Looking back on Roberts Stadium's impact and legacy on Evansville over a decade later

EVANSVILLE — People flooded in and out for one last view or a final bid on a prized item, or really anything in those walls. These were the closing days of a hallowed history, a famed building and an irreplaceable legacy.

Bob Pristash, now the University of Evansville athletics communications director, saw the sign at Roberts Stadium for an auction. He’d only been in the arena once before as Marshall’s women’s basketball sports information director, so he decided to stop in and take one final look before the palace came down.

Pretty much anything imaginebale was up for auction: The scoreboard, chairs, desks, trashcans, TVs, filing cabinets, barstools, popcorn machines. Anything. He recalled one man who exited with his piece, his anything.

Pristash began walking into Roberts Stadium, where people were exiting with their newfound belongings from the soon-to-be pile of rubble. The burly man, Pristash recalled, had a 100-mile long smile as he left the premises. What exactly he had in his arms to exude such a grin escapes Pristash, but the basics are there.

The man, birght-eyed and pride brimming, walked out of Roberts Stadium with something, his anything, from the restrooms. A urinal, a trough, whatever it was, Pristash was certain it was used for relief.

“I guess it showed how many people in town wanted to get anything they could as a remembrance of the place,” Pristash said. “It was definitely a cool place and something I wish I would have had a little more of an experience working a game of being at or something like that.”

In many ways, the man with the urinal — or trough or whatever his anything was — showed what a four walls and a roof could mean to a community. Roberts Stadium’s impact and loss are still felt over a decade since its demolition, highlighting what was a pulpit of the Evansville sports scene with a hole, figuratively and literally, that is yet to be filled.

Looking to the right when driving west on the Lloyd Expressway shows a grass field, occasionally trimmed by the city, where the stadium once stood. Ideas have been floated over the years of what to do with it: An outdoor fitness center, a dog park and a skate park were among those suggested. It instead lays largely dormant, with the occasional passerby seeing a game of cricket or people walking where the basketball court once layed.

More: Roberts Park sketches were released 10 years ago. What's happened since then?

Others look at the field and remember the shrine that once stood.

After walking through the masses, Pristash walked into the arena and observed his surroundings. People were there trying to get one final look at the place they’d known since 1956. With little sound outside of those who were leaving and passing conversations, some just looked at the arena. Soon enough, it would be rubble. Thereafter, a grass field.

“I think people wanted to do whatever they could to just have a piece of it,” Pristash said.

Roberts’ on-court legacy

The UE men’s basketball team’s tenure at Roberts Stadium was the most successful in the program’s history. The five College Division national championships, including the 1965 undefeated season, were won there. NCAA Tournaments, thrilling games and special teams called it home. Many people point to Marcus Wilson’s bouncing winner against Missouri State to claim the 1999 Missouri Valley Conference regular season title as a favorite memory along with Scott Haffner’s 65-point outburst against Dayton. Radio announcer Bob Buck was bouncing with excitement in his chair so much they joked about tying him down so he wouldn’t go over the railing.

Even beyond the success, Roberts held stories: From the Purple Aces’ response to the 1977 plane crash and the rallying of the community to the famous names who populating the floor.

“It was just a great place for basketball,” said Paul Werner, who is known as ‘Purple Paul.’ “I wish I could think of all the other good games.”

The legacy extends beyond spectators and into the players themselves.

Craig Snow, one of the key players on UE’s 1999 NCAA Tournament team and now an assistant coach with the Purple Aces, remembers sitting in the old bleachers growing up as a fan. He recalled practicing in the winter afternoons and seeing the daylight gradually fade into darkness on the concourse, “knowing that maybe we’re about to be finished,” he said.

“Growing up as a kid, a lot of it was tied, similar to the UE program, to my childhood,” Snow said. “I was looking across, getting a little whimsical about it.”

Snow remembers visiting when UE hosted Bob Knight and Indiana University. Werner does, too. Werner collected media guides during the Roberts days, getting opposing coaches to sign them as keepsakes.

He continued the ritual with Knight, but the paper tore when he signed the ‘h’ in his name. Werner moved along, talking to assistants, radio personnel and managers who continued to look through him. Someone tapped him on the shoulder. Werner turned to find Knight with a new guide, signed and all, with no tears in sight.

