Gamecock Whodunnit? Was coach Frank McGuire involved in 1968 Field House fire?

Contacted via email at his Denver law office, South Carolina basketball legend John Roche was quick to respond to an inquiry concerning a March 24, 1968, late-night fire that destroyed the Carolina Field House on the USC campus.

That year, Roche had completed a much-heralded freshman season of basketball in the Field House along with budding star teammates John Ribock, Tom Owens and Billy Walsh. The much-anticipated move to play in the soon-to-be-completed Carolina Coliseum was an offseason of workouts away.

“In the spirit of honesty and integrity,” Roche replied in an email, “I must confess that it is my opinion that Bobby Cremins, at the urging of Frank McGuire and with the assistance of Corkey Carnevale, burned down the Field House to insure that the Carolina Coliseum would be ready for the opening of the ’68-’69 season.

“You must remember that Cremins grew up on Simpson Street in the South Bronx, where he engaged in conduct far more egregious than the destruction of a building. A belated criminal prosecution is in order.”

Roche punctuated the email with numerous smiley faces. While obviously written in a joking manner and in no way intended to indict either of his friends, Cremins or teammate Carnevale, Roche’s email does speak to what, over the years, has become urban legend at USC and in Columbia: Coach Frank McGuire had a hand in burning down the Field House.

In 15 years of living in the Columbia area, former USC players, Gamecock fans and other interested parties have often mentioned to me – sometimes jokingly – that McGuire was behind the fire.

What follows are all the facts that could be gathered – through newspaper accounts, documents obtained from the South Caroliniana Library and remembrances of those associated with the basketball program at the time – in a case that occurred almost five decades ago. In the end, it will be up to you to decide whether McGuire could light up the Field House as well as the Hall of Fame basketball coach could ignite a championship team.

• • • 

What turned out to be the final game played at the Field House drew a packed house to see USC drop a heart-breaking decision to an outstanding N.C. State team coached by Norm Sloan. The game was a farewell to McGuire’s first recruiting class, including Gary Gregor, Skip Harlicka, Skip Kickey, Frank Standard and Jack Thompson, who had built an “Underground Railroad” of talent from New York City to Columbia.

Roche, Owens and Walsh were in the latest class, all wanting to leave New York and play for McGuire, who believed he could do at USC what he did at North Carolina in 1957 – winning the national championship with a group primarily of Yankees.

McGuire encountered some rough waters in his first four seasons at USC in large part because his teams played home games in a too-small, antiquated gymnasium that was a far cry from the larger, amenity-filled coliseums of his ACC brethren at Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, N.C. State and Wake Forest.

As early as 1962 – before McGuire arrived – a push was under way to build a new arena for men’s basketball at USC. In November of that year, Richland County voters turned down a $7 million bond referendum to build a 14,000-seat Richland Civic Center that would have served the Columbia area and USC basketball.

Following a USC game against nationally ranked Duke on Jan. 29, 1963, played before an overflow crowd at Carolina Field House, Columbia fire chief Edward Broome stepped in to call foul.

“I would like to call to your attention the overcrowding of the Field House during Tuesday night’s basketball game,” Broome wrote in a letter to Edward Henderson, USC’s chief engineer at the time. “There were over 800 patrons above the safe seating capacity for this building. Therefore, I am requesting that every effort be made to be assured that this overcrowding does not occur in the future.

“There is also evidence that repairs are needed to assure the fire safety of persons attending these functions. As you know, immediately following the basketball game Tuesday night, a fire did occur due to the necessity of these repairs. This makes two fires that have occurred due to cigarettes being dropped in openings.”

Henderson responded in a letter to Broome and USC president Thomas Jones that repairs would be made and that the “no smoking” ordinance at the Field House would be strictly enforced.

A month before USC’s game against Duke, officials from USC and Clemson had lobbied the Legislature for new basketball arenas. Many state legislators who attended the Duke game saw first hand that the 3,200 capacity of the Field House was no longer adequate to hold the crowds that came with surging interest in men’s basketball.

During the freshman game that preceded the varsity game against Duke, the public address announcer, Don Law, read a statement that the newly formed Columbia Tip-Off Club was circulating a petition to get 50,000 signatures in support of a new arena. During the varsity game, two students paraded around the court holding a sign that read: “We Want A New Field House.”

By February of 1964, USC officials had conducted a study of other arenas under construction across the southeast to get an idea of size and costs of such a structure. Among those were Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia and Virginia Tech, ranging in size from 8,000 (Mississippi) to 10,000 seats (Georgia) and in cost from $2 million (Mississippi) to $4.3 million (Virginia), according to the study.

In 1966, the state legislature approved funding for new arenas at both USC and Clemson. USC estimated that it would cost $6.97 million to build the proposed 12,000-seat arena. On Feb. 22, 1967, USC accepted a bid of $6.88 million from McDevitt & Street Company, a general contractor, in Charlotte.

