Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University

A National Historic Landmark, the Hinkle Fieldhouse helped to bring college basketball to a modern sporting stage by opening the door to large crowds for college hoops games. When constructed in 1928 at a harrowing cost of $1 million, it was the largest basketball arena in the land, and remained so until 1950.

Originally called the Butler Fieldhouse, it was renamed for coach Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle, who led Butler’s basketball team for 41 consecutive seasons. Butler hosted the Indiana high school basketball championship games in the Hinkle Fieldhouse from 1928 to 1971, securing its place high atop the list of sacred basketball ground.

During that period, the Fieldhouse played host to the Milan Miracle in 1954, witnessing the triumph of the tiny Milan High School over the much larger Muncie Central – an event that inspired the film Hoosiers, which filmed the climactic final game at the Hinkle Fieldhouse and used the voices of the memorable original announcers for the score.