I grew up in Peru, where we watched high school basketball games outside.

When I came to Moline and was invited to Moline High School game, I had no idea the game would be held inside a massive building.

The lights, the noise level reverberating around the building, the squeak from the tennis shoes on the wooden floor.

All were very intimidating to me.

Obviously, I got over it as I attended many more Moline high School basketball games until I graduated from there in 1972.

So from intimidation to graduation was a wonderful transition.

I have many wonderful memories of Wharton Field House.

Grace Carver The term field house originated from the old English word Felduese, a tent.

That definition would evolve over time to be known as an indoor building that housed sports.

A field house is a coliseum of sorts where brick, wood and sweat converge in a myriad of compelling ways from high school athletics to professional wrestling, to the wailing of electric guitars to the sermons of political prospects, field houses stand as lasting testimonials to human creativity, fortitude and ingenuity.

I was born in 1930 in Moline.

I graduated from Moline High School in 1948.

I started working at Stoehr and Palmgren as a bookkeeper right out of high school.

They were the general contractors of Wharton Field house.

Wharton field house was their fi commercial building Prior to that, they built large homes.

My husband and I had season tickets for years and enjoyed watching the Maroons.

Mr. and Mrs. Palmgren had sent her first row balcony seats for the time it opened.

And for many years after.

I always hear stories about the architect, but never the general contractor.

They were very nice men.

Joan Ritz.

As the name indicates, this was a field house, which meant the.

Track.

Could be practiced here and for years it had a cinder track that was filled in.

And I believe the sixties.

I know it was here because I tripped over the edges of it, as you can see here.

And there, you can see the outline where the track once was.

And this is how it looks now after it was built in.

As you see, there's a series of holes here.

And at one time when the field house was first built, they had a cage that went around the court.

And the reason for that was they didn't want the ball to bounce away and delay the game.

And each of these holes here, a post would be put in and the cage would go all the way around the court sides and ends.

And for many years, basketball players are also called cages because of the cage around it.

These are still in use today as they are, as you can see over there.

They're used for an apron.

That.

My name is George Van Vooren.

I was born in Moline, lived almost my entire life there.

And now live in Port Byron.

The early morning basketball teams are nomads, for lack of a better term.

The school did not originally have any associated association with the team.

The team players did all the organized.

They found out where they could practice.

They got teams to play.

They had to find their own officials and everything was their responsible body.

The original place that they played is actually still there on the corner of 14th Street and Fifth Avenue, the industrial home building on the Southwest corner.

They played most of their games there originally until the owners of the building decided to turn their hall into a vaudeville theater.

So they were out of there.

Then there was another place.

They played the Wagner Opera House.

I think that was on Second Avenue, but I'm not sure.

They didn't like playing there because they played on the stage and it was too slippery.

The school finally decided to give them assistance in the year 1909 and they got to play in the new Manteo Arts Building, which is at 855 17 Street.

That building is still there in great disrepair.

Coach Noble and I were up there last year to take a look and find the exact room that they played in, which we did up on the second floor of the building.

It's rather a large room, but you would never expect anybody could ever play ball there.

And the original reports in the paper talked about fans looking in windows and standing in doorways to watch the kids play.

And we found the doors and we found windows that people looked at.

After that, they played at the old YMCA on Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.

That building's been torn down many years ago.

They had a small gym there with a running track around the top of it.

It was very small.

If you want to take a shot from the corner of either side of the building, you would have that ball come right back and hit in the head because it hit the bottom of the track.

I can verify that because when I was a kid, we played up there sometimes and that happened to me after that.

The school had organized the team and it actually had a coach hired.

Their first coach was Mr. Fairchild in 1911, and they began playing their games at the Old Moline High School on 16th Street in 1915.

That gym was much better than what they had had before, but only 600 people approximately, could find seats to watch games and another, maybe three or 400 could stand on a running track above that gym.

In 1921, two events happened that would start the need for the Field House.

In that year, the high school had hired George Seniff to be the coach.

After ten years and seven coaches, they found a coach that would last for over 20 years.

And Mr. Seniff still holds the record for most wins of a Moline boys basketball coach.

Up until that year, Moline had a overall losing season losing record for their teams.

They had gone to state one time and most of the years they had losing records.

Mr. Seniff was a taskmaster.

He was my dad's coach, and dad said, You did it his way or you find something else to do.

And the results he got were tremendous.

In his first seven years, they won six district titles.

Now the district tournaments at that time was the same as a regional today.

It was a first step to get into the state tournament.

And by winning all those tournaments, Moline had become a the local powerhouse and nobody could compete with them in the number of games won or tournaments won.

So in that respect, we had a chance to have a need for a larger building.

This building that we're in today and in fact, if you look at the 1924 annual in the bottom of the season summary, you'll find the kids that wrote it saying, it's time for us to have a bigger and better, better building because we're turning people away every day.

Now, they also knew that they could draw large crowds because when the tournament district tournament came back to the Quad City area, also in 1921, they held them at the gym at Augie.

And that was a large barn like structure, like most places that had a running track where people could stand.

It also had a row of two permanent two rows of permanent seats on the second level, and then large bleachers on the floor.

They would pack 3000 people in that building for each of the district tournament games.

And after a while, Moline and Rock Island started playing their home games over there.

Also, for that game, the Rock Island Moline game and they would get 3000 people apiece there.

So we had the good team when we had the fans wanting to see the games.

So you had the basis for building a field house My name is Diann Moore and I am from Moline, Illinois.

I have spent my entire life here except for when I went off to college.

Molines boys basketball team played up the hill from City Hall at the old Moline High School.

And they played in the gym, which had a running track suspended above the the basketball court and the basketball court had a net around it so that the ball could get away and people would stand up there and watch a basketball game.

Basketball became more and more popular, and it was interesting to see a photograph of that gym with the people watching a game and they're all dressed with their suits on and the women are in very nice dresses.

