Before the concerts, before the games, before the graduations, Stickel was a high school senior taking a visit to Ohio University and got to take a tour of the still-under-construction building in the spring of 1968.
There was no hunter green. No hardwood. No scoreboards or banners. Just gray concrete. But even then, he was smitten.
“Even then, just with the bones in place you know, just cement, you could just tell it was going to be something this community had never had before,” said Stickel, last month. “It was the focal point of campus.
“It was going to be the place to be.