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| Photo Courtesy of Furman University/Harper Corporation |
Timmons Arena Re-Imagined: Furman's newly renovated arena is the latest state-of-the-art mid-major basketball venue
For Furman basketball, it's been a long road and it's more about capitalizing on the rare opportunity to win on the biggest stage of the NCAA Tournament coinciding with large donations from major benefactors that have resulted in an upgraded home floor for Furman Basketball.
Some will call it the house that Bob Richey renovated, and while that is true, it also was major donations from the original donor--the Timmons Family--and a 10-million dollar donation from Ravenel Curry III during Furman's championship season, which saw it return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 43 years in 2023 that also had as much to do with it as the winning done by Richey, Mike Bothwell and Jalen Slawson.
However, all three of those combined factors have led to where Timmons Arena is present day, which is in the process of having the finishing coat of paint applied in preparations for August of 2025, which is when the team will officially begin to use the upgraded, state-of-the-art facility.
Furman's 2024-25 season was not just challenging from the fact that it lost 70.8% of its scoring from the 2023-24 season, it was also challenging because every game seemed like a road game. The most challenging part of the season, however, might not have been even the significant personnel losses, but rather playing in an unfamiliar facility for its home games throughout the 2024-25 campaign.
Originally, the plans for Timmons Arena for it to become the most state-of-the-art venue in the Southern Conference when the past laid plans were put together and the idea of an on-campus facility were first realized some three decades ago.
However, the reality is the conception of the idea of creating a multi-purpose on-campus facility that housed both home basketball games, as well as other things like concerts were easier said than done, and somewhere along the way, the signals got mixed and the design caused far more issues than it did provide the kind of game experience and overall experience for the fan than had been originally conceived in the idea of it.
Adding to the frustrations was the state of the Furman basketball program playing within the oddly shaped facility with pull-out bleachers and teal green railing that obstructed the first couple of rows on the second level was that the Paladins had struggled to produce a consistent winning product on the hardwood. Furman's basketball team was not a team to be reckoned with, and thus, the arena wasn't a venue feared by teams around the league to visit. Other than the poor shot sight lines, from 1998-2015, Furman's Timmons Arena was a place that was not a place that evoked fear into the opposition.
Fast-forward 28 years after the first game was played in the arena and a solution has been made to figure it all out and make the arena what it was originally to be--a multi-purpose facility that is one of the most state-of-the-art venues in the SoCon.
Following a 40-million dollar renovation and complete re-configuration of the arena, the Paladins are set to re-enter their old venue following a 25-win season following a 2024-25 campaign that saw the Paladins have to travel to all of their road games.
For years, fans and opponents complained about everything from the arena's odd design to the shooting site lines, which was a problem for plenty of opposing head coaches. Alterations were made to both seating and other parts of the facility were enhanced with backdrops and seating areas for fans with VIP seating, which even featured a Wicked Weed beer garden and seating behind each basket. That helped hide most from the extreme amount of space that had to be compensated for due to the original design of the arena, which essentially placed a 94-foot hardwood floor inside of a trapezoid, which was tilted on its size with how the court fit inside the strange design.
When it first opened some of the seating was fine, but certainly there were issues. Especially with the pull-out bleachers and space left over, as well as other minor ones that involved the railing obstructing the overall view for fans in the first few sections on the second level. That caused constant battles for the security and fans in attendance, as throughout the game the usher had to continuously return to their seat after standing to watch the game at the railing, which of course obstructed the view for those sitting behind that said fan.
Still, there were some early sellout crowds that even with the awkward seating, when teams like South Carolina and Georgia paid visits, fans were willing to put up for a little of that awkwardness to see a game, and it was usually fans that showed up to see either the Gamecocks and Bulldogs rather than the Paladins.
The arena's odd design also made for some rather strange acoustics, especially when it came to having concerts in this particular venue. While it was constructed to house both concerts and basketball, in recent years it's proven to be far more the basketball and graduation venue, rather than being one to host concerts.
Modeled after Charlotte’s Cricket Arena, the facility originally started out as a 5,500-seat arena, which seemed almost like a trapezoid, with end zone seating that extended behind each goal diagonally and there were places in the far corners of the arena that seemed almost light years away from the actual playing surface.
The opening of Timmons Arena during the 1997-98 season coincided with some pretty dark days for the Furman’s men’s basketball program, as it struggled to find its niche in its new on-campus facility alone with being competitive in the upper echelon of the Southern Conference more often than not.