Obviously, it was an evening out and something to do, but people in the city became aware of the fact that there was not enough room for people to come and they needed a bigger facility and a group of men.

And I would say movers and shakers within the city came together and they formed what would be called the Maroon and White Association.

And T f Wharton was chosen to be the head of it, and they decided to look into a new facility that would not only be for basketball, but for other events to be held in Moline.

It would be the forerunner of what we would call a civic center.

Moline was.

A thriving.

Community in the late 1920s.

They were a major manufacturing hub in addition to a number of Deere factories.

There were other concerns, such as Minneapolis, Moline, which is a major competitor of Deere's.

They manufactured farm implements.

There was also a really corporation who made both automobiles and later airplanes and Montgomery Elevator.

There were a number of others also.

But, you know, those are the four.

I think we're probably the most important as a result of having these people are these companies.

You had a large category of qualified people that could develop a project like the Field house.

Also, Moline had been going through a growth spurt as far as commercial buildings at the same time, the original downtown area of Moline was on the north side of the railroad tracks, and in the decade prior to the consideration of the field house, things that began to move over to Fifth Avenue.

But you also had to have a community that would support such a structure and such an idea.

And back in those days, people were more associated and identified with the place that they lived.

There's a lot of reasons for this.

We just picked probably one of the most important, and that is transportation.

Cars will not being a rarity.

Not everybody had one.

And even if you did have an automobile to get you around, where were you going to go?

The interstate system we think of today as 30 years in advance.

The federal highway program was just barely getting started at that time with the Lincoln Highway Project.

So if you want to go out of town, you're on country roads that might be dirt or might not be improved or might be improved.

So you're taking your chances.

So people didn't do it.

If you didn't have a car, you had to rely on a trolley car system and there is a trolley tracks on Fourth Avenue and up 16th Street and up seventh Street.

So if you're going to get around, you're going to be limited to where you were.

So if you lived in Moline, you probably worked in Moline, you shopped in Moline, you went to church in Moline.

If you were in a fraternal organization, that was more than likely in Moline.

So you identified with the community.

Today, we see people wearing Hawkeye gear and obviously we see them wearing things from Kansas City Chiefs or they like to wear Adidas or they like to wear anything that identifies them with something that is an something something of importance.

And back then, your town had a lot to do with that.

When I was a kid, probably in first grade, we learned the Moline song and we would sing, you know, we sang that all the way through school and never I never thought much of the words of it.

But you listen to the first few lines and it is we are Moliners were are from Moline.

Now, when I went to high school I had a lot of friends from Rocky and East Moline.

They would say, Yeah, you say that because you got to remember where you're going to go after we beat you.

But if you look back at when they wrote that, they were saying that for a reason.

We are Moliners.

We are from Moline because they were proud of that.

So when we get to the point where there is a necessity for financial backing to build the field house, the people who had come up with a plan were sure that they would have no problem getting that back.

Wharton Field house really brings together a lot of things that were happening.

You have to remember we've just come out of World War One.

We're in a time when we're in the Roaring Twenties.

People are looking for things to do.

Moline is growing, and it's a case of wanting to be, I want say, like maybe a leader within the Quad City area, or at least on the Illinois side, the association that was put together.

These are men who took time, not only money, but time to go out and research.

They traveled to look at other field houses, ones that were in Indiana, where, you know, basketball was king.

And what were those field houses like?

You have to remember at this time, kids were playing in gyms.

And if they could get maybe 50 people in to watch a game or maybe 75, that was a big thing.

Now you're going into a much bigger arena looking to expand and bring in more people, more events, more things for people to do within Moline.

In 1927 and early part of the year, Coach Senoiff and William Schulzke and a numbe of other people went to Indiana to take a look at the way that field houses are constructed.

There and how they were financed.

And the reason they went to Indiana was because at that time, Indiana had banned football because it was too dangerous.

So community support went to basketball teams because then, as now, people loved sports.

But the only sports you could actually go and see were high school teams.

So when one town would build a new field house or new gymnasium, the next and one to build on, it was a little bit bigger and a little bit better.

And so it went throughout the 1920s.

So our people here went there, figured out what they wanted to do, came back.

And in December of 1927, they published their plans in the Dispatch.

And as a method of getting people interested, they had created two fictional characters, Little Bobby and little Tommy and Little Bobby.

And little Tommy would talk about how much they wanted a field house where they could go and learn how to play basketball and do all kinds of other sports and how great it would be if Moline had a field house that they could go to.

And they continued throughout that month and into the next.

Talking about the field house.

T.F.

Wharton played an extremely important role in this field house because originally it was called Moline Field house He came along and put together this association of people.

He was like when the school district took over the building, then it was named in his honor.

William Schulzke was an architect who was born in Springfield, Illinois, went to the University of Illinois and came to Moline in 1910 to work with an architect here named H.W.

Woodson.

In 1925, he bought the firm and then went on to design some important buildings in Moline.

He did the Scottish Rite Cathedral in 1930, which is the building at the base of 19th Street and Seventh Avenue.

He did the Fifth Avenue Art Deco building in 1931, the Moline National Bank Building that you that we now would call the first Midwest building, though I think it's another bank in there now.

And he also did the design and was the architect for the Moline City Hall.

The original drawings and renderings of Wharton.

So a building that is completely different from the one that we see today and the changes that were made made this building still a viable place to play a hundred years later.

The original drawings show a building that's similar to this, except it has an annex on the north side and an annex on the south side.

And the roof line is completely different.

Originally, it was going to be placed on 16th Street and 21st Avenue right along the main right along 16th Street.

However, those plans had to be adjusted for two different reasons, one being that the actual land was not really conducive to the building of such a large structure, and the second being, the building was going to be leased to the Maroon and White Association, and there were legal issues with the land because it had been given to the city by Mr. Browning for the use of the city for recreational and athletic programs and later in January 1928, the building site was moved here to where it is today when the original building was planned, had been planned to be at the cost of $125,000.

