Moby Arena is an 8,745-seat basketball arena in Fort Collins, in the U.S. state of Colorado. The arena, originally named the Auditorium-Gymnasium, was opened on January 27, 1966, with a victory over New Mexico State. The arena was built to replace South College Gymnasium, which was built in 1926 and seated 1,500 people.Design and nameOn the outside, the arena is a rounded rectangle over the indented lower level, with a hump-shaped roof arcing over the long sides of the building. Inside, the seating is much higher on the sidelines than in the endzones. However, the most recognizable features of the arena are the corner walls which divide the sidelines from the end zones, and feature large ram's horn patterns on each one, radiating out from the near corners. The basketball court floor also features the ram's horns pattern, created with the use of two different colors of hardwood (the horns use the darker shade). A video scoreboard hangs from the center of the rafters, and is surrounded by banners as well as retractable basketball hoops for use during practice. Two auxiliary scoreboards are located on opposite corner walls (to the right when standing on either sideline).The arena was originally intended to be called the Auditorium-Gymnasium during construction, and the building is still listed as such on state records. However, an article in the Colorado State Collegian mentioned the hump-shaped building looking like a beached whale. From that, the gymnasium was nicknamed "Moby Gymnasium" for Moby Dick, the white whale of Herman Mellville's classic story. Athletic director Oval Jaynes renamed the gymnasium "Moby Arena" during his tenure in the late 1980s.