Werner wasn’t there for the auction, but he still has his anything in memories. From the tactical battles between Jim Crews and Xavier coach Pete Gillen and meeting the likes of Knight and others who passed through the Roberts Stadium doors to the on-court battles, the old arena left its mark on Werner and the community at large.

“(Roberts) meant a whole lot,” Werner said. “I just had a lot of fond memories there. Saw a heck of a lot of good ball games, met a lot of fine coaches over the years.”

Beyond UE, Roberts Stadium was occasionally used for the University of Southern Indiana and prep games. UE head coach David Ragland played there for the Screaming Eagles and Harrison High School, recalling sitting and watching the games while waiting for the Warriors’ time or his conference tournament with USI — “It was a special place,” he said. Seats from Roberts Stadium are on UE’s campus, not far from his office.

Ragland didn’t really believe the news when he heard it was going down. It didn’t truly sink in until he saw the field where he once watched and played basketball and went to concerts — he and Snow both laughed remembering going to see MC Hammer.

“I didn’t think it was actually going to happen until I drove into town on Lloyd Expressway and saw it’s actually buried, it’s actually grass,” Ragland said. “It’s still weird. Every time I drive into work or drive home, I pass it and see the grass out there. It’s surreal to still see it.

“(I was) kinda shocked that it was gonna be taken down because it’s always been there. It’s just a place that you always expect to see when you’re in Evansville.”

‘It was just an iconic place over there’

Chip Schutz owned Kiplee’s during and after the Roberts Stadium era, his restaurant sitting just across Boeke Road from the once towering arena. It was a good spot for business.

Beyond the high school and college basketball games there, Roberts hosted concerts, circuses, graduations, other sporting events and entertainment venues. Crowds packed Kiplee’s and enjoyed the convenience of the walking-distance eatery.

“Anytime there’s an event at the stadium, we were packed,” Schutz said. “We had the luxury of having the stadium there for 22 years and we could build the business on that.”

Beyond the service industry, Chip and his son Kipp shared memories of sitting in the top row and enjoying the boisterous atmospheres that came with the success UE had at the time. Chip was part of the group who brought Dippin Dots to Roberts Stadium, which allowed Kipp to go early and experience the other side of the events.

“Roberts Stadium was very important to us and the business during those years,” Kipp said. “I know that they enjoyed Roberts Stadium being right across the street.”

The family was concerned when the demolition announcement came — “We were a little scared,” Chip said. Kiplee’s was established at the time and still is under new ownership. People continue to flock to the establishment’s dining room and bar before and after games and events, but there was still the nerve wracking sense of the potential for hurt business.

That never came to be, but the field remains empty, a callback to what was once there.

“We hated to see it go but fortunately it was there long enough to get the people coming back,” Chip said. “It’s just kind of an iconic place over there.”

Building for the future at Ford Center

Roberts Stadium, in some ways, lives on. Life is maintained in memories, trinkets, seats, pieces of the floor, collectables and small anythings people may have salvaged from what was once the pulpit of Evansville sports and entertainment. Ford Center holds some memorabilia of its predecessor.

“Having all those good memories make it hard to move past,” Ragland said.

Its presence, however, is largely still missing. Shades of what once was were on display when the UE men’s team had a brief stint of success in the mid-2010s but have since faded.

There’s a belief, though, that the sense of the past can be met again in the future. Ragland and Snow said as much. There’s potential in the downtown arena.

“It’s our job to build that history there, the same feeling that opposing teams have coming into the Ford that they used to have at Roberts. We want to build that,” Snow said. “I want to be clear, it really was the fans and the teams more than the mortar and the concrete. You could feel the echoes.”

“There’s been so many moving parts that haven’t given our program time to do what has been done in Roberts Stadium,” Ragland said.

That’s the work to build on the legacy that was framed on the East Side. For now, though, what once was the temple of the River City sports scene ghosts in that green field, waiting for someone’s anything to occupy the once-cherished ground.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Roberts Stadium: Remembering the arena that was Evansville's sport hub