However, that was raised to 150.

And we believe that the reason that is, is because if you look up and you see all the high trusses in this building, that was the additional cost.

When the next picture of the field house comes to be, you'll see the building as it is today with a large hip or mansard roof, completely different from the original.

Even today, when you come into the building, you look up, it takes your eyes go right up to see because you have such a big a man, so immense open space.

If you want to see what the building may have looked like, you can go across the river to George Marshall Gymnasium and you'll see a building was built one year later, a little bit smaller than the field house and seating But you'll see that there are support posts all along the sides of the court in order to hold up the.

Roof.

By making the changes that Mr. Schulzke did.

By raising the trusses up, you have unobstructed views.

You allowed the balcony to be raised off the floor to give more room on the main level, and that allows for a number of different activities to be done and played here as opposed to a normal gymnasium.

Hence the difference between a field house and a gymnasium.

To think about showing up to a venue and sitting anywhere in that in that the field house and having a great seat to watch the game, that's hard to find and to be able to pack over close to 5000 plus people and everyone feels like they're right there.

In viewing angle of the court.

I mean that just once, once you go through and experience that here at Wharton, it just sticks with you.

And I think the legacy of the Field house is it's just longevity.

My father, Homer Jackson, graduated from Moline High School and was a purchaser of one of the bonds issued from the building of the Field house.

He and his brother Max operated the Mello Cream Donut Shop in downtown Moline for 50 years.

The house where we were raised on 18th Street A was originally on the field hous side, and my father purchased it and had it moved as a Boy Scout.

I was one of the presenters of the American flag for the basketball games.

I also have two copies of the Wharton 50th a Noel Jackson.

The Maroon & White Association decided to build a building and it was going to be located where Browning Park sits today, facing on 16th Street for the original 150.

They put together a team of 155 people.

They were broken up into 11 teams and they went out and they raised the funds by selling bonds.

Now, this was about 1928, 27, 28 that they were doing it and they were successful.

They had competitions between the.

Schools.

To see who could sell the most bonds.

The winner for the elementary school was Garfield, the class of 1929 was the winner for Moline High School, and.

In those days, the Moline School District did not have the room and their bonding power to build this building.

So in order to do it, they had to go out to the public.

So as I said earlier, this project became public knowledge in December and January, they began holding meetings to say, We want to build this, but you're going to have to come to our aid by buying bonds.

These bonds will mature in 20 years.

They'll pay 5% interest, and the money will come from all the different events that we have at the building.

And bonds were to be sold at the amount of $100.

If you are in a bind, an adult bond, but children could buy bonds at a $50 amount.

And originally we were trying to sell $125,000 of bonds.

And those bonds were purchased within a three week period.

By the middle of March.

They had gone to over 100 up to $150,000 and the number of bonds sold.

And the canvasing was complete.

They later had to go ahead and get another $25,000 of bonds in May because surprisingly, the bids came in over what the rejection was just like today.

And those $25,000 were sold real quick.

So and it at the end, the amount of bonds sold was $175,000.

One of the benefits of purchasing a bond was you got to choose your seat, a reserved seat for events at the field house.

And even up until the 1950s, there were people sitting in seats that they had had had been assigned to back when the field house was built.

On May 26th of 1928.

This building, they started to dig and work on the construction of the building.

Miraculously, the building was finished and dedicated December 21st of the same year, 1928.

I mean, you have to marvel at this building being constructed in that short period of time.

It is just hard to understand how they could do something so fast with what they have in those days compared to what we see today.

It's not to say that it didn't come up to the finish line to get everything completed.

When I talked to Mr. Rosborough, who was a player at that time, he told me that the night before the field house was to open, the coaches and the players were all still working on the floor, putting finishing touches to it, so be ready for the following day.

But they did have their opening game on that night on December 21st.

It was Moline versus Kewanee and the score was 22 to 15.

High scoring game, lot of defense.

And after it, the University of Iowa played Marquette University.

And then after that, the dedication took place.

The first basket made and the game was by Jim Ross Perot.

His father was the Sue, the chair of the Board of Education.

He was not the first person to attempt, but he was the first person to make it.

And what is so unique is that his son went on to play here at Moline High School, and that son, Jim Rosborough, then went to play basketball at the University of Iowa and eventually became Lute Olson's assistant.

the connection of the Rosborough The ball and Roseboro family to this building is extremely important.

And so they ended.

Jim out in Arizona, had his son's high school basketball team come out and play in a Thanksgiving tournament here at Moline so that his son was the third Rosborough to play at Wharton Field House.

And my grandfather, Caldwell Rosborough, was the chairman of the school board when the field house was built.

My father, James be Ross Perot, was on the construction as a high school student.

He scored the first basket in the first game ever played at Wharton Field house.

My brother James M Rosborough played for Jack Foley in the early sixties, graduating in 1962.

They had a terrific team in 2001.

My brother arranged for his son, John Rosboroughs team to come from Tucson, Arizona, to play at the field house.

My husband, daughter and I were there from Boston, Massachusetts, to witness the third generation of Rosborough Men play on the sacred floor of Wharton Field House.

Awesome players like Steve Kaspersky, Tom Gramkow, and my best buddy, Terry Carlson.

Most of the women of our age never got a chance to play at the field house.

Times were different then.

Can you imagine Caitlin Clark playing there?

All the wonderful memories and my family connections to the Wharton Field house.

Those were some of the best times of my life.

Jane Rosborough Jackson.

The added bonus of having a facility like Wharton Field House available to our community over all this time, allowing professional basketball, allowing concerts to happen, allowing presidents to visit is truly just special.

And you just don't see that anymore any more with school construction.

There's not and they don't have in their budgets to build a place like Wharton.

So, you know, the legacy of it is the fact that when you go back and you look about who does how they designed this building and how it is still to this day, standing in in great shape and is still one of the top ten venues in the United States for high school sports is truly the legacy.

