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McPherson's Brian Henson goes in for a dunk in action from a game back during the 1990-91 season at the Roundhouse, which is undergoing a facelift.
By STEVE SELL, Sentinel Sports Editor

New bleachers signal end of an era
Oh, if those old wooden bleachers could only talk, what wonderful, historic tales they could tell about the greatest high school basketball players in Kansas history.

This week, the replacement of the original wooden bleachers in the McPherson High School Roundhouse got under way. The Roundhouse opened during the 1963-64 school year and the pull-out wooden bleachers have been in place ever since.

But in a summer project, the charm of the old wooden bleachers will be replaced by modern, red, plastic bleachers.

The wooden bleachers are the last reminder to an era of McPherson basketball that probably will never be duplicated.

While this editor has been on the scene for 25 years, we never really saw the infamous "Roundhouse crowds." That was the golden age of basketball attendance, with the last year probably being when Antoine Carr played in his final McPherson Invitational back in 1979.

Sure, the Steve Henson era in the middle 1980s, then the magnificent run of championship teams in the 1990s, filled the arena close to capacity. But in our 25 years of covering basketball, we can only remember a handful of games where the grand old lady would have caused the fire marshall to look away as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, this was the only game in town and you either went to basketball games or stayed home. Now, there are so many other things to do, going to MHS basketball games is an afterthought to some. We still have great crowds by other towns' standards, but we don't run up the numbers like the old days.

Kathy Heidebrecht, a teacher at MHS whose classroom is just a stone's throw from the gym, related to us how the crowds used to be.
"Back then (when Wichita Heights brought its great teams to town), during many games every aisle was filled with bodies, so once you got sat down, you had better stay there," Heidebrecht related to us. "Walking around the top of the Roundhouse (a walkway about six to seven feet across) required manuevering among spectators standing in rows about six-deep back from the railing.

"I can remember trying to get to the Activity Center and having to walk through a path only shoulder wide there along the top of the Roundhouse. Children, especially, but adults, too, would sit on the half circle on the gym floor in front of the bleachers along the long side of the basketball court. I remember it being said that we had over 4,000 in that Roundhouse at times. It is only supposed to hold in the upper 2,000s, I think."

Heidebrecht said she is saddened to see the old bleachers go. "Seeing the beautiful Roundhouse turned into a Picasso abstract of oddly placed bleachers, I don't want to even think about that," she said.

MHS Athletic Director Chris Ruder said there wasn't much choice but to replace the bleachers. They had become dangerous, as the wood on many had rotted. Also, Ruder said, the company that supplied the parts for the bleachers no longer is in business. It took a lot of manpower to pull out the bleachers, something that will be somewhat alleviated with the new bleachers, which will include an electric pull.

Ruder said the Roundhouse will look a little different when the season unfolds next year, but one positive is that each seat area will be wider, going from 9 1/2 to 12 1/2 inches. There will still be quality reserved seating, and he believes the new seats will be more comfortable. Also, the old seats had open gaps, while the new seats will have zero gaps.

Ruder said there shouldn't be much difference in the seating capacity. Maybe with the dawning of the "new" Roundhouse, some new memories can be made. And maybe there will come a day when McPherson basketball fans will flock back and continue the proud history, which is something our city has become famous for throughout the state. Mention McPherson in another town and the response often is, "Oh, that basketball town."