Ritchie Coliseum, named after then
Maryland governor Albert Cabell Ritchie, was built in 1931, to replace a facility known as "the Gymnasium" as the home arena for the basketball and boxing teams. The arena was built by the H. D. Watts Construction Company, which was owned by Harry Watts, an alumnus who played as a
fullback on the
football team from 1901 to 1903. The building hosted the basketball and boxing teams until 1955, when it was replaced by
Cole Field House centrally located on the campus. For 26 years at Ritchie Coliseum, basketball games were held immediately before or after boxing matches. When Maryland joined the
Atlantic Coast Conference in 1953, basketball games routinely attracted capacity crowds to Ritchie Coliseum. Newspapers quoted football coach
Jim Tatum as saying basketball games were always sold out and it was impossible to get tickets. Millikan later said that this was the only thing Tatum ever did to anger him. Millikan said that he told Tatum, "I thought we should be getting students standing in line from
Baltimore to
D.C., trying to get into the damn games. Please don't tell people the games are sold out." The building was renovated in the spring of 1997 and is used as a multipurpose facility. It served as the home arena of the
Maryland Terrapins gymnastics, wrestling, and volleyball teams until the completion of the
Comcast Center in 2002. Those athletics teams temporarily returned to Ritchie when a water main burst in 2004. The facility also is the host site of the Maryland state high school volleyball championships.
Music Venue Ritchie Coliseum has also been used as a music venue as long ago as 1956 and holds the Annual College Park Free Blues Festival (11th CPBF is Saturday, November 10, 2018). Duke Ellington performed in 1956, in a Jazz vs. Classics Pop Concert. As reported by The Diamondback, the cost to students to witness this historic concert was only $1 (that's just $8.72 today with inflation). The industrial band Skinny Puppy also played there in 1990. ==Description==