I think when people think of Wharton, that's what they're going to remember.

Members of Moline Strong community eventually resolved that Wharton could serve as a gathering place for all kinds of entertainment from the beginning of the 1940s and beyond.

Numerous programs, pageants and performances were hosted in this House of Legacy.

It transformed itself into a venue for entertainers, politicians and pop culture icons.

Wharton is more than just the field house for sporting events.

Over the years, celebrities, big and small and hometown heroes alike have demonstrated their skills inside Wharton.

The old court has been marked up by Black Hawks Thunder and rings for WWE wrestlers and for decades, graduations were hosted on it every spring.

The diversity that come through only adds to Wharton's history.

Over a million spectators have since experienced the great variety that's arrived within Wharton's walls.

Being one of the biggest high school arenas in the state, its merits are unparalleled.

I played on the first women's basketball team.

Coach Dick Matter led us to an undefeated Season ten It was scary, but also exciting to walk onto that court each time.

We had quickly outgrown the boys gym after our first two games, but no way filled that cavernous building.

I remember it was cold stepping up the first time.

Our guy classmates were cheerleaders.

So much fun.

Janet Parks.

My parents began taking me to the Wharton Field house at age five for all of the basketball games, as well as many other events.

I always wanted to be out on it.

My dream came true when in high school I spent 1962 to 1964 as a cheerleader on that floor for the US basketball games.

Danced on it at several half times with Jolene Handstands Team and then sat there to graduate in 1964.

In all my years of travel and attending events in many other states and countries, the word and field house far surpasses all others as the best and most unique of all venues.

A True Field of Dreams.

Cathy Powers Brown.

My younger brother and I lived on 23rd AV just off ward and parking lot.

We would go to every Moline basketball game and every professional wrestling event.

Phenomenal thing is that in all those years, we never paid to get in.

We had a system to sneak in Ed Lemmon, who was a director back then, finally figured that out.

He would see us at the event and of course have a thrown out.

Most of the time we would get back in.

The fun was doing our best to not let Ed Lemmon see us.

Great times.

Jim Murphy Todd Thompson.

Moline High School Athletic Director.

Born and raised.

Moline, Illinois.

Well, I think as far as Wharton Field house goes, it's probably a little bit different for everybody in their era, Right?

So it's it's a historic atmosphere, historic venue that is hosting so many great events all the way back.

Obviously, the the it says right here on the court in 1928.

So it was we've had some of the greats and there's stories of, you know, Babe Ruth hitting baseballs off the building.

There's stories of, you know, Coach Red Auerbach being here and doing WWF stuff from when we were kids and things like that.

So to me personally, I was in the the era with the Quad City Thunder and some WWE type situations growing up, running around these rafters right here and now.

It's one of the best, if not the best high school basketball venues in America.

Yeah, I think even in high school when I was here, you know, I was part of the so very successful wrestling team.

In 1996, we won the state championship and we had all of our wrestling dual meets here.

The volleyball team's always been very successful and now obviously with last year in the in the basketball.

But we we loved it.

We would try to, you know, find a way to get as many fans here as we possibly could because we knew it was just such a home court advantage in every sport.

So I think that means a lot to the athletes as you go through.

It's almost like it's the norm and then you go on a road event and there's, you know, 60 people in the stands and most of them are just parents.

You have a home event and you have 3000 people in the stands.

And all they want to do is see you be successful.

So I think the the athletes feed off of that community energy.

My name is Jenna Laxton.

I grew up in Coal Valley, Illinois, and I coach volleyball here.

I'm Moline.

So I was actually an assistant coach in 2019.

And then I took over the position, the head position in 2022.

So ever since then, it's a really cool atmosphere like especially and match because you just feel like all this energy like on top of you obviously coming from like the stands and looking up and seeing all these generations of athletes and sisters coming back and grandparents that, you know, also had something to do with the program.

It's just it's, it's really special just because of how interlinked everything is and how interlinked every athlete is.

Like, you know, we had some kids growing up on the side lines playing like after a match or something, and now they're in the program or, you know, someone's cousin.

It's just it's just so cool to see the generations on top of everybody loving this gym and the history behind it.

It's just crazy for like just an extraordinary energy in here, even when it's obviously not air conditioned.

So when there's no AC in the summer, just knowing like the girls still want to be in the gym all summer long because they don't want to miss a day from practicing at Wharton Very special place.

My name is Adrian Ritchie.

I'm from the Quad Cities.

I'll say Rock Island, Illinois, but my dad's half of the family's from Hawaii and my mother is from Rock Island, and I coach recently girls basketball, previously boys basketball, amongst other sports here at Moline High School.

I have just like my entire family has played or performed here at one field house in numerous sports.

My daughter played volleyball here and basketball.

My son played four years of basketball.

My wife played basketball here as well.

She is on the trophy downstairs.

And in the 1989 fourth place girls basketball team, they got fourth place in state that year.

My father was a state champion here in 1960, and as in 1962, he won the 440 yard dash back then it was the 440 yard dash.

His name is on the champion's board down there, along with my uncle.

Everybody on my wife's side of my family also competed here at Moline High School.

And so I'm pretty tied into this building.

The greatest player since.

I think coaching and playing basketball here at Wharton Field house.

From a historical perspective, I'm kind of a historian, especially of this building.

I know that Red Auerbach coached here with the Tri-City Blackhawks before it became the Atlanta Hawks.

And so me, knowing a little bit about Red Auerbach, I want to know a little bit more.

And so I dug into his history and just knowing that he's known as the pioneer of modern day basketball and just thinking about modern day basketball, being team oriented instead of star oriented.

So he drove that team aspect into the sport itself and then just coaching it.

I think I have a responsibility is to make sure that we're a team, team driven basketball team instead of a star driven basketball team as well.

