Wayne State University Athletics

General 6/15/2020 3:00:00 PM Jeff Weiss, Senior Associate Director of Athletics/Media Relations

ON THIS DATE - Construction Began on the Matthaei Building

Ground was broken on June 15, 1965, for the Frederick C. Matthaei Physical Education and Recreation Building. At the time, it represented the first major step in Wayne State's physical education building program and was the first WSU structure on its "west campus" southwest of the John Lodge-Edsel Ford expressway.

The above paragraph was taken from a August 9, 2016, article by Wayne State's Shawn Wright, a member of the Office of Marketing and Communications.

The Matthaei facility was built as part of the city's bid to bring the 1968 Olympics to Detroit.

This effort was spearheaded by Frederick Matthaei, a native of Detroit. The Matthaei houses the natatorium, three basketball courts as well as offices for both athletics and Kinesiology, classrooms, a dance studio, the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame, and two weight rooms (one for classes and one for WSU student-athletes). Parquet flooring was added in the summer of 2004 and re-done in the summer of 2014. New bleachers were installed in July 2011 following the addition of chairback seats behind both the home and visitors bench area.

It covers 42 acres and is nearly 94,000 square feet of space. The 27,000 square foot of space can be divided into three separate well-separated units. The main gymnasium (men's and women's basketball and volleyball) is located in section 111.

Many additions have been made to this space including: chair-back seating on the east side; new bleacher seating on the west side; a replica parquet floor to that in the Boston Garden; graphic wall-divider acknowledging WSU athletic history; championship wall banners and a display honoring the history of basketball and its all-time male/female student-athletes. Just outside the main arena doors, is the WSU Hall of Fame. Two hundred and fifty-five (255) honorees are recognized for contributions dating back 103 years. The hall was completed in 2001. A classroom, dance studio and the department's academic resource center for student-athletes are also in the building.

Following the construction of the basketball coaches offices, film room and foyer in 2014, the nearly 12,000 square foot, state-of-the-art Athletic Performance Center was completed and opened in May of 2018 and gives student-athletes access to 24 work stations. This area located adjacent to the west side of the Matthaei is home to the Warriors Strength and Conditioning program, which is responsible for all 18 varsity sports totaling approximately 400 student-athletes.

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