McGuire now had a new arena in the works that he could pitch to recruits, although the scheduled opening date of Dec. 1, 1968 was going to be difficult to meet. Nevertheless, McGuire was confident that his most heralded recruiting class of Roche, Owens, Ribock and Walsh would play all of their varsity games in the new arena after one season of freshman ball in the Field House.

McGuire was pictured in an artist rendering of the new coliseum for the cover of the 1967-68 men’s basketball media guide, then appeared wearing a hard hat for a photograph on the cover of the following season’s media guide.

“He knew Tommy and I were appalled at the Field House,” Roche wrote of McGuire in a recent email, “and said when recruiting us that Carolina Coliseum would be ready for our first varsity game.”

• • • 

Roche and his fellow class of freshmen were not alone in their disdain for the Field House, which was located on Sumter Street one block from the main entrance to the campus Horseshoe. Much of the condemnation of the facility had to do with how it had outgrown its usefulness.

The Field House was built in 1927 for $28,000, using crumbly old light-colored bricks from a dismantled Columbia fertilizer factory. It measured 172 feet by 118 feet, large enough to house a few classrooms as well as athletics department and coaches offices for the two major sports of the day, football and men’s basketball.

Concerts, dances and commencement ceremonies were held at the Field House, although USC’s enrollment had exceeded the building’s capacity by the early 1950s. With the addition of other sports, the building became crowded.

The main arena rested below ground level with the court rimmed by a three-foot brick wall. A metal rail sat atop the wall to separate fans from players, coaches and officials. With fans leaning over the rails, an intimidating effect was created against opposing teams. One opposing coach once said teams “felt like they were playing in an empty swimming pool” with spectators watching from above.

Ronnie Collins played on Winnsboro High teams that won a state championship in 1959 and finished runner-up the following year in tournament games played at the Field House. Then he played three years of varsity competition at USC, earning first-team All-ACC honors as a senior in 1964.

Collins also earned a high regard for the home court advantage created at the Field House when the Gamecocks played before packed houses.

“When we had 3,000 people in there, it sounded like an atomic bomb going off,” said Collins, 73, who works these days for F.B. Distributors out of Lancaster, “and it was always full, I don’t care what our record was.”

Bones McKinney, the colorful coach who brought his Wake Forest teams to play in the Field House every season from 1958 through 1965, once said it was the only place he did not prepare pregame or halftime talks. Instead, he instructed his players to place their ears against the paper-thin wall in the locker room and listen to the talk of USC coaches, from Frank Johnson to Walt Hambrick to Bob Stevens to Chuck Noe to Dwane Morrison to McGuire, in the adjacent room.

A USC tradition was to place its pep band in the front rows above the railing and directly behind the visiting bench, blaring tunes at a high decibel during timeouts. During a December game in 1961, Duke coach Vic Bubas took his team to midcourt, where it stood and huddled during timeouts to get away from the noise of the pep band.

There were any number of huge victories for USC at the Field House. There was the 1961 win over a sixth-ranked North Carolina team that featured Larry Brown, Donnie Walsh, York Larese and Doug Moe. In 1965, USC handed fifth-ranked and Final Four-bound Duke one of its four losses that season. Then, in 1967, the Gamecocks upset a fourth-ranked North Carolina team that won both the ACC regular-season and tournament titles before advancing to the Final Four.

By the time McGuire arrived for the 1964-65 season, the demand for student tickets to games far exceeded allotment. So, for many games, closed circuit telecasts were provided and shown at the M&N lounge, Russell House lounge and South Dormitory on campus.

By the conclusion of the 1968 season, it was apparent that McGuire was building a program that could attract larger audiences. A bigger arena was needed.

• • • 

A week after the final game played at the Field House, USC’s 1968 season concluded with an ACC tournament semifinal loss to North Carolina in Charlotte. The game was played on Friday, March 8.

Upon returning to Columbia, McGuire turned his attention to scheduling for the 1968-69 season, hoping he could attract big-name opponents to the new coliseum.

A month earlier, the space frame for the new coliseum was complete, but contractors reported that, because of poor weather in January, the completion date was three weeks behind the scheduled Dec. 1 opening. McGuire wanted to start his season at home on Nov. 30.

USC officials were aware that McDevitt & Street’s contractual obligation was to have the coliseum completed and ready for operation by March 9, which would have been at the conclusion of the ’68-’69 season.

Harold Brunton was USC’s vice-president in charge of business affairs at the time. He resides today in an assisted living facility in West Columbia. At age 93, he retains a vivid memory of the events leading up to the Field House fire.

“My recollection is we knew (the coliseum) would not be ready, that we would start the season in the Field House (before the fire), then shift when the coliseum was ready,” Brunton said. “That is what the contract called for.”

About that time, Bill Nance of the contractor McDevitt & Street called a meeting with Brunton.

