Cam Henderson Center

Infobox_Stadium
stadium_name = Cam Henderson Center
nickname = The Cam|

location = Huntington, West Virginia
broke_ground =
opened = 1981
closed =
demolished =
architect =
owner = Marshall University
operator = Marshall University
tenants = Marshall University Athletics
seating_capacity = 9,600The Cam Henderson Center is the primary indoor athletics complex at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, USA. The first basketball game played in the facility was a varsity match between Marshall and Army on November 27, 1981. [ [http://www.marshall.edu/muhistory/mature/90.htmlx First game in the Henderson Center] (picture)]

History

Design

The facility, as designed, was to be a "state of the art" arena seating 14,000. However during construction, massive budget cuts were made and the finished product seated only 10,250. The basketball arena currently seats 9,600.The arena was designed with a retractable lower seating section, which permitted used of the floor area for indoor track and general use by the physical education department. However this seating never worked as designed, and eventually the school stopped retracting the seating for fear it would become stuck in that position. Also the poured concrete floor developed major cracks.

Construction wrangles

Its construction was a part of a deal in the West Virginia Legislature to support construction of Mountaineer Field at West Virginia University. Legislators affiliated with Marshall had opposed building such a facility unless Marshall also received an athletic facility. At the time, Marshall's home court was the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse, a 30 year old county-owned facility located 6 blocks from campus and seating only 6,500. The Center was opened in 1981, both construction of the facility did not finish until the next year.

In 1996 the school, using settlement proceeds from a lawsuit against the seat manufacturer and a new state appropriation, replaced the lower section with a permanent seating section and repaired the floor, mostly ending the arena's use for anything except basketball and volleyball, with the exception of a small annual charity tennis tournament. This reduced the seating capacity to its current level. With the decline in the men's basketball program, many years passed since the final reconfiguration of the facility without a capacity crowd seen in Henderson Center. On February 11, 2006, the Center was finally filled when the men's basketball team faced number 3-ranked University of Memphis. The women's basketball program--which has become much more competitive since the 2001 arrival of coach Royce Chadwick--has held "Jam The Cam" every year since then, resulting in attendance records for women's basketball in the Mid-American Conference (Marshall has since become a member of Conference USA) and an occasional copycat event with one of the other lower-profile sports at Marshall, such as volleyball or swimming/diving.

The building was merged into the existing Gullickson Hall, and contains athletic department offices, and a competitive pool for swimming in addition to the arena.

References