The Bobcat Nation

I think it was around 1980 that the floor of the fieldhouse was given a hard surface. Before that it was dirt. The basketball court was raised and there were wood paths that led from the court to the locker rooms. I found this photo-it could be the first basketball game played in the Fieldhouse-which was in late 1957 or early 1958. The team in the picture has Bengals on the their jackets so I'm guessing it's Idaho State.

I can remember the dirt floor and the raised court in the late 1970's. The Fieldhouse seemed much bigger back then, but of course I was just a kid.


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I love this photo. It shows the wooden walkways, which look like pallets. Look at the size of the crowd-and Bozeman and MSU were probably less than half of the size they are now.

I watched many games when they had the dirt floor. I saw many players fly out of bounds and roll in the dirt. They had guys with towels to wipe them off. I played on that floor (intramurals) many times. It had many dead spots. You would be driving and suddenly the ball would not come back up to your hand. You had to play around those spots.

The Fieldhouse was the venue for the 1967 Big 32 hIgh school state championship game between Billings West and Billings Senior, which drew an estimated 10 000 spectators.
About that time, too, Utah State's coach would complain about how difficult it was to play at MSU's "rodeo grounds."

Stratomatic wrote:The Fieldhouse was the venue for the 1967 Big 32 hIgh school state championship game between Billings West and Billings Senior, which drew an estimated 10 000 spectators.
About that time, too, Utah State's coach would complain about how difficult it was to play at MSU's "rodeo grounds."

I remember the dirt floor also. The 1964 District 8C Championship game between Manhattan and White Sulphur had standing room only and there were well over 11,000 in attendance to watch Clay Robinson, Curt Llewelan, Dick Fellows,Speedy Smith dominate Face from the A-Team's school. Manhattan beat White Sulphur at division and state also.

I know most of those guys. Speedy was what, all of 5 ft tall. My dad was the team mgr then.

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gocats wrote:I know most of those guys. Speedy was what, all of 5 ft tall. My dad was the team mgr then.

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5'4" and he could dunk it even though he wasn't supposed to. He won the state 100 yard dash and javelin and put on an impressive showing at the Meet of Champions. Of course, the small schools usually dominated the events that mattered unless Great Falls had a bunch of Air Force kids on their track teams. Can't remember when the big city schools got all pizzy about the small schools kicking their hind end in the Big 32 and took their balls and went home. Must have been right after the aforementioned all-Billings championship that Wolf Point, Laurel and Libby won it all, but I don't think they were played in the fieldhouse.

Remember the dirt well. Went to quite a few games at the "Brick Breeden Field House".