I know there are others here who like me are old enough to remember the Barn, and boy do I remember it with love. Absolutely deserves legendary status. If you ever saw a game there you know the bleachers were right up against the court. I believe it held 2,700 and of that number at least 2,200 must have been students, and when I started there Rutgers College was all-male. From the time the team left the locker, the crowd was rocking. Great, great, great atmosphere!
Ah, the Barn
- Thread starter zebnatto
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I last attended RU in 1986. If memory serves, the wrestling team used to compete at The Barn.
The first time I ever dunked a basketball was at the Barn. Played pickup ball there almost every day when I lived in Mettler and Tinsley.
I was at the practice we recently held at the barn and I think it was my first time sitting in the upper deck stands for any length and really imagining a basketball game there. That venue must have been fantastic when the team was good or the games were close!! Glad you enjoyed it plenty, it seems!
Not sure what year you were there...but, I think you Dunked on me, 😂. I lived in Brett, Hegeman, Mettler and Ford during my college Ave years.
My Barn memories are pickup games and Intramural BB games. Won 1 League Championship, went to the state final and lost to a team from Princeton.
My last year I even an Intramural BB ref.
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I was in Mettler and Tinsley in ‘81 and ‘82, then commuted after that and still played at the Barn when I could get there. I doubt I dunked on you since I was (and am) only 6’1”, and it was almost impossible to dunk on someone—I needed a clear lane to the hole to throw down. I loved playing at the Barn. The courts behind the River Dorms provided some good runs, too.
Frosh year was Lloyd/Valvano NIT year (66/67) was at the Barn a lot, sometimes had to sit in overflow in the annex watching on closed circuit screen. Went to three of four NIT games at the Garden, only missed loss toSIU - my fault we lost, if I had been there we would have won.
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That was my freshman year and like the posts above, I have great memories from the games at the barn. I recall the game when Jimmy V scored his 1000th point and the crowd stood and cheered so loud and for so long that they had to stop the game until things finally settled down. IIRC, the Lloyd-Valvano backcourt tandem was the highest scoring in the nation that year.
We also went to the same 3 NIT games. The SIU game was sold out early, leaving 1000s of students unable to attend that game.
I went to every (probably) home game as a student from 71 to 75. Then my father and I got season tix for the undefeated season when they opened up the area right next to the band - it was loud, but it was glorious.
Lloyd set record for most points scored in NIT tournament- don’t know if it still stands. Will have to look it up later.
Started going to the games there when I was 6 (‘68-69 season)
Atmosphere there was electric. Different than the RAC, more electric in many ways.
The band reverberating Chicago, EWF, The Who, etc..
Eddie Jordan’s dad sat in front of us from ‘72-76. He drove up from DC to see games.
The ‘76 games against Manhattan & St Bon
when it looked liked Undefeated season was in jeopardy were intense..
Atmosphere there was electric. Different than the RAC, more electric in many ways.
The band reverberating Chicago, EWF, The Who, etc..
Eddie Jordan’s dad sat in front of us from ‘72-76. He drove up from DC to see games.
The ‘76 games against Manhattan & St Bon
when it looked liked Undefeated season was in jeopardy were intense..
Lived in Tinsley and played intramural in the Barn. I was a 3 year starter in HS and thought I'd rule intramural. Not so much. There was a lot of talent!
FYI just found out that James Gandolfini lived in Tinsley 2 years before me
FYI just found out that James Gandolfini lived in Tinsley 2 years before me
Uh, if it was in the early 80‘s those cross-court rims were all about 2” short 😉😆🏀
One was shorter, one was higher (on opposite ends of the court to the far right as you walked in the front door of the Barn), but the others were very close to regulation. I got to know the difference because I also played on courts known to be regulation (occasionally at the RAC or my high school court), and since I was only 6'1" I was always cutting it close with clearance above the rim to throw the ball down. Anytime I saw a rim slightly angled upward, as one was at the Barn, I knew dunking was gonna be tough or impossible. But regulation rims were fine as long as I was warmed up and not totally spent.
You and I may have been in Tinsley at the same time. I was on the third floor (Room 319 IIRC) in the fall 0f 1981, and Gandolfini may have been there the year before me (when I was in Mettler).
As for the talent at the Barn, you're right about that. Some dudes who you wouldn't suspect of being athletes would show up and just light it up. I loved playing against or with guys like that.
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Ever play on the courts behind the river dorms? They were built in the early eighties. Real Street ball. Alot of dudes from New Brunswick
I did. I lived on Busch campus in the early 80s but had several classes on College ave and would play there afterwards.
Remember the courts in the quad? We kept a lot of folks awake playing after 10PM (got yelled at a lot too) 😉
Watched tense games with Army coached by “The General” when he was young. The fans seemed to make him crazy.
After years of suffering through RU defeats at the hands of Princeton, I went there to grad school. I became acquainted with Chris Thomforde ‘69 (and also 6’9” at a time when that was more unusual) PU’s star center (who made the cover of Sports Illustrated in ‘65 or ‘66: “Princeton Builds a Basketball Dynasty”). Chris left me a complimentary reserved seat ticket (an actual chair—only time I had such a seat in The Barn) when PU played us there, and we won in a squeaker. Next day back at PU Chris smiled graciously and said, “Well, your Scarlet Knights beat us!”
