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Stadium: Gallagher-Iba Arena
Gallagher-Iba Arena, once dubbed “Madison Square Garden of the Plains,” is the fabled basketball and wrestling venue at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Gallagher-Iba Arena was completed in 1938 as a result of Engrossed House Bill No. 315, with a price tag of $1.5 million to hold 4-H meetings. It was called Gallagher Hall until 1987.
The storied history of the arena began on December 9, 1938 when the Oklahoma A&M Aggies (the school’s nickname at the time) coached by Henry Iba beat Phog Allen’s Kansas Jayhawks 21-15, in a battle between two of the nation's original basketball powers. Gallagher-Iba is home to one of the country's original student sections, and its intimate, yet intimidating, atmosphere for decades has garnered the reputation as the “rowdiest arena in the country” thanks its famed deafening crowds. A testament to the building's acoustical advantage can be found during the Big 8 wrestling championships in 1978; a standing-room-only crowd of 8,300 made such a huge roar that many of the lights in the arena burst.
Team History:
Under legendary head coach Henry Iba, Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State) won NCAA championships in consecutive years, 1945-1946. Those championship teams were led by Bob Kurland, the game's first seven-foot-tall player. Throughout Iba's 36-year tenure as head coach (nearly all while also serving as the athletic director), his teams won 655 games and were known for their tough, man-to-man defense.
Season Preview:
Oklahoma State junior guard JamesOn Curry will stay in the NBA draft and not return for his senior season, Cowboys coach Sean Sutton told ESPN.com on Sunday night.
"It has always been a dream of mine to play in the NBA, and now is the time for me to pursue that dream," Curry said Monday, according to The Associated Press. "This is an opportunity that I just can't pass up. I'm ready for a new chapter in my life."
Sutton said Curry informed him that he would be staying in the draft and was hopeful that he would be selected in the second round.
Multiple sources told ESPN.com that Curry is under the impression that he is being selected in the second round by Chicago at No. 49. But, when contacted over the weekend, a member of the Bulls' personnel department said that was simply not true. A promise for a late second-round pick would be rare, considering that a number of scenarios could occur in front of a team that may make upholding such a guarantee tough to deliver.
Official Site:
okstate.com