New features make the lobby at Gill Coliseum shine while honoring many of its legendary players

By Brooks Hatch
Corvallis Gazette-Times

CORVALLIS — The legends on the banners and murals in the Gill Coliseum arena bowl now have some bright and shiny company in the front lobby.

The display cases around the six pillars, empty for the past year or so while a design plan for the area was being conceived, have been filled with back-lit, life-size decals depicting legendary Beavers players and coaches from the five sports that compete in the building, a campus icon for more than five decades.

“I think it’s great. It gives all the sports a shot,” said former letterman/assistant coach/head coach Paul Valenti , one of 14 representatives from the men’s basketball program to be immortalized. “The color is great, and it really lightens up the hallway.

“We didn’t have much of this stuff back in my day.”

The lobby redesign is another part of the entire makeover project at the 59-year-old landmark, which the Beavers christened on Dec. 16, 1949, with a 53-41 victory over Utah before a then-record 5,694 fans. In recent years offices, locker rooms, the first-floor hallways and arena bowl have been renovated, and new scoreboards were added this year.

Construction on a new women’s basketball locker room, a media room/TV studio and medical/training facility should begin next month. New doors, windows and hardscape will be installed in the coming months and the outside of the arena will be repainted when the ongoing asbestos abatement project is complete.

The decals honor coaches Slats Gill, Ralph Miller, Valenti, Aki Hill and Dale Thomas, and 37 athletes, each of whom either won NCAA championships or earned one or more All-American honors — or its equivalent, depending on the era in which the athlete competed — in their respective sports.

“We wanted to create something that would have longevity and would tie together the history of the five sports that call this place home,” said Matt Arend, OSU’s athletic director for external operations. “Instead of being a current display, we wanted something that would illustrate the history of each of those programs and include a key athlete from each decade” of the coliseum’s history.

Men’s basketball has two pillars, one of which is almost exclusively dedicated to the 1980-81 team that won its first 26 games and was ranked No. 1 for much of the season before being stunned by Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“It looks like my family up there; I recruited all of those guys,” said Jimmy Anderson, a former Beavers player/assistant coach/head coach, while inspecting the display before OSU’s victory over Seattle Pacific last Tuesday.

“And there’s my coach, Slats Gill, and my teammate, Dave Gambee,” the Corvallis High School graduate who lettered in 1956-58, played 12 years in the NBA and is still the third-leading career scorer by average (18.8 ppg) and sixth all-time in total points (1,468).

“I think it’s pretty cool. It really brightens the lobby up and gives it some class.”

Beavers fan Dominic Cusimano of Corvallis said the changes are visible from the street and plaza, even before you enter the building.

“It’s exciting, you’re starting to see the legends. It’s a great tribute to the coliseum and the legacy,” he said. “It’s good to see all the old faces up there, this is looking great.”

All of the upgrades should help make Gill Coliseum functional for years to come, and make it much easier for the basketball, wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics coaches to recruit.

“One of the reason’s I came here was (athletic director) Bob De Carolis’ vision for Oregon State — and particularly for women’s basketball,” coach LaVonda Wagner said. “When I came here I was not impressed with the office facilities and the locker room situation.

“It all comes down to one word: Recruiting. Bob assured me those (facility) issues will be taken care of, and that will help in the caliber of the student-athlete we can bring in.

“Now when you walk into the front lobby, you see the pride, history and tradition of Oregon State. It matters. As we continue to do things like that and continue to build Pac-10, power-conference facilities, you’re going to see even more changes in the overall Oregon State athletic department.”

The project was started by former associate AD Mark Massari and marketer/fundraiser Joel Moersch, working with Citrus Advertising of Portland, the athletic department’s agency. It cost about $25,000.

“Did we originally think it was going to look like that? No. It evolved into that,” Arend said. “We wanted something that when you turned off the lights and backlit those (cases), they would glow, pop and add some atmosphere to the front lobby.”

Deciding who was in and who was out wasn’t easy, especially with space for only 42 displays.

“With the strong history of basketball we made the decision to give them two cases, to get more individuals in there. With wrestling, we had only seven images and we’ve got far more who probably deserve to be included,” Arend said, mentioning two-time NCAA champion Dan Hicks and four-time all-American Babak Mohammadi as two who were squeezed out at the very end.

“That’s where the All-American posters in the hallways come into play; we want to give all those people recognition. Once you tie in the lobby with those All-American posters, we’re hitting everybody that needs to be hit.”

The makeover isn’t finished. The trophy cases in the hallway to the north and south of the lobby will be filled with trophies and other memorabilia celebrating Miller’s and Gill’s accomplishments. The empty areas on either side of the Beaver Authentics retail area will someday feature touch-screen monitors showing some of the great plays in Beavers history and an interactive Hall of Fame display.

“The fans, staff and coaches have been positive; everybody seems to love it,” Arend said. “Our hope is that you won’t see a lot of changes for 2-to-3 years. Then we’ll look at updating them with some athletes already in the programs who may be deserving, like Rachel Rourke in volleyball.”

The Legends of Gill, in alphabetical order:

MEN’S BASKETBALL: Slats Gill, Ralph Miller, Paul Valenti, Lew Beck, Ray Blume, Lester Conner, Mel Counts, Dave Gambee, A.C. Green, Steve Johnson, Ed Lewis, Gary Payton, Red Rocha, Charlie Sitton.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Aki Hill, Juli Coleman, Chelle Flamoe, Tanja Kostic, Carol Menken-Schaudt, Felicia Ragland, Judy Spoelstra.

GYMNASTICS: Heidi Anderson, Mary Ayotte-Law, Laurie Carter, Traci Crover, Amy Durham, Chari Knight, Joy Selig.

WRESTLING: Dale Thomas, Larry Bielenberg, Les Gutches, Howard Harris, Jess Lewis, Robin Reed, Greg Strobel.

VOLLEYBALL: Christine Camp, Laura Collins, Sandy Huntley-Sexton, Miya Malauulu, Leslie Preiss, Gina Schmidt, Shelly Smith.