Prior to the Arena opening its doors to the public on Dec. 30, 1997, the Furman men’s hoops program had made its home away from its current campus in the heart of its old one--downtown Greenville. The first basket from the field scored in the arena by Furman was a jumper from about 12-feet out made by Daniel Quigley, as Furman went on to a 72-69 win over Northeastern Illinois.
Following the 1997-98 academic year, Northeastern Illinois disbanded its athletic department. The Golden Eagles participated as an NCAA Division I program as members of the Mid-Continent Conference before the school decided to no longer sponsor athletics.
There's no word on just what opposition will provide the first test inside the new arena, but it is rumored that it could be another exhibition game similar to the one the Paladins played last October against a power conference foe when Furman welcomed eventual Final Four participant Auburn into The Well for a charity game to benefit Cleveland Park in downtown Greenville, which had suffered some damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene that had rolled through the Upstate of South Carolina a month earlier.
In this day and age, it is tough, especially for successful mid-majors to get major power conference foes to agree to playing a game at your home venue, so Furman's best option for a power conference foe to pay a visit might be an early exhibition game similar to what they were able to do last year with the exhibition hosting Auburn.
A History of Where the Paladins Called Home
They've been playing basketball at Furman University since 1908, and it's the third-oldest sport at the school, however, it was the first to be known as "The Paladins."
Up until 1961, the school didn't have one uniform mascot, as the now defunct baseball program was known as the "Hornets" and the football team was referred to as the "Purple Hurricanes" and the football team was the lone program referred as "The Paladins." The Paladin mascot would be the one that would eventually stick with all the school's sports teams.
Just like the oldest sport in school history--the football team--the Furman basketball team is also responsible for playing the first basketball game in state history, when on Oct. 30, 1908, the Paladins took on South Carolina and ended up claiming what was a 22-19 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks.
From 1952-1996, the Furman men’s basketball program played its home games in both Textile Hall (1952-58), and after that, the tradition of the ‘Downtown Dins’ continued at the Memorial Auditorium (1958-96).
During its hey-day of hoops in the late 1970s-early 1990s, Furman drew to Memorial Auditorium (1958-96) extremely well, with crowds anywhere from 2,500-4,000 fans the usual norm, while special circumstances, such as the time the Paladins hosted No. 10 East Tennessee State on Feb. 12, 1992, an overflow crowd of both Furman and ETSU fans witnessed the largest crowd to ever see Furman basketball game in its downtown home, as better than 5,000 fans were on hand to witness the Paladins record one of their biggest regular-season wins in program history, as Furman slid past Keith “Mister” Jennings and the East Tennessee State Buccaneers, 103-94.
The Memorial Auditorium even played host to the Southern Conference Basketball Championship on two occasions in both 1975 and ‘76, respectively, with the Paladins winning one of those two league titles (1975), while VMI (1976) claimed the other a year later.
Prior to its time hosting men’s hoops games at Memorial Auditorium, the Paladin basketball program hosted games at the Old Textile Hall, which 38 years prior to its monumental win over No. 10 ETSU, Furman’s own Frank Selvy did something that will live in college basketball lore for years to come, scoring 100 points in a 149-95 win over Newberry College in the first nationally-televised hoops game in the state of South Carolina. Just last November, Selvy, who is more affectionately known as the “Corbin Comet” was enshrined in the College Basketball Hall of Fame
On Feb. 26, 1996, Furman would play its final game in Memorial Auditorium, which saw the Paladins drop what was a 88-79 overtime loss to regular-season champion Davidson, closing out the old Brown Box in somewhat sad fashion for a place that had given Furman basketball so many joyful moments throughout the years.
Timmons Arena’s Inaugural Season
It’s often the case that a venue can conjure up great memories from the past just by its appeal to the senses as a whole. Many remember the great smell of popcorn and the feeling heat generated by the crowds packed inside the old Memorial Auditorium, and that was one of the first things I would come to miss as Furman transitioned its men’s home basketball venue from Memorial Auditorium to its temporary home of Herman Lay Physical Activities Center (PAC) on-campus, which could only accommodate about 850 spectators at full capacity.
The 1996-97 Paladins would just have to make do, and after a 10-17 season, it would be time for the hiring of a new head coach, as Joe Cantafio departed to make way for new head coach Larry Davis, who came aboard after serving as Clem Haskins’ top assistant at Minnesota from 1994-97.
The first-year head coach would also be a part of the Timmons Arena historical legacy, as he would be the head coach of the first Furman men’s basketball team to ever play in the venue, which was a 72-69 win over Northeastern Illinois, and would be the first of what figured to be many great memories to come in the facility.
