The Cam Henderson Center is the primary indoor athletics complex at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, USA. The first basketball game played in the facility was a varsity match between Marshall and Army on November 27, 1981. The venue is named for Cam Henderson, who coached football and basketball at the school from 1935 to 1955.HistoryDesignThe facility, as designed, was to be a "state of the art" arena seating 14,000. However, during construction, massive budget cuts were made and the finished product seated only 10,250. The basketball arena currently seats 9,048.The arena was designed with a retractable lower seating section, which permitted used of the floor area for indoor track and general use by the physical education department. However this seating never worked as designed, and eventually the school stopped retracting the seating for fear it would become stuck in that position. Also the poured concrete floor developed major cracks. The Henderson Center is 213,000 square feet.Construction wranglesIts construction was a part of a deal in the West Virginia Legislature to support construction of Mountaineer Field at West Virginia University. Legislators affiliated with Marshall had opposed building such a facility unless Marshall also received an athletic facility. At the time, Marshall's home court was the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse, a 30-year-old county-owned facility located 6 blocks from campus and seating only 6,500. The Center was opened in 1981, despite construction of the facility not finishing until the next year.
