College Avenue Gymnasium is an athletic facility on the

College Avenue Campus College Avenue is the oldest campus of Rutgers University – New Brunswick, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S. It includes the historic seat of the university, known as Old Queens and the campus of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Many ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

New Brunswick, New Jersey New Brunswick is a city in and the seat of government of Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.first collegiate game of American football was played on the site on November 6, 1869, with Rutgers beating

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, 6–4 (roughly 42–28 under today's scoring). The old Ballantine Gymnasium burned down in 1930, and this replacement building opened in 1932. Officially, it is the College Avenue Gymnasium, but it is known to the RU community as "The Barn." Most of the seating is in the form of a balcony on three sides, upstairs from the court level, giving the gym one of the most intimate settings in Eastern college basketball while it was RU's main venue for the sport. Seating capacity has been approximately 3,200 throughout its existence. There is an annex attached to the side of the gym that sport courts for basketball, indoor soccer and a variety of other sports. The Barn has a rock climbing wall and provides willing students with lessons. The Barn also has a room used solely for those interested in kickboxing or mixed martial arts in general. There is also a room with multiple Olympic weightlifting platforms complete bumper plates, which are in kilograms, for both beginners and advanced lifters. Both the kickboxing room and the Olympic weightlifting room are deemed "The Power Gym" and are located off of The Barn's main weight-room. Rutgers reached its only NCAA Final Four in the 1975–76 season, going undefeated until losing to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in the National Semifinal. Home games at The Barn became festive affairs, with the crowd yelling so loudly that paint chips fell from the ceiling. RU knew it was time to build a bigger home court, and the Rutgers Athletic Center was built across the

Raritan River Raritan River is a major river of New Jersey. Its watershed drains much of the mountainous area of the central part of the state, emptying into the Raritan Bay on the Atlantic Ocean. History Geologists assert that the lower Raritan provided t ...

in Piscataway in time for the 1977–78 season. It was renamed the

Louis Brown Athletic Center Jersey Mike's Arena, commonly known as the RAC (an initialism for Rutgers Athletic Center, its former official name), is an 8,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Piscataway, New Jersey on Rutgers University's Livingston Campus. The building is shaped ...

in 1986, and subsequently became Jersey Mike's Arena in 2021. The College Avenue Gym remains the home of RU's volleyball team, as well as gym facilities for students, and there are no plans to replace it. Besides volleyball, their most recent tenant was the Rutgers Wrestling team for a practice location, as well as their home arena, but moved over to the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center in September of 2019. College Avenue Gymnasium, New Brunswick, NJ - plaque

College Avenue Gymnasium, New Brunswick, NJ - plaque

The current

New Jersey State Constitution The Constitution of the State of New Jersey is the basic governing document of the State of New Jersey. In addition to three British Royal Charters issued for East Jersey, West Jersey and united New Jersey while they were still colonies, the sta ...

was written and adopted in a constitutional convention, led by Rutgers President

Robert Clarkson Clothier Robert Clarkson Clothier (January 8, 1885 – March 18, 1970) was the fourteenth president of Rutgers University, serving from 1932 to 1951. Biography Robert was born on January 8, 1885, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Agnes Evans (1849–1900) ...

, held here in 1947.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 40.5033, -74.4527, region:US-NJ_type:landmark, display=title Rutgers University Rutgers Scarlet Knights basketball venues College volleyball venues in the United States College wrestling venues in the United States Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Sports venues in New Jersey 1932 establishments in New Jersey Sports venues completed in 1932 Gyms in the United States