DUAL venues

[Not134]

How many different venues have you attended for a dual meet?  DUALs only, and not National Duals.

I watched Purdue get stomped a few times by some Big 10 schools back in the 80s.  I don't know about now, but they used to wrestle in a facility adjacent to the old Mackey Arena.  I do wish Purdue was a little more competitive, but it was, is, and will likely always be a basketball school.

I watched Missouri wrestle Notre Dame in '89 or '90 in the Hearnes Center at Missouri.  Fran McCann was the Notre Dame coach and happened to also have coached my HS wrestling coach at Indiana State before they dropped their program.

I've watched countless dual meets in Rec Hall and at least one in the BJC (against Nebraska in about 1998?).  In fact, I think I missed only one home dual in the 10+ years I lived there.

I watched a lot of meets in West Gym at Northern Iowa (great venue!) and have watched more than a few at the Devaney Center at Nebraska (not so great venue!).

Of those listed, I'd say Rec Hall and West Gym were my favorites.

[Red Blades]

1 hour ago, Not134 said:

How many different venues have you attended for a dual meet?  DUALs only, and not National Duals.

I watched Purdue get stomped a few times by some Big 10 schools back in the 80s.  I don't know about now, but they used to wrestle in a facility adjacent to the old Mackey Arena.  I do wish Purdue was a little more competitive, but it was, is, and will likely always be a basketball school.

I watched Missouri wrestle Notre Dame in '89 or '90 in the Hearnes Center at Missouri.  Fran McCann was the Notre Dame coach and happened to also have coached my HS wrestling coach at Indiana State before they dropped their program.

I've watched countless dual meets in Rec Hall and at least one in the BJC (against Nebraska in about 1998?).  In fact, I think I missed only one home dual in the 10+ years I lived there.

I watched a lot of meets in West Gym at Northern Iowa (great venue!) and have watched more than a few at the Devaney Center at Nebraska (not so great venue!).

Of those listed, I'd say Rec Hall and West Gym were my favorites.

Once in a while I'll make the drive up to Ithaca to see Cornell, they always have a pretty vocal, if not always large, crowd there.  In the NYC area - Columbia is an easy ticket, not much for atmosphere; but the RAC at Rutgers can rock, and Princeton has stepped up in recent years, I've seen good ones there.  Years ago they couldn't even charge admission, and still the wrestlers nearly outnumbered the fans.  Drexel, Ryder are easy trips, and I've seen some good wrestling at both.  While I hate to admit it - Grace Hall at Lehigh is perhaps the best venue, I've seen some terrific duals there.

[Scouts Honor]

Devaney the current home of the Huskers, 

the coliseum at Nebraska, the old home, 

Iowa/Iowa State at carver, incredible

OSU v. Nebraska at gallagher Iba

and I chanced into a dual at ASU v. Nebraska . the asu venue was awesome. It would have been amazing had it been well attended 

we had just flown in for vacay over christmas break and few bowl games and had to speed to get there... missed the first match i think... the nebraska bench turned to see who was yelling go big red!

[Scouts Honor]

btw

 I like Devaney as a venue.. perhaps a bit big .. but when the right team comes in.. its packed and loud. 

when did you attend at Devaney?

[Wrestleknownothing]

UW Fieldhouse in Madison. Very good old school venue.

U of I Huff Hall. Very poor old school venue. This has to make recruiting difficult.

NU Welsh-Ryan Arena. I wound up buying enough tickets that is was easier buying a group package than individual tickets even though there was nearly twice as many in the group package as what I needed. This prompted someone from the athletic department to reach out to me. They assumed I was bringing a team. Who was I to correct them. They asked if I wanted my team name up on the video screen. Sure. So I made up a name that was really a coded message to one of the participating wrestlers. We watched the entire match and our "team name" never came up. Someone must have figured it out. The next day the athletic department reached out to make sure we had a good time. I told them we did, but were a little sad to not see our name on the board. As a way to make it up to my "team" they offered to send NU merchandise to my kids, all they needed were sizes. Having taken this way too far, I politely declined the offer. That was 5 years ago (?). I still get emails from them.

Iowa Carver Hawkeye. The noise the home crowd made when they thought their man had secured a last second takedown actually made me dizzy. Never experienced anything like that before.

[PencilNeck]

6 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

U of I Huff Hall. Very poor old school venue. This has to make recruiting difficult.

I like Huff Gym! been to about a dozen wrestling duals there over the years, and it's really the perfect venue for sports that don't draw huge crowds. Parking can be annoying though, but just have to allow the extra time to park a few streets down if the lot is full. Did you know that the term "March Madness" was coined in Huff Hall https://www.ihsa.org/Sports-Activities/March-Madness-Experience/March-Madness-History (okay, that's basketball related, so probably not so important...also apparently some in Indiana take issue with Illinoisans claiming to have invented the term https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/2021/03/16/ncaa-illinois-own-march-madness-indiana-invented/4707664001/ )

 

Either way, the Illini wrestling team has moved their competition venue to the State Farm Center in recent years. Hopefully better for recruiting (It's been the venue for the HS state tournament for over half a century, of course!). I'm mixed on the move, personally. Parking is much easier, and when the crowd is into the wrestling, it's fun. when the crowd isn't engaged, it seems kind of empty and echoey. Anyway, the wrestling is usually good, so as long as the athletes like it, I'm happy to walk through the unnecessary metal detectors in order to enjoy the show. Best of all, like almost all Illini sporting events, admission is free, the exceptions being football and men's (can get pricy) and women's ($5/ticket) hoops.

