MANHATTAN, Kan.—Nineteen-year-old Dick Towers looked forward to admiring the construction every day on his walk to class. Towers, a native of Olathe, Kansas, who felt the heat while watching Kansas State basketball games inside stuffy 2,400-capacity Nichols Gymnasium, knew he was witnessing something special straight north of Memorial Stadium. It was a monument, no, an institution, no, a crown jewel rising 84 feet high, touching the Manhattan sky, so many years in the making, 10 to be exact, a petition of 4,000 names scratched on a roll of paper spanning nearly a quarter-mile long, pleading for a field house.
The structure that Towers so liked to examine from afar each day would be named Ahearn Field House. It was a drive by several individuals, including Mike Ahearn, who served as basketball coach in the early 1900s and athletic director from 1920-47, and head coach Jack Gardner.
Construction of Ahearn Field House was $2 million. Once completed, it was the fifth-largest fieldhouse in the United States with a capacity of 14,000, was the envy of every Big Seven Conference school, and it was used not only for basketball, but so much more. Two completely enclosed batting cages could be lowered from the ceiling, running track was a standard 220-yards in length with six three-feet lanes, and pole vault, high jump, broad jump and shot put facilities were available during track and field meets.
The K-State football team used Ahearn Field House for spring practice, removing the basketball floor, which raised 22 inches above the earth floor. Over the years, Ahearn also housed women's volleyball, tennis, music concerts, rodeos, and speeches by prominent politicians.
But, of course, it all trailed back to its original purpose, basketball, the hottest ticket in town. Towers played K-State football and ran track, and eventually became K-State athletic director from 1981-85. Towers is 92 years old and resides in Manhattan.
"Ahearn Field House was the largest indoor facility west of St. Louis all the way to the coast," Towers says. "Every day I walked on campus between 1949 and 1950 and saw the construction, and boy, it turned out to be a tremendous, tremendous facility, and a great use. It was really a mammoth.
"At basketball games, of course, there were bleachers along the side, so when you sat next to somebody, you packed in tight. The amazing part was the attendance number. Nichols Gym seated 2,000 or maybe a little bit more, and as students you couldn't see all the ballgames. You were able to see one-third of the games. At the time, I helped set up bleachers before and after the ballgame at Nichols, so we got to see games inside Nichols, but with Ahearn, we went from 2,000 capacity to about 14,000. The town of Manhattan had about 20,000 people. A lot of people came to town to see Kansas State play basketball."
Ahearn Field House officially sprang to life on December 9, 1950, when K-State hosted Utah State. The largest-ever capacity to witness a K-State basketball game arrived when 14,028 saw K-State defeat No. 4 Long Island, 85-65, on January 31, 1951. The Wildcats went on to win 378 games, including six undefeated home basketball seasons, inside Ahearn between 1950-51 and 1987-88.
Former K-State head coach Lon Kruger remembers the final basketball game played in Ahearn. K-State beat Norm Stewart and Missouri, 92-82, on March 5, 1988. Kruger, a native of Silver Lake, Kansas, was two-time Big Eight Player of the Year in 1973 and 1974 and served as head coach from 1987-90.
"The last game against Missouri, there was a lot of build-up to that," Kruger says. "Norm Stewart and the Tigers were in town. It was a big-time game and a big-time atmosphere and a good result. It was always loud and intense, but that game, the fans raised it to another level.
"The first thing that comes to mind are the fans. They impacted the outcome of a lot of games. I mean, just not in sheer numbers, but our fans were very knowledgeable. Sometimes, fans will respond to a good stretch, but our fans could sense when we needed a good stretch, and they demanded it. They were really unique in that way. It was the best atmosphere in the league. You didn't want to let the fans down."
Even when the capacity shrank to 11,200 to accommodate health codes, Ahearn remained one of the most imposing arenas in college basketball.
Ahearn Field House also served as host site for the NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament five times — 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2007.
Liz Wegner-Busch remembers those days. The first two-time All-American women's volleyball player in K-State history, Wegner helped K-State to one of its most successful four-year stretches in history between 1998-2001. The Wildcats won 80 matches and participated in four NCAA Tournaments.
"I remember the smell," she says. "It's very nostalgic to me. It just felt like home. I loved competing in Ahearn. I remember the very first time I walked onto the court during my recruiting visit, I thought it was the most unique setup and environment. I loved the court and how it was surrounded by the big track. I loved how over the years we began to pack Ahearn. They put the big purple netting behind the seating on the north side.
"I liked how hot it got inside Ahearn. I loved competing when it was hot and always thought it was an advantage for us. A lot of teams couldn't handle the heat. I couldn't have imagined competing anywhere else."
Same goes for Director of Track and Field Cliff Rovelto, the world-renown track coach who is in his 31st season leading the program. Rovelto has personally coached 17 Olympians who have made a combined 22 Olympic appearances.
However, Rovelto's introduction to Ahearn actually arrived before he officially came to K-State. Rovelto was a 22-year-old head track and field coach and basketball coach at McLouth High School. He attended a coaches clinic led by K-State head coach Jack Hartman. Kruger was a graduate assistant at that time.
"My first time in Ahearn," Rovelto chuckles, "and I was there for a basketball coaching clinic."
Ahearn would become Rovelto's home for more than three decades.
"First of all, for track junkies, it's really kind of cool because you're in a relatively confined space and there are a lot of things going on at the same time," Rovelto says. "Indoor track has been described as a three-ring circus and it is in a lot of ways. There's always a lot of activity and energy at indoor meets, particularly when it means something."
And Friday means something.
On Friday, the K-State men's and women's track and field teams will compete in the Steve Miller Invitational to finish out the indoor regular season before the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
Friday's indoor track and field meet will mark the final athletic event ever in Ahearn Field House.
After 72 years, two months and eight days, K-State athletics bids farewell to the facility that was once the envy of schools everywhere.
"Being a dinosaur and being somebody who's been here for 35 years, it's the end of an era," Rovelto says. "It's been home. We've had a lot of outstanding performances in Ahearn. We've had a lot of really good track meets in there over the years. It's definitely something that'll be missed. It's just an evolution, but it's definitely something that I'll miss, that's for sure.
"It'll be a little sentimental for me."
It'll be sentimental for 92-year-old Towers as well.
"Ahearn has so many memories for me," he says. "I'm an old guy that saw the thing grow up from its beginning. It was great to walk on campus and see the construction of it. It really was a good spot on campus.
"We were all quite proud of the building."