The L. Stockwell Jadwin Gymnasium is a 6,854-seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectato ...

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 n ...

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

. The arena opened in 1969. It is home to the

Princeton Tigers The Princeton Tigers are the athletic teams of Princeton University. The school sponsors 35 varsity teams in 20 sports. The school has won several NCAA national championships, including one in men's fencing, three in women's lacrosse, six in men ...

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

teams. It replaced

Dillon Gymnasium Dillon Gymnasium is an on-campus multi-purpose athletic facility on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. It was built in 1947 to replace University Gymnasium, which had burned to the ground in 1944. It houses a 1,500-seat ...

, the home of Princeton

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 series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, as the fifth main basketball arena on campus. In 1965, the mother of Leander Stockwell Jadwin, class of 1928, gave a gift of $27 million to the university in his name. He had been the captain of the track team and had died just months after graduation in an automobile accident. The school decided to use $6.5 million towards the building of the gymnasium, which had just barely been started. The gymnasium, designed by the architect

Walker O. Cain Walker O. Cain , FAIA, FAAR, NA (April 14, 1915 – June 1, 1993) was a prize-winning American architect. Biography Early life and education Cain was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Oscar C. Cain (1877-1954), a postal clerk for the ra ...

, has of floor space on five levels for multiple sports. It is notable for its unique roof consisting of three interlocking shells. The seating is highly asymmetrical, with the equivalent of middle-school-gymnasium bleachers on three sides and a major-college indoor arena concrete grandstand on the fourth side, holding the majority of the seats. Behind the opposite bleachers lies the void of the indoor track, which itself sits atop an indoor baseball field and three additional levels underneath. This creates challenges for generating noise and atmosphere even when the stands are full compared to other gyms in the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schoo ...

, which are mostly smaller and more traditional in their layout. The television cameras also are mounted on the large grandstand side, which makes Jadwin seem much smaller on television. Nonetheless, Princeton has a very strong historical record for home games. Many of the highest attended events in Jadwin were College and High School Wrestling Tournaments, The 1975 NCAA Wrestling tournament drew a total of 45,00 (then the record) for six sessions, with 9.600 attending the finals (not a record), six years Later Princeton brought in more temporary seating and averaged at least 1,000 more per session. For many years Jadwin Gymnasium was the site of the New Jersey State High School wrestling tournament, with many sessions of 8,000 to 10,000 fans. Jadwin Gymnasium hosted games of the first round of the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams fro ...

twice, in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and 1 ...

and

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

. It was the site of the ECAC Metro Region tournament organized by the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fro ...

(ECAC) in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phil ...

. The Jadwin Jungle is the official

student cheering section A student section or student cheering section is a group of student fans that supports its school's athletic teams at sporting events; they are known for being one of the most visible and vocal sections of a sports crowd as well as for their occa ...

and basketball booster group in Jadwin Gymnasium for the Princeton Tigers basketball teams, located in the bleachers closest to the court behind the scorers' tables. The cheering section was founded in 2003 by three Princeton undergraduates and quickly grew to be the largest student group on campus.

References

External links

Jadwin Gymnasium, from Princeton.edu
College basketball venues in the United States Princeton University buildings Sports venues in New Jersey Princeton Tigers men's basketball Indoor arenas in New Jersey Basketball venues in New Jersey 1969 establishments in New Jersey Sports venues completed in 1969 College indoor track and field venues in the United States Fencing venues Squash venues in the United States Tennis venues in New Jersey Athletics (track and field) venues in New Jersey {{NewJersey-stadium-stub

See also

References

External links