Great news though it will be in a few years...
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/kezar-pavilion-makeover-planned-18694520.php
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/kezar-pavilion-makeover-planned-18694520.php
Kezar Pavilion To Be Renovated
- Thread starter jordan24
- Start date
Thank you @jordan24
Truly needed and with the climb in basketball in HS and NCAA basketball, I would hope we get some neutral games site for both
All city rivals to play at Kezar’s Field & Arena and make the #KingsOfKezar a reality, beyond @TheR
Truly needed and with the climb in basketball in HS and NCAA basketball, I would hope we get some neutral games site for both
All city rivals to play at Kezar’s Field & Arena and make the #KingsOfKezar a reality, beyond @TheR
Good stuff. Put new boilers in there in 2017. I would assume they will not touch that room although it is the City so wouldn’t shock me if that changed as well.
Renovation of Kezar Pavilion is long overdue but reducing the seating capacity below 4,000 isn't. I was hoping it would eventually be replaced with a larger facility and some added decks of parking.
I've been on that floor, after a game, a long time back when my knees still worked... REALLY bouncy! added maybe 3 inches to my vertical. Felt like I might have been able to dunk a volleyball... Maybe. Never had a chance to try that, no volleyballs laying around waiting to be dunked... On a typical floor, my max was maybe curling a finger or three on the rim.
Funny thing, tho... Years ago, I talked to a guy who played some high school ball there, he didn't like it. He said it felt like you were running uphill from your own baseline to halfcourt, then felt like you were running downhill to the other end. He did like the bounce, tho...
Funny thing, tho... Years ago, I talked to a guy who played some high school ball there, he didn't like it. He said it felt like you were running uphill from your own baseline to halfcourt, then felt like you were running downhill to the other end. He did like the bounce, tho...
Note to SF Parks and Rec: Level the floor, Keep the bounce! Lol
I remember the floor at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion years ago had a similar bounce as Kezar’s.
I remember the floor at Stanford’s Maples Pavilion years ago had a similar bounce as Kezar’s.
I didn't... at least not with a one-foot leap like actual athletes... At a hair under six feet tall, I could actually stand under the rim and then jump two-footed and curl the fingers... If I ran up, I didn't have the coordination to get UP off one foot and often couldn't touch the rim at all.
Such is life, being a non-jock...
god had a plan for you... its been fulfilled on your game reporting...I didn't... at least not with a one-foot leap like actual athletes... At a hair under six feet tall, I could actually stand under the rim and then jump two-footed and curl the fingers... If I ran up, I didn't have the coordination to get UP off one foot and often couldn't touch the rim at all.
Such is life, being a non-jock...
Great gym, but needs to be upgraded so that it can be used throughout the year.
Kezar I will never forget my Knights clinching a State title appearance on that floor.
Jackson Jung hitting the game winner to keep our CIF hopes alive.
Probably one of the most difficult gyms to play in if you weren’t used to it. Just has a strange look and feeling on the floor. Court feels bigger than the average high school court.
Also was like an ice box sometimes…..
Kezar I will never forget my Knights clinching a State title appearance on that floor.
Jackson Jung hitting the game winner to keep our CIF hopes alive.
Probably one of the most difficult gyms to play in if you weren’t used to it. Just has a strange look and feeling on the floor. Court feels bigger than the average high school court.
Also was like an ice box sometimes…..
...and to think, that was USF's primary home court when the Dons were the Toast of the Coast and the U.S. at large way back in the day...
A Kezar memory: Back in the mid-1950s when USF was King of the Hoops Hill, the program was intent on retaining its status if at all possible. In those days, local colleges usually recruited locally or within California. With Bill Russell poised to head out the door soon, USF was seeking future help at center. On a cold night in December at cramped Kezar, there was Coach Phil Woolpert flanked by a pair of 6-10 high school kids, Billy McGill from Jefferson in L.A. and Jim Hadnot from McClymonds across the Bay. It was an odd trio. Unfortunately for Woolpert and the Dons, neither big guy wound up at USF. McGill enrolled at Utah; Hadnot, somehow, ended up at Providence in Rhode Island.
They use to play some of the Riordan - SHC - SI WCAL games there back in the 70s / 80s from what I have been told as the school gyms didn't have the requisite capacities. Not sure when they stopped hosting any of the in-city WCAL games there though.
It was Sacred Hearts home court form when I went in 1987 up until the new gym was built. Not sure what years previous to that was it the home court. I remember first time JV year we played SI at home. It was jam packed at the end of our game. Loved the floor unless your head was on the floor during warmups while stretching. And there used to be this old character that would constantly yell REBOUND IRISH about 100 times a game. Saw some great WCAL games and believe Riordan versus McAteer one time when Wilson Stephens was at Mac.
Was at most of those Riordan vs SH or Riordan vs SI games at Kezar in the 80's! Both rafters on the west and east ends typically filled up at least 30 min before tipoff. I heard back in the day, kids were peeking in through the windows up on the roof. SI, SH and Riordan had their share of runs at the WCAL during those years. Riordan reigned supreme in '80 and '85-'90. Good times.