With those 109 wins over the past nine seasons, the Paladins have won 43.4% of their total 251 total victories over the past nine campaigns. The Paladins have lost no more than three home games in any of the previous nine campaigns, including have lost no more than two on the home hardwood in each of the past five.
When the Paladins once played downtown, it was sometimes a challenge to get students from campus approximately six-and-a-half miles downtown to see games at the "Big Brown Box" as it was once affectionately known.
Back in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot for fans of college sports throughout the nation, Furman, which was under the direction of new Director of Athletics Jason Donnelly, made a dedicated effort to reconnect with the downtown fan and help cash in on Greenville's success as being one of the top cities in the southeast to move to.
With that forward vision by Donnelly, which also coincided nicely with a basketball program starting to hit its stride under head coach Bob Richey, it would lead to Furman re-visiting some of its former great moments it had enjoyed in down through the years, which included a record-setting crowd in 2022, as the Paladins drew 6,096 fans at Bon Secours Wellness Arena for what was a 67-66 win over defending SoCon champion Wofford on Feb. 22, 2020.
The culmination of the move back to getting downtown Greenville involved with a Furman program establishing a sustained winning tradition in real-time was playing the entire 2024-25 season in downtown Greenville, with Bon Secours Wellness Arena becoming Furman's official home away from home in the process.
The Paladins finished out the season with a 25-10 record, and played in three different venues during the season, as Furman got creative to engage a new and ever-changing city, while trying to bring basketball back to fans that at one time regularly attended games at Memorial Auditorium or Textile Hall, but had lost touch since Furman's move to an on-campus home.
Furman played twice on the campus of Bob Jones and once at the historic Legacy Charter College (formerly Parker High School Gym), which is the oldest high school playing facility in the Upstate. It added to the legacy and rich history that Furman basketball has worked hard to establish and maintain throughout the metropolitan downtown area of Greenville, which of course was also the home of Furman's campus until 1952.
The Paladins finished the 2024-25 season by posting what was a 13-3 record on three different temporary home venues while Timmons Arena underwent a 40-million dollar facelift. Since 1998, the Paladins have taken the floor 31 times at Bon Secours Wellness Arena (formerly known as the BILO Center), and have posted a 19-12 record at "The Well" all-time, which includes having won 15 of their past 19 games inside the facility.
According to Furman's Director of Athletics Jason Donnelly, "The Well" and fan engagement in greater downtown Greenville will continue to be a big part of Furman basketball in years to come.
"We've consistently had record-breaking attendance in The Well when we go downtown...against Wofford...and we're going to continue to invest in Greenville and have a desire to want to invest in Greenville, but we're going to be selective with what we do and how we go about it and it might not be next season, but if Duke called me tomorrow and told me that would come to Greenville and play Furman, and well that game would be at The Well, and so we're just going to evaluate it on who the opponent is and what the opportunity is," Director of Athletics Jason Donnelly said.
12/26/98 Clemson^ 57-64, L
11/16/99 Ole Miss# 61-75, L
11/17/99 South Carolina State# 77-58, W
The Evolution of Timmons Arena
If you've followed Furman basketball for the past three decades or more, you'll recall the many different evolutions of Timmons Arena.It has gone from being the exciting, new on-campus facility, to being an oddly shaped arena that offered Dippin Dots ice cream as one of its main perks along with bad acoustics to go with bad basketball, to being an arena that, over the past decade has become one of the most hostile facilities in the Southern Conference for the opposition to garner a win, and one that Furman and its fanbase have finally learned to embrace as home.
With the hiring of first Niko Medved prior to the 2013-14 season, and then some four years later, the hiring of Bob Richey, those two coaches have now elevated the program to not only one of the best in the Southern Conference, but also one of the best in mid-major basketball over the past 11 seasons.
Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Furman has been nearly unbeatable at Timmons Arena, posting what is a 109-19 record, which includes a 63-10 mark against Southern Conference foes. In all home venues over that same span, the Paladins have posted a combined mark of 127-24 since the start of the 2015-16 season.
The Paladins have made it a home, but it hasn't always been easy. Drawing the same hearty and loyal fanbase that once attended games in downtown Greenville at the Memorial Auditorium and before that, Textile Hall, has been a challenge and a constant work in progress.
