Construction
By the late 1950s the need for a new and larger campus gymnasium at NMSU had become evident. As the school and its athletic programs grew, tiny and antiquated Williams Gymnasium had become woefully inadequate. After the new campus of Las Cruces High School opened less than one mile from NMSU’s campus in 1957 the Aggies began to play many of their home games in the high school’s new 3,000-seat gymnasium because it was significantly larger than the university’s own gym. When NMSU alumnus Lou Henson returned to the school as head coach in 1966 and quickly began building the basketball program into a perennial NCAA Tournament participant the push for a new facility began in earnest, and the next year the New Mexico State Legislature approved a $22 million capital outlay program that included provisions for a new arena at NMSU (the same bill also funded construction of NMSU’s student union building). Construction of the arena cost $3.5 million, and the building was inaugurated on November 30, 1968 with a 95-89 victory over Colorado State. The facility’s name was suggested by former NMSU vice president Paul Rader for its location just off Interstate 25, also known as the Pan American Highway.
Read more about this topic: Pan American Center
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Striving toward a goal puts a more pleasing construction on our advance toward death.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)