Last edited:
Love these tales/memories about the successful urban prograns versus the suburban schools of which I am more familiar. Thanks Primos !
Sacred Heart used Kezar at least since the early 40's. Maybe the 30's as well. During the 1920's, they used the original gym for games. It was where the auditorium used to be on the old building's site.
But was that for every league game is what I would wonder. And non league as well.
The SH on-campus gym back in the day, though very cramped and lacking much seating at all, was OK for non-league ballgames if there were going to be few customers in attendance.
Makes the 75 year old Crusader Forum at Archbishop Riordan more impressive. Still the best HS gym in the area for both players and fans. Kudos to the planners of this venerable venue.
Last edited:
He means the 1952 gym. You should have seen the 1923 gym. (We all know which gym is the best in the Bay Area as though I haven't said it enough for the past 21 years).
Last edited:
Lots of old CAL and WCAL title dreams for visiting units have been crushed by the Crusaders on that floor.
1) Bring back the WCAL Jamboree.Makes the 75 year old Crusader Forum at Archbishop Riordan more impressive. Still the best HS gym in the area for both players and fans. Kudos to the planners of this venerable venue.
2) Get rid of the parquet. That should only be in Boston.
I like the parquet... and there are more than a few places besides Boston with parquet anyway. I don't even know if Bahstin was first.
I knew there were others... One that I've seen several times this season, the place where Caitlin Clark calls home at U of Iowa.
And I think the Orlando Magic's home court is parquet.
While I was looking around for info, I found that Boston *might* be first... The parquet floor was installed in 1946, and the pattern was chosen out of necessity. Homes were being built everywhere during the postwar boom, and quality long boards weren't easy to get.
And I think the Orlando Magic's home court is parquet.
While I was looking around for info, I found that Boston *might* be first... The parquet floor was installed in 1946, and the pattern was chosen out of necessity. Homes were being built everywhere during the postwar boom, and quality long boards weren't easy to get.
Last edited:
Im in the camp of the lighter wood floors as it makes the gym brighter. Bonus if the key/paint is same and not colored in. To the best of my knowledge, Bellarmine, Mitty, VC, SI, SH and SF have the light floors, Riordan the parquet, and Serra has the darker wood.
In the late 80’s Bellarmine had a terrible floor. The sidelines and baselines were like a really sharp which and combine that with the fluorescent lighting it was strange.
When the old CAL was formed after WWII, Bellarmine played a lot of home games in little more than a dank barn. Hideous venue.
Before they built their nice new gym at Monte Vista Christian, the "gym" they had was built using an old Quonset hut, tin corrugated roof and all... This roof tended to condensate and drip on to the floor, which warped 'em up... The building was also wayyyyy too small, making the court's dimensions roughly 60-40... maybe... The roof didn't even cover THAT, so the walls were extended out... with a LOW ceiling.
Unaware players (the visitors) taking the ball out on the sideline often touch the ceiling with the ball if they raised it overhead. Also, heater units were placed so that unaware corner-shooters often hit the heaters with their shots, turning it over.
Adding to this was lighting that would have made this place a perfect setting for those film-noir movies.
Needless to say, the visitors didn't win often there.
The floor-warping got so bad that they had to rent gyms from around town in the years just before they got the new place set up. Oh, and those gyms were pretty awful too. In one case, whoever lined the court had ZERO idea what a basketball court looks like. I think the court was about 80' by 80', with one of the sidelines being well UNDER the stands.
It was like a B-movie version of the "hoosiers" gyms.
Unaware players (the visitors) taking the ball out on the sideline often touch the ceiling with the ball if they raised it overhead. Also, heater units were placed so that unaware corner-shooters often hit the heaters with their shots, turning it over.
Adding to this was lighting that would have made this place a perfect setting for those film-noir movies.
Needless to say, the visitors didn't win often there.
The floor-warping got so bad that they had to rent gyms from around town in the years just before they got the new place set up. Oh, and those gyms were pretty awful too. In one case, whoever lined the court had ZERO idea what a basketball court looks like. I think the court was about 80' by 80', with one of the sidelines being well UNDER the stands.
It was like a B-movie version of the "hoosiers" gyms.
Before Livermore High recently unveiled their new gym, they had used an old airplane hangar as a gym for more than 80 years (since 1941).
SI's old gym (Cowell) had that auditorium feel and my favorite was the old HORN sound vs the modern BUZZER sound for the end of quarter. St. Francis's old gym with the stage behind one of the hoops is always a classic.
I saw a game in that old Livermore gym…. Had a similar look to that Quonset hut gym, except it was plenty big enough to act as a real gym…. Apparently, Livermore’s sport back then was wrestling, according to the decor with pics of dudes in singlets on many of the walls.
Farmer's hall in Gridley has been used since forever. Hence the name " Farmers Hall " It is part of the Fair Grounds. They bring Tractors in during the fair.
We are going to do a new floor this coming year.
Here's wishing you great hoops
