Ban Johnson Arena
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Ban Johnson Arena
2002 renovations have made this facility one of the best in Ohio
an Johnson Arena has been a part of Marietta College for more than seven decades and now has a new look. Ban Johnson, the man, has long been an important facet of Marietta College’s history and to sports in
America. Johnson, who attended the old Marietta Academy as well as Marietta College, was a member of the Class of 1887, but left school to pursue a career in sports writing in the Cincinnati area. At the age of 30, he became a very demanding commissioner of baseball’s Western League, a minor league baseball association in the midwest. Because of Johnson and the league’s success, the league later became today’s American League of Major League Baseball. Johnson served as its first president. Johnson was one of the most influential people in baseball. In his years as the league’s president, he transformed a small minor league into a division that outdrew the established National League in just two years. After Johnson’s retirement from the American League he stayed active in boys leagues, Mexican baseball and Marietta College. The former baseball executive contributed many thousands of dollars to Marietta that helped the College through some difficult times in the early 1920s. In 1925, Ban Johnson received an honorary degree from Marietta College. As noted in the trustee minutes of a meeting in 1925: “Byron Bancroft Johnson, is voted a degree of Bachelor of Arts, because of his special service to the college, since leaving the school.’’ In the fall of 1927, construction began on the Field House on the Marietta College campus, largely because of Ban Johnson’s generosity. The financial support came mainly from Johnson, but Frank (Duke) Hayes, a basketball coach and athletic director at Marietta College, assisted with the fund raising and saw the project through to completion.
The first athletic event held in Ban Johnson Field House took place on Dec. 19, 1929. The Pioneers’ basketball team kept the game close, but lost 22-17 to Ohio Athletic Conference nemesis Muskingum. In 1974, an addition was constructed on the south end of the field house and housed racquetball courts, locker rooms, a fitness center and storage. In August 2001, that south end was demolished as part of the plans for a new recreation center that was added on to Ban Johnson Field House. The Field House itself has undergone renovations and was opened December 28, 2002, when the men’s basketball team hosted the 32nd Annual Shrine Tournament. In addition to the renovated 54,000 square foot Ban Johnson Field House, which includes new fitness center and weight room, an 84,000 square foot recreation center, opened in January of 2003. The Dyson Baudo Recreation Center houses a 200-meter competition track circumscribing four all-purpose courts, as well as two racquetball courts, an ergometer training room, and the Sports Medicine Department on the lower level. The Dyson Baudo Recreation Center was made possible thanks to a $10 million commitment from Laura Baudo Sillerman and Robert F.X. Sillerman, through their Tomorrow Foundation and from the Dyson Foundation on behalf of Robert R. Dyson and his wife Emilie B. Dyson and the directors of the Dyson Foundation. Ms. Sillerman and Mr. Dyson were classmates in the Marietta College graduating class of 1968. In presenting the gift to President Scott, the donors reflected, “Two members of one class came together as a tribute to the way in which Marietta College joined so many of us for life.”
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