Stuart Van Auken

I was among the fortunate to attend games at the old Men's Gym in the latter 60's. It was a tough place to play and fantastic for fans. We would go into a stomp clap on those wooden bleachers and chant "Welcome to the Pit, Welcome to the Pit, Welcome..." The sound was incredible. Dan Spika played a full-court press the entire game and teams would get rattled by the deafening sound. In 1868-69, we were undefeated at home in the MVC, which was equivalent to the ACC of today. We lost every MVC road game, yet those defeats indicate the home court advantage that we had. 1968-69 was the most exciting year of basketball that I ever experienced and I had experienced SMU's 1965-66 team that beat Wes Unseld and Louisville. That team was second best in excitement during the 1960s. There was nothing like the pit and Dan Spika. Unfortunately, UNT's new digs never matched the excitement of the old Men's Gym. Later on, I moved to Louisville and experienced Denny Crum's cards from 1972-1986. I have indeed been to basketball Nirvana.