PUEBLO, Colo. (Nov. 30, 2021) – Colorado State University Pueblo's storied Massari Arena will celebrate its 50th anniversary Thursday.
 
Although the 2021-2022 basketball season has begun, Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of the first collegiate basketball game at Massari Gym after playing the previous five decades on the Orman Campus in a facility nicknamed "The Snake Pit."
 
With Pueblo Junior College becoming a four-year institution in the fall of 1963, then Southern Colorado State College played its first eight seasons in "The Snake Pit" with occasional games at School District 60's Gym next to Central High School.
 
The Athletics Department at SCSC started moving into Massari Gym in the summer of 1971 with the first basketball games being two Colorado high school star contests on June 17 with over 4,000 fans in attendance.
 
Prior to the first collegiate game on December 2, 1971, Massari Gym also hosted a mid-October American Basketball Association contest between the Denver Rockets (now called the Nuggets) and the Virginia Squires as the two teams were touring Colorado playing exhibition games.
 
Adams State, coached by former PJC athlete and SCSC coach Loren Lutz, was the first collegiate opponent for Head Coach Harry Simmons and his Indians.  The two schools would meet on the same floor 86 days later in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) championship game with SCSC posting a 79-66 win before 2,800 fans.
 
Led by Steve Kidd, SCSC posted a 97-74 win over Adams State before 2,500 fans as Jim Von Loh scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the Indians win. Bill Bekeza added 20 points while Cal Tatum and Dan England scored 14 and 8 points, respectively.
 
"I just remember how big the place was as compared to 'The Snake Pit,'" said Bekeza, who played four seasons at SCSC and followed in the footsteps of his brother and Colorado State University Pueblo Hall of Famer Pat.  "I remember how great it was having a lot of fans in attendance after playing my first three seasons on the Orman Campus. And District 60 never felt like a college gym to me."
 
Bekeza, Kidd, Von Loh and Tatum along with England formed the nucleus of the SCSC team that season that advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight after the Indians captured the West Regionals at Massari Gym by defeating UC Irvine and Seattle Pacific.
 
All five players each competed four seasons for SCSC and combined to score 5,510 points and grab 2,953 rebounds with Tatum leading the way with a school career record of 2,143 points followed by Kidd 1,098 points, Bekeza 933, England 682 and Von Loh 654. Kidd now ranks third in career rebounding (924) and Tatum is now fifth (805).
 
"The Pit was cozy and always packed with a 1,000 or so fans," said England, who played all four seasons at SCSC along with Bekeza, Kidd, Tatum and Von Loh.  "What I remember most about playing in Massari the first year was the West Regionals where I got into a tussle with an opponent that pushed me into the stands.  I pushed him back and the referee saw it but did not call a foul on either of us. He just let us play."
 
A week prior to the NCAA Division II West Regionals, Massari Gym hosted the Denver Broncos traveling basketball team for an exhibition game against Dave Keefe Volkswagen that featured several former PJC and SCSC players, including Bob Warlick, Ron DeLeon, Pat Bekeza, Jim Simmons, Mike Lynch and Ron Crocombe.
 
The Keefe team defeated the Broncos 105-103 before 4,000 fans as Warlick, who led PJC to the 1961 junior college title where he was named the most valuable player, scored 47 points. DeLeon, who played on the national title team with Warlick, and Pat Bekeza each scored 16 points in the exhibition.

The SCSC Women Cagers also played at Massari Gym during its first season, as Jessie Bank's team hosted a conference qualifying event in February. Massari Gym also hosted the first-ever Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) College Division National Tournament in 1975, and two NCAA Division II Wrestling National Championships. 
 
Named after Colorado State Senator Vincenzo "Vincent" Massari, the facility emerged from the $12-million renovation project in 2008 to become one of the "finest" basketball, volleyball and wrestling facilities in the RMAC.  
 
Since the renovation, the facility has been the site of numerous state high school and regional events, ranging from the Colorado State Basketball Championships to a campaign rally in 2008 by Republican presidential candidate, John McCain.
 
Massari Arena is also the home of both the CSU Pueblo Athletics and Greater Pueblo Sports Hall of Fames.  Simmons, Banks and Tatum are inductees into CSU Pueblo and GPS Halls along with the 1971-1972 SCSC basketball team that finished the season with a 19-9 record to become the first Colorado collegiate team to compete in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
 
Massari was born in Italy in 1899, and came to Trinidad in 1915. He got a job in Pueblo as a reporter with "L'Unione," an Italian newspaper and became part owner. Massari was elected to the Colorado State House of Representatives, a position he held for 10 years. In 1964, Mr. Massari became "Senator Vincent Massari" when he became elected to the Senate. 
 
At the State House, Massari was known as "Mr. Pueblo," and became an advocate for local institutions, Colorado State Fair, Pueblo Junior College, to name a few. He worked with northern Colorado senator Ted Gill from Hillrose in securing the funding for SCSC's first athletic and physical education complex on the Belmont campus in the late 1960s.