Moody Coliseum will host its 48th season of ACU basketball in 2014-15. The first game in the 4,600-seat coliseum was played Feb. 27, 1968, with head coach Dee Nutt’s Wildcats beating Arkansas State, 96-93, in overtime to win the Southland Conference championship. The first complete season in the coliseum was the 1968-69 campaign.
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CU’s John Ray Godfrey –still the Wildcats’ only first team NCAA all-America men’s basketball player – made the opening night one to remember as he hit 17 of 24 field goals and 7 of 12 free throws on his way to 41 points. That scoring record stood as the most ever scored by a player in the gym until later broken in 1992 by Hunter Cooley, who scored 42 points against Angelo State on Feb. 6, 1992. That record was broken by David Baxter, who scored 44 points against the Rams on Jan. 24, 2005. Tarleton State’s Brandon Burney holds the all-time scoring record with 50 points in a win over ACU on Feb. 1, 2001.
The men’s team has an all-time record of 368-206 in Moody Coliseum (.641 winning percentage), including a 44-game home court winning streak from 1984-88 under former head coach Mike Martin.
The women’s team has an all-time record of 359-116 (.756 winning percentage), including a 49-game home court winning streak from Jan. 23, 1995, to Nov. 28, 1998.
The Wildcats hosted the 1996 South Central region tournament at Moody, and won the tournament championship to advance to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in Fargo, N.D., where they finished third in the nation.
Formal opening ceremony for the coliseum was held Feb. 18, 1968. The building includes 53,989 square feet and originally cost $1.2 million.
Daily Chapel for ACU students and other university, high school and community events also are held in Moody Coliseum. About 900 temporary seats can be placed in the coliseum to bring its capacity to more than 5,500. The press box is located at the top of the coliseum’s east side.
Also each February, ACU’s annual Sing Song fills Moody Coliseum, turning the basketball arena into a showplace for the musical talents of ACU’s students and its social clubs. floor, and the top of the dome is 65 feet from the floor level. New features in the coliseum include a scoreboard and shot clocks, both installed in summer 2003, in time for use during the men’s and women’s basketball seasons. Also, a new floor was installed during summer 2006 in time for the 2006-07 volleyball and basketball seasons.
