Mabee Center is a 10,094-seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

, located on the campus of

Oral Roberts University Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a Private university, private Evangelicalism, evangelical university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Founded in 1963, the university is named after its founder, Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian preacher Oral ...

, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

, United States.Bill Haisten, "Still Fine at 40: Built in 1972, ORU’s Mabee Center remains an effective venue today." ''

Tulsa World The ''Tulsa World'' is an American daily newspaper. It serves the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is the primary newspaper for the northeastern and eastern portions of Oklahoma. The printed edition is the second-most circulated newspaper in the sta ...

'', December 21, 2012. Reprinte
here
The building opened in 1972 and was designed by architect Frank Wallace, who designed most of the buildings on the ORU campus. It carries the name of Tulsa oilman John Mabee, whose foundation donated $1 million toward its construction.David Edwin Harrell, Jr., ''Oral Roberts: An American Life'' (

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

, 1985), , pp. 225, 398, & passim
Excerpts available
at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. The facility received several upgrades in 2021 including: new arena seats, exterior blue paint, blue glass panels, a new sound system, all new LED house lights, concourse level remodeling, digital screens, wifi, and new suites. An adjacent building, smaller but similar in shape, is known as the "Global Learning Center". Since it opened in 1972, the Mabee Center has hosted some of the biggest entertainers in the industry along with the

NAIA national men's basketball championship The NAIA men's basketball national championship has been held annually by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics since 1937 NAIA basketball tournament, 1937 to determine the national champion of men's college basketball among its m ...

(1994–1998), five NCAA men's first-round or regional tournaments (1974, 1975, 1978, 1982, 1985) and the

Midwestern City Conference The Horizon League is a collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in and near the Great Lakes region and in pa ...

(now Horizon League) men's basketball conference tournaments (1982, 1985). It is home to the

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles are the sixteen college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oral Roberts University, located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Golden Eagles compete at the National Collegiate Athle ...

men's and women's basketball teams and was Eastern Oklahoma's largest arena until the

BOK Center BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. The two current permanent tenants are the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL and the Tulsa Oiler ...

was built. Mabee Center was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

References

External links

Mabee Center History
College basketball venues in Oklahoma Oral Roberts Golden Eagles men's basketball Sports venues in Tulsa, Oklahoma 1972 establishments in Oklahoma Sports venues completed in 1972 {{Oklahoma-sports-venue-stub

See also

References

External links