Cal Poly gym marks 60 years of basketball, bands and a human-powered helicopter flight
Mott Athletics Center opened on the Cal Poly campus 60 years ago.
It was part of explosive growth on the San Luis Obispo campus as Cal Poly expanded in the years after World War II.
California spent $5 million and got four concrete-and-aluminum buildings at Cal Poly, including Agriculture & Social Science, Mathematics & Home Economics and the Health Center. Local contractor Maino Construction Co. built all but the health center.
All four buildings opened to the public on the afternoon of Sunday, Jan. 17, 1960. (San Luis Obispo’s former General Hospital building was completed about the same time.)
A Jan. 14, 1960, story in the Telegram-Tribune said the new athletics center, commonly known as Mott Gym, cost $2.2 million and could seat 4,000. In comparison, the old gymnasium, Crandall Gym, only held 1,000 spectators.
Mott Gym’s hardwood floor was 197 feet in length and 145 feet in width and the ceiling arched 46 feet above the floor. A frame of floodlights could be lowered for boxing and wrestling.
The front-page story sidebar told readers that Cal Poly’s new Grand Avenue entrance was the best way to enter campus, though some would prefer the older California Boulevard entrance that passed by the old gym.
Cal Poly president Julian A. McPhee officially opened Mott Gym with a freethrow.
The opening game was against San Diego State. Then-Cal Poly vice president Robert E. Kennedy opened ceremonies with the prediction that “Poly is certain to win, and if the Mustangs should lose there is a possibility of it becoming the girl’s gym.”
The Mustangs lost to the Aztecs 84-63, and when Title IX was enacted in 1972 the idea of a the women being exiled to an old hand-me-down gym was abolished.
The first men’s win at the new gym was a 84-63 basketball victory over Occidental College.
The gym’s name has changed as the years have gone by. But whether it’s known as Cal Poly Gym, Mott Gym, Robert A. Mott Physical Education Building or Robert A. Mott Athletics Center, it is the same place.
Mott Gym was named for Dr. Robert Mott, a 32-year-coach and teacher in Cal Poly’s Physical Education Department. He was director of the department when the gym was built.
Mott was hired in 1946, when the only other P.E. instructors were Howie O’Daniels and Chuck Pavelko. Games were held then in the Crandall Gym behind the football stadium. Mott retired in 1978.
Mott Gym’s arched construction covers one of the largest unobstructed floors in the region.
With the stands retracted, the space is large enough for a helicopter to take off — a human-powered helicopter.
World-class cyclist Greg McNeil pedaled his helicopter six inches off the ground during his 11th attempt on Dec. 10, 1989. His human-powered aircraft’s 100-foot rotor only had a few feet of clearance.
Perhaps another event got higher.
Timothy Leary, the psychedelic drug guru of “Turn on, tune in, drop out” fame, spoke at Mott Gym on May 23, 1969.
Leary would later take up residence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, but he found the accommodations at the state prison confining and escaped.
My first introduction to the gym was an event that would qualify for the Anxiety Olympics.
Enrollment for classes at Cal Poly used to involve going to the gym and picking up a punch card for the class section and time you wanted. The only problem was that, as the minutes ticked by, more students entered and they all seemed to want the exact same classes you needed.
I remember one quarter erasing a hole in my projected class list when all the sections of a class had been pulled by other students.
Sporting events offered their own kind of excitement.
Men’s basketball coach Ernie Wheeler had a unique way of getting the attention of players. I recall hearing a metallic clang from the sidelines while I photographed a game and looking up from my camera saw a bent folding chair skidding away from the sidelines. No one was injured, except the kicked folding chair.
The loudest concert I ever attended was at Mott Gym. If I listen carefully, my ears still ring from rock band Cheap Trick.
Many of the significant touring bands of the 1960s through 1980s played at the gym: The Pretenders, The Tubes, The Knack and other bands without “The” in their name.
The Harlem Globetrotters have played there at Mott Gym, and slam dunk contests have been held there. The Los Angeles Dodgers filled the stands when they held a baseball clinic at the gym in 1983.
The lights have been improved and the stands now wrap around the court, although it will be a while before fans come back. Due to COVID-19 precautions, the Cal Poly men’s and women’s basketball teams started their seasons this week without spectators.
Former Tribune sports editor Eric Burdick, now in his sixth year as Cal Poly’s associate director of athletics communications, shared a a few Mott Gym highlights:
- 1969: NCAA Division II national wrestling championships
- 1972: Cal Poly men’s basketball team beats Cal State Northridge 124-116 in five overtimes
- 1980: Cal Poly men’s basketball vs. New Hampshire in Division II quarterfinal
- 1995: Golden State Warriors training camp
- 1997: Sacramento Kings training camp
- 1999: ESPN2 televised Cal Poly vs. Idaho men’s basketball, the first nationally televised game in Mott
- 2006: NCAA Division I women’s volleyball regionals
