Memorial Gymnasium

The Southeastern Conference's most historic home for college basketball, Memorial Gymnasium serves as the home court for the NCAA Men's basketball team the Vanderbilt Commodores. Dedicated in 1952 as a memorial to all Vanderbilt men and women who served in World War II, the arena was built as a combination gymnasium and concert hall by the late master architect Edwin Keeble.

The gymnasium floor was built up above its surroundings, more in the nature of a stage. The areas out of bounds along the sidelines were very wide, in contrast with the small facility which it replaced, where the walls were right along the sidelines and players could scrape their shoulders bringing the ball up the court. This necessitated the placement of the benches at the end of the court, which was not highly unusual at the time. In addition, each goal is anchored by two far-reaching beams attached to support columns, with extra support coming from cables stretching all the way to the gym's ceiling. In the case of a backboard shatter or beam fracture, replacing these goals would be highly difficult, compared to the usual goal setup at most venues.[3] In addition, the shot clocks are positioned against one of the two pylons that supports the basket as opposed to nearly every other gymnasium where there are shot clocks above the backboard facing center court and behind the backboard facing parallel to the end-lines. And, the main gym does not have air conditioning units. The practice gyms all do, but the main gym does not.

Memorial Gym is well known for its unusual design. The end-of-the-floor bench location is now unique in major college basketball, and said to give Vanderbilt a home court advantage, since no other facility in which opponents play is arranged in such a way. The interior walls were unpainted cinder blocks prior to a major renovation in the early 2000s. The middle of the three decks has a low ceiling and when the house lights are turned off during game play gives the distinct impression of watching a Cinemascope movie of basketball.