the space more usable for other events, new seating was put in place in fall 1997 at the court level and the first balcony.
The court has seen its share of non-sporting events. Sandy Walton, the senior associate athletic director, who came to the school in 1978, remembers Elvis Presley, Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and The Judds — with Garth Brooks as a warm-up band — performing at Mac Court.
On March 8, 1970, the band Chicago played at McArthur Court, but according to a March 10 Emerald article, things went sour when 200 people attempted to make the concert a free event, and some individuals broke windows and took doors off their hinges.
But despite the number of musical events the court has hosted, Walton said it’s not a great venue.
“The acoustics stink,” she said. “I could imagine it would be terrible to have to play music there, but it’s fantastic for basketball.”
According to the Athletic Department, Mac Court is more than just a building — it is one of the primary attributes of Oregon’s basketball program.
“It is just one of the most intimate places to play ball, just because the fans are so incredibly close to the players,” Walton said.
In 1995, Sports Illustrated listed Mac Court as one of the 12 toughest places in the country to play college basketball. ESPN.com’s panel of sports columnists rated it the worst place in the Pacific-10 Conference for a team to play an away game.
“The Ducks feast off noise from three balconies that vibrate from the deafening cheers of 10,000,” the ESPN.com report said. “Students sitting at courtside only add to the roaring atmosphere.”