Published: April 14, 2008 11:33 pm            

Column: RCA Dome hooped it up pretty well in its day

ANDERSON, Ind. — Later this spring another recognized house of professional sports finds itself leveled by the sturdy straight arm of progress.

The RCA Dome comes tumbling toward the same Indiana soil from which it proudly sprung approximately a quarter century ago. The six-month process required to tear down the building and clean up the pieces will indeed be sad days, but ones necessary if Indianapolis is going to keep up with the Jerry Joneses.

And the Robert Krafts and so on.

As wonderful as the dome has been, it’s basically the same product top-to-bottom, side-to-side. Not the type of facility where you can point to one architectural characteristic and with a straight face refer to it as special.

Nevertheless, let’s pay tribute to the dome’s southwest corner. More specifically, between the 10- and 20-yard lines, an area that witnessed more than just runs by the likes of Eric Dickerson and Edgerrin James and fingertip grabs by Bill Brooks, Matt Bouza and Marvin Harrison.

It’s here where the dome produced some of its most memorable moments — where the south basket was located when the building hosted either a high school or college basketball venue.

If that section of the RCA Dome could talk, it wouldn’t hesitate bringing the following memories back to life:

n March 12/14, 1987: The Indiana Hoosiers, led by seniors Steve Alford and Daryl Thomas, begin their NCAA title trek with a 92-58 dusting of Fairfield. IU then takes care of Auburn, 107-90, to advance to the Sweet 16.

n March 18, 1990: Second-seeded Purdue is upended by No. 10 seed Texas in a second-round NCAA Tournament game. The south basket comes into play as Purdue guard Tony Jones drives to the hoop in the closing seconds only to have his game-winning layup swatted away by Longhorns’ center Guillermo “Panama” Myers.

Convinced Jones’ offering was goal-tended and probably tired of watching his program constantly underachieve on the big stage, Boilermakers coach Gene Keady implodes during the postgame press conference, slamming his fist on the table in front of him.

n March 24, 1990: The aforementioned area is where fans from Bedford North Lawrence are seated (OK, they’re mainly standing) as the Damon Bailey-led Stars close out a storybook season with a 63-60 victory over Concord. A crowd of over 41,000, a ridiculous number normally reserved for NCAA Final Fours, takes in the action.

n March 30, 1991: One year after being dealt an embarrassing 30-point loss by UNLV in the NCAA championship game, Duke gets its revenge on the mighty Runnin’ Rebs. Christian Laettner calmly sinks the winning free throws on the south goal in the semifinal and the Blue Devils two nights later knock off Kansas for the championship.

This is the first of four NCAA Men’s Final Fours the dome would host, the others coming in 1997 (Arizona wins it all), 2000 (Michigan State) and 2006 (Florida).

n March 26, 1994: One of the best boys basketball title games in recent history is sent into overtime after South Bend Clay sophomore Jaraan Cornell swishes a long 3-pointer at the buzzer at, yep, the south basket. Clay pulls out a 93-88 victory over Valparaiso, a team led by the 1-2 punch of Indiana All-Stars Bryce Drew and Tim Bishop.

n March 28, 1998: Multiclass boys hoops makes its debut, a day as confusing as it is interesting with four programs, not one, cutting down nets.

The Class 4A final’s most-memorable bucket comes when Pike’s Rodney Smith breaks away for a dunk against Marion. Yup. South goal. Pike prevails, 57-54.

There were other special moments. Too many to relive here.

The point to be made is that the Hoosier/RCA Dome, constructed to accommodate professional football, did more than a pretty fair job when the ball of choice was round.

Good luck, Lucas Oil Stadium. You’ve got big shoes to fill.

Wouldn’t you know, they’re high-tops.



Mike Beas writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind. He can be reached at mike.beas@heraldbulletin.com.