Ritchie Coliseum is a multipurpose athletics facility and music venue at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. It served as the home arena for the

Maryland Terrapins men's basketball The Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team represents the University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland in National Collegiate Athletic Association NCAA Division I, Division I competition. Maryland, a founding member of the Atlan ...

team from 1931 to 1955, and for its gymnastics, wrestling, and volleyball teams until 2002. It is located on the east side of Baltimore Avenue in

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, located approximately from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. Its population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the home of the University of Mary ...

. The official

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

is 1,500.

History

Ritchie Coliseum, named after then

Maryland governor The governor of the State of Maryland is the head of government of Maryland, and is the commander-in-chief of the state's National Guard units. The governor is the highest-ranking official in the state and has a broad range of appointive powers ...

Albert Cabell Ritchie Albert Cabell Ritchie (August 29, 1876 – February 24, 1936) was an American lawyer and politician. A Democrat, he was the 49th governor of Maryland from 1920 to 1935. Ritchie was a conservative who campaigned for, but did not win, the preside ...

, was built in 1931, at a cost of $200,000,David Ungrady,
Tales from the Maryland Terrapins
', p. 46–55, 2003, Sports Publishing LLC. to replace a facility known as "the Gymnasium" as the home arena for the basketball and boxing teams.

Johnny Holliday John Holliday Bobbitt (born October 15, 1937), known professionally as Johnny Holliday, is an American radio and television sportscaster and a former Top 40 radio disc jockey. He has maintained a long association with the University of Maryla ...

, Stephen Moore,

John Feinstein John Feinstein ( ; July 28, 1955 – March 13, 2025) was an American sportswriter, author, and sports commentator. Background Feinstein was born to a Jewish family in New York City on July 28, 1955. His father was heavily involved in the arts, ...

Hoops Tales: Maryland Terrapins Men's Basketball
p. 149, 2006, Globe Pequot, . The arena was built by the H. D. Watts Construction Company, which was owned by Harry Watts, an alumnus who played as a fullback on the

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-st ...

from 1901 to 1903.Morris Allison Bealle, ''Kings of American Football: The University of Maryland, 1890–1952'', pp. 41–47, Columbia Publishing Co., 1952. The building hosted the basketball and boxing teams until 1955, when it was replaced by

Cole Field House The Jones-Hill House is an indoor collegiate sports training complex located on of land on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, a suburb north of Washington, D.C. Jones-Hill House is situated in the center of the campu ...

centrally located on the campus.Ritchie Coliseum
Athletics Department, University of Maryland, retrieved March 31, 2009. For 26 years at Ritchie Coliseum, basketball games were held immediately before or after boxing matches. During the 1930s, boxing was the most popular sport at Maryland and bouts often drew crowds of as many as 6,000, far exceeding the facility's capacity. In 1937, Ritchie Coliseum hosted the

Southern Conference The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...

boxing tournament, which the undefeated Maryland team won. Terrapins pugilists Ben Alperstein and Tom Birmingham went on to compete in the national intercollegiate championship in

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

. After he took over in 1950, basketball coach

Bud Millikan Herman A. "Bud" Millikan (October 12, 1920 – January 28, 2010) was the head coach of the University of Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team from 1950 to 1967. He compiled a 243–182 record. Early life Millikan was born in Maryville, ...

said the boxing doubleheader events were indicative of the sad state of Maryland athletics, and put an end to them early in his tenure. He also complained the facility had no ball racks, with basketballs stored in duct-taped cardboard boxes instead, and that the team had played in high school arenas that were more adequate than Ritchie Coliseum. When Maryland joined the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

in 1953, basketball games routinely attracted capacity crowds to Ritchie Coliseum. Newspapers quoted football coach

Jim Tatum James Moore "Big Jim" Tatum (August 22, 1913 – July 23, 1959) was an American college football and college baseball player and coach. Tatum served as the head football coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1942, 1956–1958 ...

as saying basketball games were always sold out and it was impossible to get tickets. Millikan later said that this was the only thing Tatum ever did to anger him. Millikan said that he told Tatum, "I thought we should be getting students standing in line from

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, trying to get into the damn games. Please don't tell people the games are sold out." In 1972,

Title IX Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receiv ...

was enacted and the

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...

team was formed. With a requirement for equal facilities, the university offered to make Ritchie Coliseum a dedicated arena for the women. Head coach Chris Weller rejected this, wanting instead to use the same facility as the men's team,

The building was renovated in the spring of 1997 and is used as a multipurpose facility. It served as the home arena of the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's college sports in the United States, varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate ...

gymnastics, wrestling, and volleyball teams until the completion of the

Comcast Center Comcast Center, also known as the Comcast Tower, is a skyscraper at 1701 John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Center City, Philadelphia, Center City Philadelphia. The 58-story, tower is the List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia, second-tallest bui ...

in 2002.Meeting Facilities and Services
Conferences and Visitor Services, University of Maryland, retrieved March 31, 2009. Those athletics teams temporarily returned to Ritchie when a water main burst in 2004. The facility also is the host site of the Maryland state high school volleyball championships. Music Venue Ritchie Coliseum has also been used as a music venue as long ago as 1956 and holds the Annual College Park Free Blues Festival (11th CPBF is Saturday, November 10, 2018). Duke Ellington performed in 1956, in a Jazz vs. Classics Pop Concert. As reported by The Diamondback, the cost to students to witness this historic concert was only $1 (that's just $8.72 today with inflation).

Description

The floor dimensions are 11,000 ft² (1,021.9 m²) with a surface of

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

hardwood. The official

used to be 1,500. There are 1,900 total seats, which includes 600 folding seat-back chairs in the upper mezzanine, 700 pull-out bench seats, and 600 chairs on the floor. Other features are concessions stands on two levels, a ticket booth, and scoreboard. Additional facilities consist of a weight room with free weights and cardiovascular equipment, and a martial arts room with padded walls and mats.

References

{{Maryland Terrapins men's basketball navbox 1931 establishments in Maryland Maryland Terrapins basketball venues Sports venues in Maryland Defunct college basketball venues in the United States University of Maryland, College Park facilities Indoor arenas in Maryland College volleyball venues in the United States Sports venues completed in 1931 College gymnastics venues in the United States Boxing venues in the United States Boxing in Maryland College wrestling venues in the United States