A Special Place for Lady Vikings

In 1969 the State Basketball Tournament moved from the Macon City Auditorium to the new Macon Coliseum. The Macon Coliseum was, and still is, a cavernous place. I remember the first time I saw the inside of that building. Coach Carter took the team over to get a feel for the place - it seems like we went to see a Hawks exhibition game. The wall that divides the lobby from the open Coliseum was not there as it is now. You walked in and saw this huge expanse of seats and basketball floor that stretched on seemingly forever. It was an awesome view, and was the biggest place this 15 year old country girl had ever seen! I well remember the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought of playing basketball before a crowd in that huge place.

Little did I know what a special place the Macon Coliseum would become to my teammates and me over the next four years.

Our first game in the Macon Coliseum was the state game on March 20th, 1969. It was the second round of the state tournament; the first rounds were held at different locations around the state. Our first round game was held at Talbot County and we had beaten Toombs Central to advance to Macon. We had played the first round on March 15, so we had nearly a week to get ready for the second round, and the media had that week to tout the upcoming game as a "Dream Match." Our opponent was Doerun, the defending state Class C champions. The Lady Vikings were the defending state Class B champions. The game was billed as the contest that should probably be the final of the three day tournament in Macon instead of the first.

The basketball court at the Macon Coliseum was a removable one and I remember the joke among the players was that if we could all just get on the court without tripping over the raised edge as we ran in from the locker rooms, everything would be all right. The ball dribbling on the court had a strange sound, the voices of our guards hollering "Screen," "Get Through," drowned out in the air, and it was very hard to get your depth perception as you shot at the clear backboards against that expanse of space between goalpost and bleachers. But I'd say the Lady Vikings overcame those obstacles fairly well.

The "Dream Match" against Doerun quickly became a nightmare - for them. Our guards held their forwards to only 3 points in the whole first quarter, while our forwards scored 19 points. Senior Sissy Riley scored 35 points that night, and the guards, as usual, were awesome. Although Doerun kept trying to catch up, that early lead was too big and we ended up winning that first game in the Macon Coliseum 63 - 39.

The Macon Coliseum is close to forty years old and it's still a good place for basketball games. The court still has that hollow sound as players dribble down court and the shooters still probably have trouble with depth perception as they try to score. It's a special place with special memories for Lady Vikings.