Also was there when some idiot yelled “SHOOT!!” just as Bob Lloyd released a free throw. Place exploded when it bounced off the rim, ending the longest streak of consecutive FTs up ‘til then. How that guy got out alive I’ll never know!
Sorry to inform you but it was not Bob Lloyd going for the record - it was Steve Kaplan who would have broken the record. And if I recall the kid in the top of the barn yelled "miss it" - may be wrong about that one but it was definitely Kaplan
Remember the swimming pool behind the wall that was in back of the team benches?
@198hamilton Played there a lot. My buddy and I grew up and lived in Piscataway, and it was easy to get runs going there. We played street ball and knew each other's games so well that we rarely lost in 2-on-2 ball. Also played at Buccleuch Park occasionally, and that was also legit street ball.
IIRC the wind inside the Quad whipped up pretty good and made it hard to shoot. Plus I felt bad for the people who lived there because of the noise we'd make, so I'd go to the Barn or behind the River dorms.
Had to look up Steve Kaplan. He wasn’t at RU ‘til after Lloyd graduated. I can’t say with certainty that Lloyd was leading the nation or had the longest streak ever at the time he missed, but he DID have 60 in a row at the time and I was there when he missed.
Also attended games at the barn as a high school kid. Great atmosphere. Lifted weights and played pickup every chance I could in the barn. There were a lot of good players including at least a couple guys on the team from time to time.
I was at most Barn games from 66-77 and at the RAC from 78-87 when I moved from NJ.
The official capacity of the barn was listed as 2,800.
Lloyd's senior year he shot 255/277 FTs leading the country in FT pct. (all common fouls were 1 shot and after
the sixth foul it was one and one). Lloyd also set an NCAA record of 60 straight FT's which held up for a number of years. The streak was broken not at the RAC but an away game at Lehigh coached by Pete Carill.
We lost the game by 2. I was there.
Kaplan played 70-72. Was leading scorer his junior year. Was #1 in NCAA FT Pct at .927 in '71. (probably still the RU record). After graduation played BB in Israel. In the late 1990's his son who was at Monmouth ??played a game at the RAC.
Rules that have changed the game.
3 year varsity career. Freshman not allowed till Sellers freshman year 1973.
Dunk not allowed(Alcindor rule) 68-76
No Shot Clock- 45 second clock introduced in 1986. Dean Smith 4 corner offense. stall , Princeton
No 3 point shot.- Introduced in 1987.
Free throws limited on common fouls- change in 1973
A few years ago I told Pat Hobbs we should have a throwback game at the Barn, like Kentucky does at Freedom Hall and UNC did at their old gym. Do it for a small game against an old rival early in the season, Colgate or Lehigh or something, obviously not Big Ten game where you’d have a bigger crowd. He was all over the idea but said he’d have to run it by coach. Now just a couple years later, even those small games are selling out the RAC so probably too late
Saw my first game at the Barn as a HS senior, on 2/9/76, we beat Delaware 110-87 to go 19-0. The crowd was in a frenzy, paint chips raining down, which some kid swept up during timeouts.
I enrolled that fall and lived in Tinsley for two years. Met a bunch of guys there who I’m still friends with today. We played intramural flag football for 4 years and won the title twice.
My senior year we played against Tinsley who had a freshman called Buck, which was Jim Gandolfini. He and I went at it as he tried to block me while I rushed his QB.
Checked on the Lehigh game and (sorry to say—for the sake of my memory!) you are right, Coral Knight! I know I wasn’t dreaming about Lloyd’s miss at The Barn when someone yelled out, but obviously the circumstances were different. Could he have been working on a long streak his junior year?
Funny non-basketball Barn story…
In the 80s they used have the Mr. and Ms. Rutgers bodybuilders contest there. Had a friend enter along with a coworker (when I was with Price Club as an undergrad). They were on one stage and the girls where on another. While watching the two guys I know doing their “pose downs” I totally missed the girl very close to me lose her bikini top when she did her stuff.
So that’s my Barn story.
In the 80s they used have the Mr. and Ms. Rutgers bodybuilders contest there. Had a friend enter along with a coworker (when I was with Price Club as an undergrad). They were on one stage and the girls where on another. While watching the two guys I know doing their “pose downs” I totally missed the girl very close to me lose her bikini top when she did her stuff.
So that’s my Barn story.
Indiana:
There were 5 home games remaining after the Lehigh loss. Everyone knew Lloyd was an amazing ft shooter and a shout which caused a miss would have pissed off the crowd even if it wasn't the streak breaker.
A correction on Kaplan. While he led team in scoring his junior year, his record breaking FT season (102/110) was his sophomore year.
In 66-67 season I attended all 11 home games. 2 MSG regular season (Missouri & NYU)
Away games- Lafayette, Lehigh, UConn, And all 4 NIT games.
Indiana:
With as many as 7 games remaining after ending at 60. He very easily may have had another mini-streak of 30 or 40 which was then broken by the incident you recall. After all he averaged almost 9 made FT's/game.
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