Since Furman's rise to Southern Conference prominence over the past 11 seasons, the Paladins have also seen a rise in the level of opponent willing to come play at Timmons. Some high-profile mid-majors like Belmont (2022 and '23) and Loyola-Chicago (2019) have brought a certain excitement that the program lacked in the previous two decades of existence.
Sure, Furman had hosted the likes of power conference foes like South Carolina, Georgia and Clemson before, as well as welcoming in stars like generational talent Stephen Curry from former Southern Conference rival Davidson, or a College of Charleston team on the verge of being ranked in its first season as a league member in 1998, however, never before had the buzz been about Furman basketball from a fan's perspective.
During those days prior to Furman's turnaround as a program, which dates back to its run all the way to the tourney title game as the No. 10 seed in 2015, fans were most often filling the Timmons Arena seats and pullout bleachers to see the opposition--be it South Carolina, Clemson or Georgia, or Curry or that record-setting CofC team from 1998-99.
If you could chart a defining turnaround for Furman basketball, it might be the 2016 CIT buzzer-beating win over Louisiana Monroe, with Daniel Fowler knocking down the game-winning shot. Others might say it came in a loss to close the 2014-15 regular-season, which saw the Paladins drop a 62-60 contest to Wofford, who would end up repeating as Southern Conference champions in 2015.
Whatever the case, the 251-105 all-time record inside the facility, despite the hiccups of shortcomings of it over the years has been one of the better home records in the league over the better part of the past three decades.
All-Time Seasonal Home Records at Timmons Arena:
1997-98 6-4
1998-99 8-4
1999-00 10-3
2000-01 6-5
2001-02 11-4
2002-03 10-5
2003-04 10-4
2004-05 11-2
2005-06 11-3
2006-07 9-3
2007-08 5-6
2008-09 6-7
2009-10 8-6
2010-11 11-2
2011-12 9-5
2012-13 5-9
2013-14 6-8
2014-15 7-7
2015-16 14-2
2016-17 11-3
2017-18 13-3
2018-19 13-3
2019-20 12-0
2020-21 11-1
2021-22 10-1
2022-23 12-2
2023-24 12-3
All-Time Timmons Arena Record
251-105
Timmons' New Look
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| Photo provided by Furman University/Harper Corporation |
If I were to describe the "new look" Timmons Arena, it would most likely not do it complete justice, as I know that with so many enhancements added to help make the fan experience more pleasurable, as well as other upgrades that were even catered to improve the overall experience of the visiting team, I know I would most likely leave out something major.
With that said, it's somewhat of a surprise to hear that Director of Athletics Jason Donnelly detail that the upgrades made to Timmons Arena were not only a want, but also a need. There was a lot that went into the plans to upgrade Timmons Arena, and according to Donnelly, there were even considerations of building a brand-new arena, which would have costs at minimum likely double what a total upgrade would cost.
With that said, one of the advantages that Donnelly and his staff had was the ability to look at recent upgrades within mid-major basketball within the area, with the southeast playing host to several of the best mid-major atmospheres in college basketball within driving distance. Places like High Point, Wofford and Elon were a few of the more recent upgrades, while others like College of Charleston, which first opened in 2008, was also considered for its design and overall atmosphere.
Add to that the fact that Donnelly came from Villanova, where he was able to head up and oversee the upgrade of Finneran Pavilion, which first opened in 1986, but was renovated in May of 2017 and re-opened in the fall of 2018. As fate would have it, the third game inside the revamped Finneran Pavilion for the defending national champions would just happen to be against Bob Richey's Furman Paladin team, which handed the Wildcats a 76-68 overtime setback early on in the season.
It was a crossroads for Donnelly, who had overseen the plans to upgrade Finneran Pavilion, and would end up being the one to lead the upgrade in his post as the Director of Athletics at Furman a few years later.
"One of the advantages I kind of had with the renovation for Timmons Arena is that I was able to oversee the renovation project for Finneran Pavilion at Villanova as the senior associate athletics director and executive director of athletics development and so I had a chance before Timmons to go through that whole process of architectural design, fundraising, revenue generation, fan experience and one of the really cool things was the exploration of looking at other arenas and kind of figure out what we wanted to do."
"At Villanova, the mirror with Furman...At Villanova's facility, they had the size and the scale to be able to handle a major renovation and the two components there being that because it was in a suburban neighborhood (The Mainline) you couldn't expand the building and you couldn't change the seating footprint and the benefit for us at Furman is that we had a little more leeway and space to work with and so Timmons was actually built to be larger and so then it was really about maximizing space and maximizing the opportunity specific to Timmons and so the different buildings we looked at were everything from Villanova...we site visited...Xavier we site visited...The Cintas Center...Charleston, High Point, Wofford and Elon so we really knew what we wanted to accomplish with Timmons and the whole goal of the whole process was to make sure we maximized every possible space of the arena while also keeping a budget that would be realistic of the job at hand."