Red Auerbach was the was instrumental in Fast Break basketball, so just making it more exciting and and so I just think I have a responsibility coaching in this building to keep up with what he started and modern day basketball.

It's a different experience.

We're both part of very different, not very different many aspects of the musical program from performing on Browning Field to recently, our pit orchestra and being in Warren is just a different vibe.

It's a different energy.

Everybody knows that when the band starts playing, when the Saints, the basketball players are going to come running on to the court and it's it's just so alive with energy and excitement.

And it's a magical experience, especially when it's your first time as a freshman or even as the fifth graders.

And we do our fifth grader nights.

It's yeah, it's unique.

It's like even at, like football games, like you don't get the same experience as like basketball games, like when you're actually in the field house because like, the sound just echoes.

Like you feel the room and like the room fills you back.

Like it's like just a dream, like an equal relationship.

And also like we will play like if there's a foul lake, we'll play like a short ten.

And like, it really just makes you feel like you're a part of the game and the amount of memories you create just within the songs.

We play different songs every game, every night, and so you never know what your setlist is going to be.

You never know whether you're going to win or lose, and if that's going to change the songs that you play, you never you always have a different crowd each time.

And it's just fun to know that while you're playing in a space that has such a unique energy, everything's also always changing at the same time.

Yeah, it's like you get to bring your life to the crowd and like you just feel your heart racing, you know that like we play When the Saints Go Marching.

And from what our band director has told us, I'm pretty sure that we didn't like back in the 1960s, 1970s, they were playing When the Saints Go Marching at the start.

Like we just get to, like, have the greatest honor of just kicking it off every single time and carrying on the tradition.

We have a shared memory here.

I am very fortunate to be a part of the line of Bay managers who and chief librarians sing the alma mater for our marching band.

And when the games are over, we all come back and we get out of uniform and we sit right here on this part and we sing the alma mater and it's so quiet and just hearing our voices echo, it's it's probably one of my favorite things because everybody takes it so seriously.

Yeah, it's like spine chilling lately.

Beautiful.

Like with nobody.

Like else is in here.

When we get in here and, like, we'll get everyone to quiet and we just start singing together.

And the way that, like, obviously, I'm sure you could hear right now, it echoes in here and the way that like you just fill the room and then like it calls back to you and everybody knows the lyrics.

We teach them and it just carries with you because after an exciting night you come back in and have just this moment and this big hall where you get to express your gratitude for, the scholarship from Wharton for your community through this song and just know that this is the place that you will always remember.

So I think that's definitely one of our favorite memories, something else that's always really exciting is for any marching band event, we get ready here and so there's always some crazy action going on or something, a conversation that you just get to come up a few rows and jump into and you just don't forget those moments.

Yeah, yeah.

I actually I never really, ever played on this court, which was kind of a different experience but I did get a great view from from up in the stands over here behind the the American flag of playing in the pep band.

And that's one thing that I also think adds to the atmosphere of the nights.

You know, they come running out to When the Saints Go Marching and the pep bands playing it as they come out and it's something they've always done and then just the pep band adding different flare and different songs and different things.

It was a unique experience that I got to experience back then and now that I see it from where I'm at now, sitting on the court, I still enjoy the pep band and what they do and the players and the basketball team and it just like I said, it all adds to the atmosphere of what is Wharton Field House.

I'm Emily Finley.

I'm a senior and I'm on the Moline Contemporary Dance Team.

The first time I performed at Wharton Field House was when I was around 12 years old in seventh grade, and I was cheering at the Wilson John Deere game.

I've been to many other field houses and arenas and the support at Warren is just unmatched by any other field, house or arena that I've been to.

There's a lot more support here and even a lot more space so everyone can just come and hang out.

My most memorable moment was when the basketball team came back from state last year after winning the state championship and we had a little party for them and like a welcome back party.

And that was really memorable because you just got to see how much the community supported the basketball team throughout the season as they do every season.

I'm Kyle Hines.

I'm in eighth grade.

I got to John Deere Middle School.

I'm Grace Bergeson.

I'm in eighth grade.

I go to John Deere, Middle School.

I'm Emily Van Vooren.

I'm in eighth grade and I go to John Deere Middle School.

I really like watching the state basketball players play and going on to win, state and champion.

It was always really cool to watch them play.

And I also I wrestled at John Deere and we got to have a tournament here and that was really cool to wrestle here.

I remember as like later games and we kept winning how packed water and finals would be and how loud it would get.

It was it was always so fun to see all the fans there because like, I never experienced anything like that before.

Like Our Town, like this.

Yeah, it was so cool to be in there while like, those boys were playing.

Like Grace said, like, I've never experienced anything like that before.

Like when something good happened, you could just feel the whole field house shake with, like, excitement.

Well, you get to sit in the student section.

Yeah, I looked up to those people for such a long time, and next year I can actually like, go sit in the student section.

So it'll be fun to dress up and go the theme.

Yeah.

And then part of the students section that and also even just like have an actual sporting events here, a part of Moline.

Like that'll be really cool to be a part of.

My name is Treyvon Taylor.

I'm a junior at Moline high scho and I played basketball.

It's great.

It's it's very special.

It's always special to play on a Friday night to come down here and there's a bunch of fans and the environment all, the energy, the great energy that gets put into it.

It's a it means a lot to me to come down here and play in front of all my friends and family.

There's a lot it really is a lot of memories in here, like with people without people being or myself, being with others, being with coaches.

I'd say one of the best memories I have was probably after we beat O'Fallon.

I think it was I think we it yeah, I think was O'Fallon that we beat here and then everybody rush on the court and we were hyped.

We had a big picture, big celebration in the locker room as well.

So I think that was something that we we can share, everybody can share.

And for the community.

My name is Sean Taylor.

I'm a social studies teacher at the high school and I've been head basketball coach at Mill Lane for the last eight years.

Yeah, I don't think I knew at the time how much it meant to the community.

