Those of us who were around when it was built may have a difficult time regarding it as an “old building,” and by no means is it ready for the wrecking ball.

But a look at the schedule reveals that just two more regular season Doane basketball games will be played in Fuhrer Fieldhouse, bringing a close to the first four decades of its existence.

The Tiger women’s and men’s teams will play their final regular season doubleheaders Feb. 17 and 20 against Midland Lutheran and Dordt; the only basketball action it’s likely to see after that would be possible home-site games in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Tournament later this month.

Next season, the Doane volleyball and basketball teams will turn the page and begin play in the new Haddix Center, which is taking shape a couple of hundred yards south of the fieldhouse on the site of the old practice fields.

Let’s plan in the next few weeks to take a look back — and a look ahead — at the building that has been the home of Tiger basketball since 1970.

I remember paying a visit to the construction site in what must have been the fall of 1969. The building site had been carved out of a wooded pasture to the east of Simon Field.

The walls were up and the concrete floor had just recently been poured. Other than that, it was a rather unremarkable, big metal barn.

I couldn’t figure out what the rectangular hole in the floor was for in the southwest corner of the arena; when advised it was “a place where naughty basketball players are put,” I nodded silently. The concept of a penalty box for basketball was an aspect of the game I was, in my admittedly limited experience of it at that point, not aware of.

Eventually the beans were spilled and it was explained that the depression would be filled with sand or some other cushy substance and used as a landing pit for long and triple jumpers.

Before too much longer, inside finish work was completed and a green Tartan track and slick tan basketball surface were installed. At the time (we were still basking in the glow of the first moon landings, remember), this was cutting-edge, space-age stuff. Channel 10 sent their sports director down to see the building, and a still picture of him standing on the track was aired on the 6 o’clock news.

Indoor track meets were still being held in old stock barns on clay tracks or on temporary wooden tracks (or not at all) in the years leading up to the opening of Fuhrer Fieldhouse. When you went to an older “fieldhouse” in the 1950s or ‘60s, you were often going into what was essentially a field inside a big house.

So yes, this new fieldhouse was a big deal. Not very many Doane-sized colleges (or universities, for that matter) in this part of the country had anything like it.

Early track meets (first men only, then separate men and women for the first few seasons) featured a curious technology for the pole vault landing pit called “Cloud Nine.” Instead of falling onto a foam pit, vaulters would be swallowed up inside a large inflatable structure. Kind of like a bounce house for pole vaulters.

The art and science of running tight curves was still evolving. More than a few times, a quarter-miler just hitting top speed would go a bit wide into the first curve (and then get hip-checked right into Room 23!).

Basketball games were also an entirely new kettle of fish in the fieldhouse. Teams accustomed to playing in small, cramped gyms would be thrown for a loop in the fieldhouse because it was so wide-open. Shooters’ perspectives and sight lines were changed dramatically, and it wasn’t easy for opposing teams to shoot well until they got used to it. (By then, it was often too late).

The Doane Holiday Basketball Tournament drew big crowds in the first years of the fieldhouse. Eight high school teams and four college teams (all boys and men at the time) would play over a three-day schedule during the week after Christmas.

We’ll continue our Fuhrer Fieldhouse reminiscences as February rolls along, but if you have something to add, shoot me an e-mail and I’ll add it into the mix.

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A thumbs-up for good sportsmanship off the court goes to Doane men’s basketball coach Ian Brown and his staff for rescuing the Hastings men’s team last week as the Broncos were on their way to Fremont to play Midland.

The Hastings bus suffered a breakdown not far from Crete (closer to Crete than Hastings, at any rate), and Brown and Company, who had a home game later that night, responded to Hastings coach Lance Creech’s call for help by delivering Doane vans to the stranded Broncos so they could continue their trip.

Hastings went on to defeat Midland 129-124 in quadruple overtime, and the Broncos’ Jeremiah Slough scored a conference-record 61 points.