Fifty-five years ago, nearly 2,000 students camped out at the Smith Fieldhouse.
They weren’t waiting for volleyball.
It was Senior Night on Feb. 27, 1971. It was high stakes and it was the final home game the BYU men's basketball team would ever play in the Smith Fieldhouse.
A win that night against Arizona State would put Kresimir Cosic and BYU atop the conference standings.
Fans in attendance saw dazzling performances from Cosic, who shot 9 of 17 from the field for 28 points, and Washington native Bernie Fryer, who shot 7 of 9 from the field and totaled 14 points. Arizona State’s Rhea Taylor and Bill Kennedy scored second- and third-most of the game with 25 and 18 points, respectively.
After three ties in the first half and a somewhat sloppy second half against the Sun Devils, BYU’s defense emerged victorious when the clock showed zeros for the last time in the Smith Fieldhouse. The final score was 83-74.
Following the action, then BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson stepped onto the court in front of the 11,142 fans in attendance (the seating capacity was 10,200) to recognize Watts, who was the only head coach of BYU basketball during its time in the Smith Fieldhouse.
Following a standing ovation from the jam-packed fieldhouse, Watts addressed the crowd.
“I hope that I can be with you next year in the new Activities Center,” a cancer-fighting Watts said. “Where you students should be able to get in without sleeping in the halls all night to save your place in line.”
Watts underwent surgery the following Monday and left coaching responsibilities to assistant coaches Glenn Potter and Pete Witbeck, who led BYU to a final regular-season win at Utah to become the WAC champion.
The next year, Watts had his wish and returned to the bench as he led the Cougars to their second consecutive WAC championship during his final year as head coach.
Watts was at the helm from 1949 to 1972, making him the only men's basketball coach in the Smith Fieldhouse era. The long-time BYU coach, who started his coaching career as a 27-year-old at Millard High School, was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1986.
Known for a fastbreak offense that regularly produced 100-point games, Watts authored a book on the system — “Developing an Offensive Attack in Basketball” — refined under the Fieldhouse roof.
Watts also brought BYU its only postseason titles in the sport, winning what was then the prestigious National Invitation Tournament twice — the second of which came in 1966, a landmark year in Smith Fieldhouse history.
Players for the legendary coach in the Smith Fieldhouse included Tom Steinke and 6-foot-11 Craig Raymond, as well as Dick Nemelka, Jeff Congdon and Steve Kramer, members of the 1966 NIT championship squad. The Fieldhouse even saw the blossoming of Cosic’s memorable career.
But long before that final buzzer, the building’s existence — and even the university’s — were in question.
According to the Deseret News, newly appointed BYU President Howard S. McDonald was tasked with bringing a stronger religious atmosphere to BYU as well as preparing the school for closure.
At the time, the university was experiencing financial struggles due to World War II, and it was unclear whether the institution could survive. Enrollment had shrunk from 2,375 students to a low of 884 in 1943.
McDonald successfully convinced the board of trustees that the church needed BYU and urged that it remain. Following the war, McDonald saw enrollment more than double from 1,811 in 1945 to 4,366 in 1946.
This increase preceded the University’s decision to address its lack of adequate sports facilities, which began with the $1 million Smith Fieldhouse. Its completion was recognized in 1951 with President Wilkinson in his first year as school president.
Before the Smith Fieldhouse, spectators would pile into the old women’s gymnasium or the old Springville High School, and sometimes the games weren’t local to Provo, but were hosted at the University of Utah.
Raymond E. Beckham, who served 42 years at BYU, splitting time between being an administrator, professor and fundraiser, relayed an experience before his death to Ralph Zobell, former BYU sports information director, that he had with the newly appointed BYU president.
After the Smith Fieldhouse had been in use for around a year, Beckham and the building committee were called into Wilkinson’s office, where he asked about the building’s debt.
“How much do we owe on that damn building?” he asked.
The debt was $250,000. Beckham recalled that Wilkinson reached into his drawer, pulled out his personal checkbook, and wrote a check for the remaining balance.
“Let’s get that burden off our back and move forward,” he said.
With the Smith Fieldhouse paid off, Wilkinson was free to focus on other projects as he earned his nickname of "the builder."
In the two decades that followed, the Smith Fieldhouse became a difficult place to play for visitors, amassing a 190-51 record. BYU saw the likes of Kansas, Michigan State, Oregon, Syracuse and even John Wooden’s UCLA Bruins.
The Smith Fieldhouse still stands today, but it’s not the same as it once was. The west side bleachers were removed, cutting capacity by more than half to 5,000. It also has a rubberized track as opposed to the old “wood and sawdust-like track” it used to have.
While the building may have changed since it hosted basketball, for those who played, the memories haven’t faded.
Steve Kelly was one of the last to play in the Smith Fieldhouse. He recalls the fieldhouse as intimate and electrifying.
“They always had the band right down close — right down on the floor,” he said. “(The fans) were right on you, and it was loud. I just remember the noise was really deafening when you were at a timeout during an exciting part of the game. It was really hard to hear the coach.”
Kelly’s teammate, Fryer, who had seen and played in two other venues before the Smith Fieldhouse, said he misses the fans as well as the springy Fieldhouse floor.
“It had the springiest floor,” he said. “I just remembered really enjoying the games, and our fans were so cool. They were just rabid, rabid basketball fans.”
For Kelly, the Marriott Center is neat, but it was just a completely different feeling when you played basketball in the Fieldhouse. Even the smell put fans in a different realm, Kelly recalled.
While it is different now, to those who played there, the Smith Fieldhouse was never just a building. It was deafening timeouts and a spring beneath their feet — a place where memories were cherished for lifetimes.
When the final buzzer sounded in 1971, the clock hit zero on BYU basketball’s time in the Smith Fieldhouse.
The building would host more events, but that night closed one of its most defining chapters.