Briggs Athletic Center: A Cage They Call Home

Have you ever wondered where the lacrosse, baseball, and field hockey teams practice during the cold, unbearable winter months?

The crew team has its boathouses, swimming its pool, and hockey its rink, but what do the other teams have?

They have Briggs Athletic Center, a multi-purpose facility which not only houses Harvard's official basketball court, but also accomodates a variety of other sports.

"We're really lucky to have such versatile facility," lacrosse player Kate Felsen said.

Better known as Briggs Cage, the center was named after LeBaron Russel Briggs, former dean of Harvard College from 1891-1902 and president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association.

The building was erected around 1926 as a seasonal practice facility for the baseball, track, football, and lacrosse teams.

Its dirt floor however, often caused great dust problems, needed frequent watering and raking, and greatly hindered the lighting.

The basketball team, meanwhile, was suffering from a lack of playing space and had to hold practices and home games on the dimly-lit sixth floor of the Indoor Athletic Building for many decades.

After looking into several other possibile places to build a new home for the Harvard hoopsters, Harvard solved two problems at once by deciding on a $2.5 million renovation of Briggs Cage in 1980.

The move also helped Harvard recruit more quality basketball prospects. The dingy confines of the IAB were often thought to deal a death knell to Harvard's sales pitch.

Nevertheless, the change of playing courts has so far failed to bring the Crimson its first Ivy men's basketball title.

Renovations included installing a hardwood maple floor for basketball, bleachers with a seating capacity of roughly 3000, and a 1600-square-yd. Astroturf carpet that takes less than 30 minutes to put in place for lacrosse, baseball, and field hockey practices.

"Not a single square inch of the gym is wasted," said Senior Property Development Officer George Oommen. "There is a logic to all of it."

Briggs also now contains basketball offices, ticket offices, concession stands, and four large storage areas, and during the off-season serves as a recreational facility.

Some of the users of Briggs' facilities think that in spite of its innovative space-saving structure, the practice areas are too small.

"It's [the astroturf field] not big enough," lacrosse player Cindy Ersek said. "We can't have a normal scrimmage there."

"Even though it's small and restrictive, it gives us good training," baseball player Nicky Nero said. "The facility is very good for its size."