You know, I was always proud of coaching at this school because of the history.

But, you know, after we won to get emails and letters and pictures from, you know, people that weren't here in 1955 and it was a dream of theirs to to win state and thanking the boys and me for helping fulfill that dream.

And I wasn't aware of that.

I knew we had great support, great fans, great tradition.

But to you know, you knew how much it meant to me and to the players, but to hear how much it meant to so many people from from people that don't live anywhere near Moline, that live on the East Coast or the West Coast or a different country.

Now, that was that was something unexpected and it made it even more special.

Yeah, it was definitely awesome.

It was a something once in a lifetime to a lot of people and for it to be the first in Moline, it's it means a lot to me.

It means a lot to a lot of people around the community as well, because no one would ever thought that a basketball team that's never won, it ever has to bring it back to Wharton Field house, to a historic field house.

So it's definitely great.

I'm coming back that day and seeing all the fans outside cheering us along, something I never seen before, something that you only see on TV, honestly, and just bring it back to this community that you live in is awesome.

And one, it just means a lot to me.

I always have to remind the players of the history because I think they're just used to come and playing in this palace.

And so they don't.

They sort of take it for granted.

And I always want them to know, you know, who's played here, who's been here, whether it's been an entertainer or a politician or certainly basketball players.

For me, every time I step in here, I, I remind myself of the fact that Red Auerbach coached in this gym and, you know, arguably the greatest leader of any sports franchise in the history of sports franchises coached here.

And so, you know, I remind myself of that every time I walk into this.

And I don't always remind the players of it, but, you know, once a month I try to tell them this place is historical, You're part of history.

And, you know, how are you going to leave your legacy?

What are people 50 years from now going to remember about you as a group and you as a player?

So I hope I never take it for granted and I hope our players never take it for granted.

I think, you know, just the publicity of Wharton and everyone wanting to be, you know, at least experience such a great facility.

I mean, having teams contact me, you know, two and a half hours away, like, Hey, can I come play at your gym?

Can we can we set something up?

And, you know, I think I think that has something to say of like, you know, there's a lot of people willing to travel just to play here.

And I think that's really cool.

What makes it different is that it's a place that holds so many more people than other venues.

I mean, I think I think they say it's 7000 at capacity, but when you cram people in here and you have some bleachers on the floor, you could probably get about eight, 9000 people in here.

And I've seen it for a couple of times, which is kind of cool to see.

One time it was a Rock Island ute game that was played here for a sectional sectional semifinal, I believe thousands and thousands of people.

It was amazing to see.

And then just last year, the fact that Moline had a great run and they were the talk of the town and the Quad Cities to people come out.

People hadn't been to games in years coming out to watch a game, not being on site of the high school.

A lot of people, when they come to the air, they're like, I'm going to go to the high school and find that find the game.

And you can't do that because it's not at the high school.

So to have a standalone facility, the way that they do with Wharto Field house is it's awesome and the facilities are great.

You get a unique perspective on a game and it just the atmosphere on a Friday night, when you walk into the game, you can kind of feel that buzz, especially last year with the team that they had that won state.

Everybody coming out to watch a game, they knew where they were coming.

It was it's just it adds to the experience.

That's the environment of Wharton Field house.

I brought my kids here for All-Star wrestling, Harlem Globetrotters.

Some of my kids best memories are coming here and watching Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper and that group of people.

And of course, at that point in time, if you were in the seats we were in, which is is an older facility.

So there are certain seats that if you stand up, you need to watch your head or you'll be hitting your head on the rafters.

And I can honestly say that I and all my kids have done that to cheer for somebody and had to watch our heads.

But yeah, one of the interesting things is this used to be the major venue for recording artists.

The last major concert that was held here was deejay Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince performed here in 92 or 93.

That was the last concert to be played here.

Yes, that was the last concert.

D.J.

Jazzy Jeff.

We've had political rallies here.

We've had Goldwater, we had Nixon, we had Wallace, who brought out a large contingent of Black Hawk and Augustana students who were here to protest his running for office.

I think the last nine on school event that was here was Michelle Obama, and she was here campaigning for her husband.

And there was a large group of people here to meet her and hear what she had to say.

I saw my first concert in Wharton Field house, D.J.

Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince back in the nineties.

I went with a friend of mine and we sat on the floor in the bleachers right next to the entryway to the locker room.

So when they came off the stage, they to the locker room, I was so excited.

Will Smith gave me a high five as he ran in Heather Rossman.

In 1964.

I attended the Senator Barry Goldwater rally for President.

As I remember, it was a full house and I did go home with a six pack of a H.U.

Goldwater.

Basically it was ginger ale, Tim Norman It's not really one story or two stories, but it's what Wharton meant to me.

And it may not just be me, it may be many.

My parents were Maroons My grandma and Grandpa Olson were Maroons.

A game night at Wharton was a family affair.

Both sets of grandparents had season tickets as well as my parents, myself and sister.

Any time there was a home game, we all were there.

During halftime, I would visit my grandparents at their seats.

Wharton Field house was like a home away from home.

The light shining through the windows at the top were a beacon for us on a cold winter night.

When you walked in the door and heard the squeak of the sneakers on the wood floor, the cheers from the cheerleaders and the smell of popcorn you felt at home when we got older.

It's where we gathered, laughed and hung out with our friends.

Wharton was not just the place to cheer on the mighty Maroons, whether it be the girls team or the boys team.

It was home.

Tim Anderson I think Wharton is a central figure in the identity of the Moline community.

Every community needs, some kind of identity piece that brings everyone together, regardless of their background, regardless of how long they've lived here.

And Wharton is that kind of space, right?

There's a lot of different things that happen here, whether you're a kid in school or you're an adult that may have gone to school here or an adult that comes now to see games and other events here.

It's a place where people gather and that gathering, making memories together, that's all really important for community identity.

I think it means it's a community gathering space.

