Fitzgerald Field House is a 4,122-seat multi-purpose athletic venue on the campus of the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

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. Fitzgerald Field House is named for Rufus Fitzgerald, a past

chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

(1945–1955) of the university. It is the primary home competition venue for the university's gymnastics,

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

, and

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

teams.

Usage

Fitzgerald Field House is the competitive venue for the Pitt varsity sports of

, gymnastics, and

. With an indoor track, the Field House also serves as the primary indoor facility for the university's

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

team, as well as housing the wrestling training facility and the primary training and weight facilities for Pitt's Olympic sports. In addition, it contains the offices and locker rooms for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, cross country, soccer,

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

, swimming and diving, and tennis. The facility also has squash courts. The Field House is connected by a tunnel to Trees Pool and the Gymnastics Training Center, both located in Trees Hall. Built in 1951, Fitzgerald Field House was, for five decades, the home of Pitt's basketball program. The Field House provided a home court advantage that allowed the program to achieve a 414-175 (.703) record while utilizing the facility. It also served as the home basketball court of Pitt's intracity rival, the Duquesne University Dukes, from 1956-57 to 1963-64. From 1984 until 2002, the Pitt men's basketball team also played selected

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

and non-conference games at the Civic Arena. Pitt's women's basketball team also used the Field House as their primary home court. Both the men's and women's Pitt basketball teams moved to the Petersen Events Center in 2002. In 1999, Fitzgerald Field House underwent $3.8 million ($ million today) in renovations of existing facilities and a major addition to the west side of the building for locker rooms, team dressing rooms, and training and equipment rooms. In the summer of 2005, the wrestling training facility built in 1951 was reconstructed to be twice the size of the previous training facility and also received new floor and wall mats, a new ventilation system, new lighting, a video and recruitment room, and a balcony suspended above the mats featuring cardio equipment. In addition, an Olympic sports weight room was added to serve as a primary training facility for over 300 Pitt student-athletes and includes Hammer Strength and Nautilus Next Generation machines, nearly 8,600 pounds of free weights, and a comprehensive cardiovascular unit, including treadmills, stationary bikes and the Stairmaster Gauntlet. The renovations and addition of the weight room reduced the seating capacity from its prior 6,798 seats to a capacity of 4,122. Further renovations of the Field House in 2008 totaled $1.4 million ($ million today) and included new volleyball courts and installation of seating and electronic equipment to meet NCAA requirements. In November, 2011, the Nathan Hershey Athletic Training Facility was dedicated in the Field House. File:FitzOutsideatPitt.jpg, Main entrance with the 1999 addition on the right File:PittChancellorFitzgerald.jpg, Rufus Fitzgerald

Notable events

* 1957 NCAA Wrestling Championship * 1962 Speech delivered by President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

* 1963 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship * 1979 Eastern

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was a college athletics organization in the United States, founded in 1971 to govern women's college competitions in the country and to administer national championships (see AIAW Cham ...

Volleyball Championship * January 25, 1988 – In one of the most famous events in college basketball history, Pitt's

Jerome Lane Jerome Lane Sr. (born December 4, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player who played six seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lane played college basketball for the University of Pittsburgh, where he was an Al ...

shatters the backboard with a slam dunk during the Panthers' game against Providence. The incident is equally memorable for

Bill Raftery William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach. Early life and playing years Born William Joseph Raftery in Orange, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Kearny, Raftery grew up i ...

's broadcast call of "Send it in, Jerome!" * 1998 NCAA Gymnastics Northeast Regional Championship * 2005

Senior Olympics The National Senior Games (Senior Olympics) are a sports competition for senior citizens in the United States. It is conducted by the National Senior Games Association (NSGA) once every two years. Akin to the Summer Olympics, it is a multi-sport ...

(basketball and shuffleboard) * 3 East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championships (2000, 2004, 2012) * 4

Eastern Wrestling League The Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) was an NCAA Division I wrestling-only conference. It was made up mostly of schools from the northeastern United States whose primary conferences did not sponsor wrestling as an NCAA-qualifying event. The teams ha ...

Championships (1979, 1992, 2000, 2008) * 12

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

Volleyball Championships (1986, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010) *

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

NCAA Women’s Volleyball Regional Semifinals & Final *

Kamala Harris 2024 presidential campaign Kamala Harris, the List of vice presidents of the United States, 49th vice president of the United States, announced her 2024 campaign for president of the United States, president on July21, 2024. On that date, incumbent president Joe Biden ...

event featuring

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

Josh Shapiro Joshua David Shapiro (born June 20, 1973) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 48th governor of Pennsylvania since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the attorney general of Pen ...

, and Bob Casey Jr.

References

External links

Fitzgerald Field House on Pitt's virtual Campus Tour
* ttp://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/w-gym/pitt-w-gym-body.html Pitt Gymnasticsbr>Pitt VolleyballRemember Fitzgerald Field House
{{Pittsburgh sports Pittsburgh Panthers basketball venues University of Pittsburgh buildings Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Athletics (track and field) venues in Pennsylvania Basketball venues in Pittsburgh College indoor track and field venues in the United States College gymnastics venues in the United States College volleyball venues in the United States College wrestling venues in the United States Indoor track and field venues in the United States Pittsburgh Panthers sports venues Pittsburgh Panthers wrestling Sports venues in Pittsburgh Volleyball venues in the United States Wrestling venues in Pennsylvania Sports venues completed in 1951 1951 establishments in Pennsylvania