| Ray Lavietes Basketball Pavilion at the Briggs Athletic Center | |
|---|---|
| Former names | Briggs Athletic Center |
| Location | Soldiers Field Rd Allston, MA 02163 |
| Opened | 1926 (original) 1982 (basketball) |
| Owner | Harvard University |
| Operator | Harvard University |
| Capacity | 2,195 |
| Tenants | |
| Harvard Crimson (Basketball) |
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The Ray Lavietes Basketball Pavilion at the Briggs Athletic Center is a 2,195-seat multi-purpose arena in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest college basketball arena still in use (Fordham University's Rose Hill Gym (1924) is the oldest.)
Originally known as the Briggs Athletic Center, it was originally named for LeBaron Russell Briggs, dean of Harvard College 1891-02 and the school's athletic director for 17 years. Briggs also served as president of the NCAA. It included an indoor track and batting cages, which were popular with local collegiate and professional baseball players (including, among others, Ted Williams). In 1981, the Gordon Track and Tennis Center Center (located adjacent to Harvard Stadium and the Bright Hockey Center) opened, and the building was refurbished as the new home to the Harvard basketball program, replacing the Malkin Athletic Center in Cambridge. The women's first game in the building was on November 26, 1982 against Chicago, and the men's was a day later against neighbor and rival MIT. In March 1996, the building was rededicated to Ray Lavietes '36, a two-time basketball letterman who made a $2.1 million contribution to a second refurbishing project in 1995 and 1996.
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