It's a place for us all to get together.

Still has been that for me over the years.

You know, I graduated 25 years ago and it's still a place that I come with my kids, still a place that I come to see games and get together and, you know, you still you come down here, you see old friends that you haven't seen in a long time.

So that's what it means to me.

And I think that's what it means to a lot of people around here.

Yeah, it's a symbiotic relationship, right?

Because those businesses could just as easily say, hey, this is this is a nuisance and it's affecting our operations, but they really embrace it.

They understand that they've got a thousand people coming down here on a weeknight that are going to serve those businesses.

So hungry, hobo happy Joes whiteys, they're all going to adjust how they operate to try and get more people in here.

And they understand they're part of the community, too.

So this this facility is really set up to integrate with the neighborhood and not only the commercial district.

I would hope as a city official that we can continue to strengthen that commercial district and find other ways to do it.

I know from the mayor and the council on down, they have priorities to really focus on some of these older commercial neighborhoods.

So this is a perfect example of how all those places can work together as opposed to pointing fingers and kind of saying, hey, look, this is a nuisance.

Are you taking up my parking or I can't operate my business in my normal fashion.

You can adjust how you operate those things and you can bring in even more business and you can make yourself a community partner.

So I think it's a great example and I think cities and other parts of the city could learn from that.

And for the Moline community at large, Wharton Field house is just an iconic place, especially for our community.

So many events, sporting events, concerts, wrestling events, all sorts of you can you you can almost name the event and Warren Fieldhouse probably had it I've heard so many stories about the history of this place.

There is even a story of Babe Ruth hitting a ball on top of Wharton Field house from the tra I've heard about that story so you can kind of dig into the history here and you can just feel that there is such a deep rooted connection with this community, with this iconic building.

I'm Marty Mahieu.

I'm from the class of 1980.

Moline High School, been a lifelong resident of Moline my whole life, been here almost 63 years.

Back in the sixties, my dad, I have five brothers count on me and he told us we're going to eat pancakes.

So all of a sudden we're helping our dad carry these.

conduit pipes down the basement this big, heavy made made plate.

And he actually made pancakes in our basement for the very first time.

And that was probably 1966.

And we pancakes for four days for dinner.

At least four days for dinner.

And that's where he created his first pancake griddle.

But with the Moline Booster Club, they've been having it for a number of years.

They usually get about 2000 people through the doors in a three hour window period.

So it's very, very successful.

And it does help to promote Moline Booster Club.

This is kind of bizarre, but my younger brothers and I had to ride in the back of a pickup truck to Detroit, Michigan.

My uncle was a bigwig at US Steel, and he made a plate up it up in Detroit at the factory and had to ride in the back of a pickup truck in probably November, December to go pick it up.

And it was a little chilly and it was more chilly when we had to sit on the plate riding home in the back of the pickup truck.

But that's how it all evolved.

He one of the plates just the plate itself, weighed 350 pounds.

So it takes a period of time for it to heat up for the pancake griddle to work properly.

Why Im tell you, all you have to do is look outside of the Quad Cities.

People come from Quincy, They come from Galesburg, from all Chicago area, and they are amazed at the structure of this place and how well it's been taken care of.

And that's a true testament to the Moline School District for keeping this place up.

It's an unbelievable, fabulous place to have any sporting event or any type of an event.

You could have.

Well, I first met Dexter back in the late seventies.

He would come to my parents house and he would always ask my mom and dad, can I have a Pepsi or something?

He loved Pepsi.

And we built a long life friendship with our family, with Dexter.

We have him over for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, you know, all the major holidays.

He'll pop over every once in a while just to say hi.

But, Dexter, when you think about ward and field House, you have to include Dexter right up there with Wharton Field House.

He has been here for so many events, and he has been the number one fan at Moline for a number of years.

The community has really responded well to Dexter.

Dexter, if look at Dexter, he always has a group of kids around him talking, always about sports, the weather, what's going on in the world.

And if you look at one of these kids come here to Wharton Field house they will seek out Dexter and they want to talk to him.

I mean, he's just he is Moline High School and Field House all put together during during basketball.

I was there when I was a freshman, sophomore, junior basketball for the Maroons.

I was we had a gentleman we called Waxy who would always show up at our practices and Waxie He wasn't full of a lot of words, but he always came with a paper bag full of bazooka gum and you can count on before practice.

All of all of us players were always chewing on the bazooka gum and and that was something that was kind of a staple during those years, always having waxy on the sidelines and being there to support Moline with a bag, a brown bag of bazooka gum.

Yeah.

Dexter was very it was very much there all the time.

And Waxy was there.

You didn't have a lot of words as much as Dexter did, but Waxy and Dexter during those years, that was like 90 to 93.

They were there in full support.

And as sure as if the doors were open and practice was happening for Moline basketball, you would find either Dexter or waxy at the practices in full support, and you could always count on Dexter mopping the floors at halftime.

Well, if you've ever been at Wharton Field house for a Moline Maroons game, you have seen Mr. Dexter Johnson or Dex today he turned 70.

Happy birthday indeed, to Dex.

And they had quite a party evening at Wharton.

It's wonderful to see the community come together to celebrate such a special member of our community, Dexter Johnson.

And I'll be making a proclamation for Dexter Johnson Day tonight.

Now.

You see him out here working hard, keeping this floor absolutely spotless.

Dex, in my all right.

Standing.

I feel like I should probably take a I'm all right.

Yeah, you're okay.

I was teaching a grammar lesson, and.

So I called.

On Dexter because he was looking out the window.

I kept looking out at this guy, and this next guy was getting darker and everything, said, Dexter, what's the question?

Or what?

What am I asking?

What am I talking about?

And he said, Got to be some when hail and very heavy rain.

And I told everybody in the classroom, when you get to your car radios, just be aware that there may be a severe thunderstorm watch or even a good chance of a tornado watch.

Guess what happened?