 

39 minutes ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

NU Welsh-Ryan Arena.

 

I actually visited this arena this year to watch the Northwestern vs Illinois dual. I had been having so much fun watching the home duals in Champaign I figured it was worth driving a couple of hours for what looked to be a good matchup. Was a super exciting dual, even though NU beat Illinois on criteria. It's smaller capacity than the state farm center, but still way oversized for the fan turnout. I think my ticket in cost $7 dollars, so quite a bit more expensive than I had been paying at home too...

[SetonHallPirate]

The Holzhouser Building, of course! Basically a shoebox large enough for a mat and about 1,000 fans, and not much else...the NC State/Virginia Tech and NC State/Missouri duals there were absolutely INSANE!

Edited March 28, 2023 by SetonHallPirate

[flyingcement]

I've seen a pathetically low number of college duals live.  Seen Lehigh in a dual in the 90s and when my high school team went to Virginia Duals, we watched the college guys when we could.  

Only college wrestling rooms I've been in were TCNJ, Lehigh, and Navy, the latter of which was a campus visit when I was a HS junior (I would have been a room guy at best)

[CHROMEBIRD]

3 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

NU Welsh-Ryan Arena. I wound up buying enough tickets that is was easier buying a group package than individual tickets even though there was nearly twice as many in the group package as what I needed. This prompted someone from the athletic department to reach out to me. They assumed I was bringing a team. Who was I to correct them. They asked if I wanted my team name up on the video screen. Sure. So I made up a name that was really a coded message to one of the participating wrestlers. We watched the entire match and our "team name" never came up. Someone must have figured it out. The next day the athletic department reached out to make sure we had a good time. I told them we did, but were a little sad to not see our name on the board. As a way to make it up to my "team" they offered to send NU merchandise to my kids, all they needed were sizes. Having taken this way too far, I politely declined the offer. That was 5 years ago (?). I still get emails from them.

What was your secret code team name?

[Wrestleknownothing]

32 minutes ago, CHROMEBIRD said:

What was your secret code team name?

I was worried someone might ask that, but I can't remember. I even went through old emails to see if I could find it. Nothing.

[D3 for LU]

8 hours ago, Red Blades said:

Once in a while I'll make the drive up to Ithaca to see Cornell, they always have a pretty vocal, if not always large, crowd there.  In the NYC area - Columbia is an easy ticket, not much for atmosphere; but the RAC at Rutgers can rock, and Princeton has stepped up in recent years, I've seen good ones there.  Years ago they couldn't even charge admission, and still the wrestlers nearly outnumbered the fans.  Drexel, Ryder are easy trips, and I've seen some good wrestling at both.  While I hate to admit it - Grace Hall at Lehigh is perhaps the best venue, I've seen some terrific duals there.

Amen, brother RB, Amen!

D3

Edited March 28, 2023 by D3 for LU

[Wolfpack05]

18 hours ago, SetonHallPirate said:

The Holzhouser Building, of course! Basically a shoebox large enough for a mat and about 1,000 fans, and not much else...the NC State/Virginia Tech and NC State/Missouri duals there were absolutely INSANE!

Holzhouser was a lot of fun. I was there for those duals.  NC State only wrestler two duals there while Reynolds Colosseum was being renovated. 
 

Reynolds Colosseum at NC Stare is a great venue for wrestling. The NC State/VT duals there never disappoint. 

[Jason Bryant]

The old building VMI used to wrestle in, Cocke Hall aka the Thunderdome, was one of the most unique experiences I've ever seen. Ancient old building with overhangs and it got loud in there. Compact and awesome. They have a new facility now, but the old one had some mystique to it. 

 

[RandolphTJones]

18 hours ago, Wrestleknownothing said:

I was worried someone might ask that, but I can't remember. I even went through old emails to see if I could find it. Nothing.

What about the participating wrestler(s) it was intended for????

[TommyTechnique]

3 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

The old building VMI used to wrestle in, Cocke Hall aka the Thunderdome, was one of the most unique experiences I've ever seen. Ancient old building with overhangs and it got loud in there. Compact and awesome. They have a new facility now, but the old one had some mystique to it. 

 

I second this. 

[Tigerfan]

Hilton, Carver, West Gym, 3 different Mizzou venues, Gallagher-Iba, and Williams Arena. 
I’ve also been in the old Armory at ISU, but only after Hilton was built. The armory must have been insane. 

[olddirty]

I would say at least a hundred

[Pipewrench]

Koehler Fieldhouse - East Stroudsburg

Gym at Muhlenburg

Gym at Rider

RAC at Rutgers

Gym at Bloomsburg

Both at Bucknell

Grace Hall at Lehigh

Stabler - Lehigh

Rec Hall - PSU

Bryce Jordan - PSU

The Pete at PITT

 

 

[Wrestleknownothing]

4 hours ago, RandolphTJones said:

What about the participating wrestler(s) it was intended for????

Discretion is the better part of valor. Besides, he might not want it getting out that I am related to him.