Houston Field House - Early History

Early History

A month later, on November 12, 1949, the RPI Field House hosted its first event, an Interfraternity Ball, with music performed by Elliot Lawrence and his Orchestra. On December 3, 1949, the first sporting event in the Field House's history took place as RPI defeated the New York State Maritime Academy 55-43 in basketball.

A large impetus for the construction of the Field House was to create a home for the school's ice hockey team, which had played its first games in 1901 at Van Schaick Pond in nearby Cohoes, NY, and later played in various other locations in Cohoes and Albany, NY. From 1912 to 1938 (with the exception of 1937), the team played on an outdoor rink built every winter on campus along Sage Avenue, at the current location of Anderson Field. After the 1938 season, the team went into hiatus. Houston, an RPI alumnus who played hockey for RPI during his school years, originally sought to build the Field House as a means of returning hockey to campus. On January 10, 1950, the "Engineers" under legendary head coach Ned Harkness played their first game at home since 1938, dropping an 8-2 contest to Middlebury. However, and possibly thanks largely in part to the construction of the Field House, Harkness would lead the Engineers to an NCAA championship only four years later in 1954.

Two weeks after the first hockey game, the RPI Field House hosted its first commencement ceremony, on January 27, 1950. General Omar Bradley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave the first commencement address.

On December 27, 1951, the Field House hosted the first annual RPI Invitational Tournament. The first tournament featured 8 schools playing 12 games over three days, and was won by Brown University. The following year, the tournament was cut to 4 teams playing a round-robin schedule over 3 days, which remained the tournament's format until 1982, when it gained a 2nd-day consolation game/championship game format. Today the RPI Invitational is the nation's oldest in-season invitational tournament in college hockey.

Throughout the 1950s, several RPI sporting events were held at the RPI Field House, including basketball, tennis, wrestling, and even pistol and rifle shooting.

In March 1959, the Field House hosted the NCAA tournament known today as the Frozen Four. North Dakota won its first of several NCAA championships, defeating Michigan State, Boston College, and St. Lawrence. Three of the tournament's four games went into overtime.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the RPI Field House was often referred to as "The Madison Square Garden of Upstate New York". In its first two decades, it played host to more than 300 theatrical and musical events, countless hockey games, and several commencement ceremonies.