And it did just that through a beautiful sunny day that it was when Dexter started talking about that.

Down, down came the rainstorm and it got dark.

And everybody in the classroom, Dexter was in the middle of the room.

They pushed their desks away from it.

I think they couldn't believe it.

I called that right?

So it was like a classic Dexter.

Moment Im Dexter Johnson.

And I am from Moline, Illinois, here all my life, that was I came here to the field house in the late 1950s or early sixties with my parents.

We'd always sit up in the north east corner there in section M row eleven seats one and two.

We had season tickets.

Then through the sixties and going into the early seventies, well, I'd sweep in here during the Thunder games and that nearly nine them sweep.

And that's ever since.

For these last three decades is what that is.

I can't remember if I attended a Johnny Cash concert.

He was here a few times then that day and I know him on May 20th of 1960.

Had Johnny Horton here too, and that Johnny Horton had written a lot of music for John Wayne's through.

Well, the one one part of it would be 64/65 when the Moline varsity team went undefeated and that here at home I had home at least hear what the home games and the course that Herb Thompson's first year of coaching here And then also to 71/72 when I'm a senior here we had an undefeated home season do well there was a WWF like thing here in the nineties wrestling here then I was here at all the all star wrestling here when I was in school here in the late sixties, early seventies and were familiar.

It weren't gonna go the crusher the Vachon brothers the Mitsu Arakawa and his brother and you had Billy red Lyons ther and you had Dr. X here at that time.

But then here in the mid nineties here the first part of the nineties I was here that was I think they were called, called WWF at that time, that and Hulk Hogan was here.

and I was able to talk with them for a while about things.

Yeah.

What Wharton means to me is this is the place that I was able to end my working career and say that I was able to work in and take care of one of the best places in the country to watch high school activities and not just the basketball games.

We used to do our graduations here.

We and I understand because of the crowding situation, we had to move away from that a little bit.

But this is just a place that that if you look at the old movies, Hoosiers, this is the type of field house Hoosiers filmed in.

And it's it's huge.

There are very few facilities you can go to watch a high school basketball game.

That is the history around here.

They used to have all the concerts and stuff.

People don't know that this was a place where all the political figures came.

They don't come here anymore.

They go elsewhere.

And I think that's we're losing that as a community.

But I'm hoping that this will help reinvigorate Wharton Field house, not just for the Moline residents and students, but, you know, the entire Quad Cities.

This is one of those things that when they tour busses from the cruise ships go out.

This is the place that there actually would be people interested in coming to see the tour.

And my husband, Bob Moore, the book is dedicated to him.

He was the announcer at Moline High School for the Wharton Field house right here, and he was the announcer for 25 years.

People used to call him the voice of Wharton Field house And when we started dating, and then after I was married to him, we would sit I would sit right next to him.

And it always amazed me that he was so calm and never got upset with any of the calls at all that came from the officials.

And that after we he retired in 1991 from here because he retired from teaching at Moline High School, we got season tickets and all of a sudden an official made a call that he thought was wrong.

And he stood up and he was yelling.

And I said, Where'd that come from?

And he said, Well, I couldn't do it.

When I was announcing.

My dad played basketball for Moline prior to Wharton being built.

He played in 1924, surprisingly, 100 years ago, and he was a big fan, as most people were at that time.

When we wrote the book, both Jack and I wrote a dedication and I dedicated my portion of it to my father and I would like to read that at this time, Dad would get up from his chair, walk over to the radio and turn it off with a notch enough force to make the little Philco shake.

He'd sit back down, take a sip of Falstaff, pick up his cards and continue the gin game.

Mom didn't say a word.

She'd put down her cards, take a puff on her cigarette, look at him, and then look at the ceiling.

She was.

She knew there was no point in saying anything because she knew what was going to happen next.

After all, it had happened 100 times before.

They'd play a hand or sometimes two, and then Dad would be up again, this time to turn on the radio.

The card game stopped as he listened.

He could tell immediately by the announcers tone or by the sound of the crowd what was going on if bowling was back in the lead or if they were playing better.

The radio stayed on.

If the game was still headed south, he'd shut the radio off sit down and a process would repeat itself.

When I was growing up, this is how my parents spent Friday and Saturday nights when I'm all in basketball team was out of town.

I might have thought my dad's actions were unusual if I had known that all my friends dads are acting in a similar manner There wasn't a bigger Moline fan than Dad.

He played for the Maroons before Wharton was built, and each winter he like folks all over town, followed the team's fortunes with a vengeance.

He went to all the home games and if tickets were available he went to the local away games as well.

During World War Two, he walked to work to save his gas coupons just in case the Maroons went to State and they did three out of four years.

Dad, my grandmother who lived with us, got along famously except for two or sometimes three times a year.

The days when Moline played Rock Island.

She was from Rock Island, you see, and she backed the rocks.

On these occasions, whoever was on the losing side would take great pains to avoid the other.

In a good natured ribbing that was soon to follow.

On one occasion, Dad got sick and was hospitalized as he sat in the hospital room, he realized that Moline was playing Rock Island.

That night.

My mother was dispatched to the house and returned with a radio.

Moline won the game and dad was released.

The next day.

Mom told her friends that the wind did more than the doctors to improve his condition.

To my dad and all the thousands of Moline fans past and present who have lived and breathed maroon basketball.

This book is dedicated.

In more ways than one.

Wharton is a tent, a safe environment where people can go to feel connected and comfortable.

Its endurance is a testament to the welcoming atmosphere present to all strangers and regulars.

Victories and devastations have been witnessed in the stories of each and every one.

Enhancing The overall experience.

Wharton's story will go on just as the memories and emotions associated with it.

The more happenings that occur and overlap, the deeper the connections to Wharton become.

The future of Wharton is bright and endures through each day and every night.

The noise it shelters, no matter its loudness, will forever and live its energy and energy that will carry it further into the lasting memory as a house of legacy.