Fordham's Rose Hill Gym celebrates 100 years of hoops
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The Fordham Rams defeated Boston College 46-16 on January 16, 1925. It was a game of basketball. And it took place in the Rose Hill Gymnasium in The Bronx, New York.
That game was the first played in what is now endearingly known as the historic Rose Hill Gymnasium. One hundred years later, Fordham University’s basketball teams – among other programs at the school – still call the gym home. It’s the oldest gym still being used by a NCAA Division I basketball team.
A plethora of historic moments have occurred in the Rose Hill Gym. Some were unrelated to athletics, such as when American troops used it to take shelter in 1943. Countless moments in sports history have transpired in the gymnasium. The building embodies the importance of preserving basketball’s history. Moments have happened there that have ties to the very fabric of the current sports world.
You can’t go to a New York Knicks game without hearing public address announcer Mike Walczewski, Fordham class of 1977. And you can’t watch one without hearing Mike Breen, class of 1983. Breen, considered the voice of the NBA itself, is one of several broadcasters who got their start broadcasting Fordham Mens Basketball at Rose Hill.
Fordham graduates are all over the sports media world, from a third Michael, Michael Kay – of the YES Network and ESPN – to legendary-baseball commentator Vin Scully. But the gym wasn’t just the birthplace of many historic moments in sports history. Many legendary athletes have also made their way through the gym at some point in their careers.
History from throughout 100 years of Fordham’s Rose Hill Gymnasium
Vince Lombardi, namesake of the Super Bowl trophy, attended Fordham University. He was part of the schools’s legendary offensive line known as the “Seven Blocks of Granite,” which used the gym whenever football practice had to take place indoors.
When Power Memorial won the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association Championship on March 7, 1965, it was in the Rose Hill Gymnasium. It was also the last game of the high school career of Power Memorial’s best player. His name was Lew Alcindor – a name he later changed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Fordham graduate and Fordham University Athletic Hall of Fame member P.J. Carlesimo, also of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for his role with the 1992 “Dream Team,” made his return to the gym as a coach when his Seton Hall Pirates played the Rams. Fordham’s Jean Prioleau won that game – and the day, the 29 of November, 1990 – at the buzzer.
But the second-most memorable thing about that shot happened off of the court. Just across from the scorer’s table was a young sports broadcaster who let out a loud “BANG!” on the air. It was in that gym years back that Breen had coined the exclamation as his signature call.
Fans have recently given the gym a new nickname, with the school having adopted the “Rose Thrill” moniker for its sacred home of sport. It will likely accrue more nicknames over the decades to come, as it continues to give basketball history a home.
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