|
The
final
curtain will fall on nearly half a century of athletic tradition at Kean
University when historic D’Angola Gymnasium plays host to Cougar
basketball for the final time on February 16, with a men’s and women’s
doubleheader against Rutgers-Newark. The occasion will be marked with a
ceremony prior to the men’s game at approximately 7:45 PM. The venerable fieldhouse is being replaced by Kean’s new Health and Wellness Center,
currently under construction on the site of the adjacent parking lot, for
the 2005-2006 academic year.
The closing of D’Angola Gym represents the end of an era for Kean
student-athletes and coaches, past and present. Kean University – then
known as Newark State College – moved to its current campus in Union
Township, on the site of the old Kean family farm on Green Lane, in 1958.
Students were greeted there by a pristine college campus, highlighted by a
number of new buildings still in use today, including D’Angola Gym.
Ron Kornegay coached men’s basketball at Kean from 1987 through 1992.
During his five seasons, Kornegay’s teams earned four postseason bids,
including a NCAA Tournament Final Eight appearance and an NJAC
championship in 1990-1991. He recalls the advantages he felt D’Angola Gym
gave his Cougar teams. “I just loved it, it was a great advantage for us,”
he said. “We had a great 6th Man in the fans. They were so
close to the court and loud. We played a very intense brand of ball –
full-court pressure – and I think our fans were as aggressive as our team
was, I swear.”
Pat Hannisch, the legendary former Kean coach of the women’s basketball
team and a 1986 inductee into the Kean Athletic Hall of Fame, recalled
D’Angola Gym as the site of a number of classic contests during a time in
which the program captured a record nine consecutive NJAC titles under her
and her successor, fellow Hall of Famer Rich Wilson. “One particular time,
we had a big rivalry game against the old Trenton State (now The College
of New Jersey),” she recounted. “The gym was filled with screaming and
hollering students and we had a band there, too. We thought we had the
game won by a point, and our fans began to run down on the court to
celebrate, but at the buzzer, one of our players had been whistled for a
foul. So they had to clear the court, and the player from
Trenton
State
sunk two free-throws for the win. It was so memorable, even if we lost.”
The story of D’Angola Gym extends beyond basketball. The women’s
volleyball program, under head coach Bridget White, has thrived on campus,
capturing five outright NJAC championships since 1990. White, a five-time
NJAC coach of the year, says that the tradition-laden venue has been
witness to the continuing rise in women’s athletics. “When I think back to
the history of that gym and the physical space it offers, I think about
all the women athletes who have passed through there and the impact of
coaches and physical educators like Pat Hannisch and (longtime Kean
professor) Dee Shiposh on those athletes,” she explained. “D’Angola Gym
was there for the passing of Title IX and has helped provide opportunity
to hundreds of women who have been part of the struggle for equity in
athletics.”
D’Angola Gym is named for longtime Kean coach and administrator Joseph
D’Angola. Known affectionately to generations of students as “The Chief,”
D’Angola’s name became virtually synonymous with athletics at Kean
University from 1918 through 1956, an era spanning from
Newark
Normal School
to Newark State College. In all, D’Angola served parts of five decades as
the head of the health and physical education department. He was also
named dean of men at the College in 1935.
D’Angola was responsible for the establishment of numerous varsity sports
on campus, including baseball. As the College’s director of athletics,
D’Angola stressed widespread participation by everyone. He retired from
the school two years before its move to its current Union Township campus
in 1958. School officials appropriately christened the new indoor athletic
facility D’Angola Gymnasium, in honor of “The Chief” and his wife, Anita.
|