“Legally, I don’t have to finish until March,” Brunton recalled Nance saying. “Really, that is about the best we can do. But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Don’t push me. Don’t say anything about it, and I will personally try to do as much as we can. Don’t call me. I’ll call you.”

Then USC officials discovered a series of fires that were quickly extinguished at the Field House. Brunton also recalled a small fire at the Longstreet building, which was located across the street from the Field House and being used as a student gymnasium at the time.

“Somebody had apparently stuck paper napkins or pieces of paper in between the big planks that were (the bleachers),” Brunton said of the Field House fires.

Brunton said it was important to USC that no details of these fires reach Columbia’s two newspapers because officials suspected an arsonist who probably sought that kind of publicity with his actions.

Late on Sunday, March 24, freshman basketball coach Buck Freeman said he locked the building when he departed at 11 p.m. A campus policeman checked the building at 11:30 and noticed no evidence of a fire.

At 11:43, Columbia firemen answered an alarm and sent four pumpers and a ladder truck to the Field House. The firemen battled the blaze for several hours in near-freezing temperatures, and four suffered minor injuries.

In containing the flames to the interior of the building, surrounding offices were saved. As news of the fire spread across campus, members of the athletics staff, athletes and about 1,000 students gathered to gaze, cheer on the firefighters, then form a human chain to remove trophies and athletic records from McGuire’s office as well as basketball equipment from a storage room.

The following day, fire chief Broome said he believed the fire “may have begun around a breaker box.” Damage was estimated by USC at $200,000. Equipment and supply losses totaled $15,900, including two scoreboards, 18 Spalding basketballs, five sets of USC blazers and trousers, and 14 cartons of Camel cigarettes from the concession stand.

Both the Columbia Fire Department and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division conducted arson investigations. Records of the fire could not be found by either department.

• • • 

The Field House fire caused USC officials to immediately begin plotting strategy on several fronts. A decision was needed to determine whether to rebuild the Field House or level the remains. McGuire and his staff needed temporary offices, and his team needed a gymnasium for offseason workouts. Finally, USC inquired about whether the coliseum could be completed ahead of schedule and in time for the opening of the 1968-69 season.

Two days following the fire, USC president Jones wrote to the state legislature that it likely would be too costly to renovate the Field House, even though only 50 percent of the building was destroyed in the fire. Then another fire on April 13 destroyed the remainder of the building.

The second fire sealed USC’s decision to demolish the remains at a cost of between $12,000 and $17,000, rather than renovate the building for an estimated minimum of $200,000.

The offices of McGuire and his staff were moved to the Letterman’s Club room at Carolina Stadium.

After considering several options, including the Columbia YMCA downtown, USC officials decided on May 22 that the men’s basketball team would practice at the Naval ROTC Armory near campus. A nearby trailer was converted into the coaches’ offices.

Meanwhile, McDevitt & Street informed USC officials that the construction timeline for the coliseum had stepped up by having crews work six days per week and a minimum of 10 hours per day. USC was told the coliseum could be ready for McGuire’s scheduled home-opener on Dec. 7 against Maryland.

“I understand that there may be some consideration of a possible opening game with Auburn on November 30,” Brunton, the head of business affairs for USC, wrote to McGuire in a memo dated April 1. “This certainly would be a tremendous start to our season, but we can give no assurance at this time that the Coliseum would be ready by that date.

“It may be that you could arrange a tentative schedule contingent upon the facility being ready, with the understanding that if construction were not complete, the game could be shifted. Actually, any specific plans for the Fall must be purely tentative at this time. I suggest we review the Coliseum situation in August and try to make more specific plans then.”

No contingency plans were made, and USC opened the new 12,401-seat Carolina Coliseum for a game against Auburn on Nov. 30, 1968. Fans filed into the arena through what remained of the construction site. Workers were bolting in the final seats hours before tipoff. The only part of the Carolina Coliseum that was open to the public was the arena itself. The surrounding offices and classrooms were not completed.

Early complaints from fans were that the steps leading to the upper reaches of the arena were too steep, and Brunton scrambled over the next two weeks to install railings.

Otherwise, everyone was happy to see a program beginning to enjoy national prominence playing in an arena as large and plush as any in the country. No one smiled more gleefully on opening night than McGuire, who had fulfilled his promise to members of that sophomore class that they would play their entire varsity career in the Carolina Coliseum.

Whether McGuire had a hand in ensuring that Ribock, Roche, Owens and Walsh would never play a varsity game in the Field House has remained up for debate in Columbia and at USC ever since. Brunton said such a notion seems far-fetched. Cremins is not so sure.

“We heard that coach McGuire had a few of his buddies come down and burn it down,” Cremins said recently from his home in Hilton Head Island. “It’s hard to imagine a coach would do that.”

Or not.

This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Gamecock Whodunnit? Was coach Frank McGuire involved in 1968 Field House fire?."