In my tour, which I took last week with Furman basketball sports information director Jordan Caskey and senior associate athletics director Erin Mayes, the new arena felt like a college basketball arena, and more importantly, when you drive on-campus through the back entrance of Furman, you know longer have to wonder where Timmons Arena is, as it is readily apparent from the entrance. A new glass entrance and mezzanine are a look of pure class, while a parkway highlighted by bricks with the names of major donors and other significant benefactors to Furman basketball are literally written brick-by-brick as you enter Furman's newly upgraded basketball palace.
One arena that wasn't mentioned by Donnelly or anyone associated with the project during my tour, but one of the arenas that the new Timmons Arena reminded me of was a smaller version of Neville Arena at Auburn.
Even in an empty arena it was evident that for the first time Timmons Arena was for the first time felt like an actual college arena. I think one of the big reasons for that is the natural enclosure on both ends of the arena, and the seating capacity, according to Mayes, will be right about 2,800 at full max capacity.
The most striking thing about the new arena is that from the outside and all the glass rising into the air. You know it's a basketball facility and you don't have to look for it. You know you have found the on-campus basketball facility, and the outside of the arena offers a glimpse of the newly fashioned aesthetic upgrades to the facility, and it also offers a preview of the all the surprises inside, which includes everything from new locker rooms for visiting teams and even auxiliary locker rooms should Furman host a multi-team event (MTE) in the future.
Also, for opposing SoCon head coaches that might be reading this, the shooting sight lines and backdrops are actually like a regular-arena now, and without so much space behind the goals, making it a much easier venue to adjust to than it previously was. In that seating behind the goals, it will be the new seating area and student zone similar to what you might see at places throughout the league, such as the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina or East Tennessee State's Freedom Hall.
For the fan experience, there are suites that are available to be rented out on game days, with my personal favorite being the one in the far corner of the arena that seats 12. It's the best vantage point in the facility. It was almost not a thing, as it was within six inches of the box not being able to be included in the arena. All told, the arena will feature eight private suites, two party suites and two premium club spaces in the Ingram Courtside Club and the Herring VIP Suite, as well as the Rogues Hospitality Deck.
For the fan of Furman's athletic history, there will be an interactive screen that you can access moments from Furman sports history, and that will include all sports and not just basketball. It's similar to a museum experience that you get some of the other schools that have major basketball programs that have been to, such as Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas or Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. At Timmons Arena just inside the concourse, a 30-foot screen that is interactive and will give a visual catalog of Furman's athletics history depending on the sport you choose and what moment or player you select.
When it comes down to it, Furman's vision is one that has hinged on the perfect storm of events, with the NCAA Tournament win over Virginia playing a major role in being able to help achieve such a goal for the 40-million dollar upgrade, and along with major gift donations of $10 million by Ravenel Curry III in January of 2023, as well as getting donations from the Timmons Family, which have now been a part of both the original plans for the on-campus facility for Timmons Arena, donating $4 million to the project back in 1998.
The Timmons family was also financially involved in the most recent upgrade, and as a bonus, head coach Bob Richey and Furman's first-round upset of No. 4 Virginia, 68-67, sealed the deal. You could say that the upgraded Timmons is the house that Curry, the Timmons Family, and head coach Bob Richey all had a major influence the original vision for an upgrade.
Finally, not only was the upgrade a necessity, but with schools like Wofford, High Point and Elon opening high-level facilities that are as appealing as any in mid-major basketball, there was an unspoken pressure for Furman to make a similar type of dedication to its declining basketball facility by either upgrading its current one or just starting again from scratch. The former was much more viable than the latter.
According to Donnelly, the facility is already paying dividends before even hosting one game or one event after its new facelift.
"The revenue impact of the facility is one thing people don't talk about is already making a difference. We've already exceeded any revenue numbers that we previously have ever had...We just started selling the building and we already have more opportunities with the building with recruiting, with retention, and for revenue that we've ever had before."
With seven regulars back and the second-most scoring production in the league behind only VMI, Furman figures to once again be among the favorites to claim the 2025-26 regular-season and tournament titles in the SoCon, and that will mesh nicely with the excitement building around such a nicely renovated, and now modernized and state-of-the-art Timmons Arena.
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