Pete Maravich Assembly Center

Pete Maravich Assembly Center
"The Deaf Dome"
Former names	LSU Assembly Center (1971–1988)
Location	N Stadium Rd Baton Rouge, LA 70893
Opened	January 3, 1972
Owner	Louisiana State University
Operator	LSU Athletics Department
Surface	Hardwood
Construction cost	$11.5 million ($60.4 million in 2011 dollars[1])
Architect	Robert M. Coleman Architects
Capacity	13,472
Tenants
LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers (Basketball)

Coordinates: 30°24′51″N 91°11′04″W / 30.4142°N 91.1845°W / 30.4142; -91.1845 Pete Maravich Assembly Center is a 13,472-seat multi-purpose arena in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The arena opened in 1972. It is home to the Louisiana State University Tigers and Lady Tigers basketball teams. It was originally known as the LSU Assembly Center, but was renamed in memory of Pete Maravich, a Tiger basketball legend, shortly after his death in 1988. Maravich never played in the arena, but it was his exploits which led LSU to build a larger home for the basketball team, which languished for decades in the shadow of the school's football program.

The Assembly Center also hosted the Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament in 1988, two months after Maravich's death at age 40 and four months before Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer signed an act to rename the building in Maravich's honor (under Louisiana law, no LSU building may be named after a living person). The assembly center is known to locals as "The PMAC" or "The House that Pete Built," or by its more nationally-known nickname, "The Deaf Dome," coined by Dick Vitale. The PMAC's neighbor to the south, Tiger Stadium is known as "Death Valley".

The slightly oval building is located directly to the north of Tiger Stadium, and its bright white roof can be seen in many telecasts of that stadium. The concourse includes Pete Maravich Pass, an area dedicated to the life and accomplishments of the famous LSU alumnus, and other memorablilia pertaining to the history of LSU Basketball. Prior to the building of the Assembly Center, LSU played its games at John M. Parker Agricultural Coliseum (aka, the "Cow Palace"), located on the southeast corner of the campus.

Non-LSU use

In 1998, the arena played host to the Louisiana Bayou Beast of the Professional Indoor Football League. The Beast played 2 preseason games, 8 regular season games, and the PIFL Championship Game on August 15, 1998 in the PMAC. The building also played host to the NCAA Basketball tournament twice, in 1976 and 1986. In 1976, Indiana defeated Alabama and Marquette in the Mideast Regional en route to an undefeated season and the national championship, and in 1986, LSU defeated Purdue and Memphis to begin an unlikely run to the Final Four as a #11 seed, the lowest seed (through 2007) to reach the national semifinals.

After the NBA's New Orleans Hornets were displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the arena was under consideration as a possible temporary home for the team. The Hornets played just one of six scheduled home games at the Maravich Center in the 2005-06 season.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the arena, locally known as the PMAC, was quickly turned into the largest triage center and acute care field hospital ever created in U. S. history. The 800 bed facility, which was under FEMA direction, was staffed mostly by volunteers, from teenagers to doctors, some of whom were themselves displaced from New Orleans. Helicopters with injured evacuees landed in LSU's Bernie Moore Track Stadium, which is adjacent to the arena, while ambulances from around the region lined up with other patients that needed treatment. Those healthy enough were either transferred to out-of-state facilities or to LSU's Fieldhouse which had been transformed into a large shelter.^[2]

Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was involved in a plane crash on their way to play at the Assembly Center in 1977. Several of their members were killed.

External links

• Maravich Center from LSUSports.net
• Pete Maravich Film and Video highlights from LSU

References

1. ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
2. ^ http://www.lsu.edu/university_relations/photos/hurricane/