A Trip to DeKalb for NIU Basketball-- Part 5: The Chick Evans Field House and Convocation Center

After checking into the Red Roof Inn on Lincoln Highway, we drove over to the Convocation Center, usually referred to as the Convo Center.  Evidently, no company or person has paid to have it named after them as of yet.

The Convo Center replaced the Chick Evans Field House at the corner of Lucinda and Annie Glidden roads.  The Chick Evans Field House is a 6,000 seat indoor facility that opened in 1956 and until the Convo Center, was where the NIU Huskies basketball teams played.  They played there while I was a student from 1969 to 1973.  And, we had some pretty good teams back then.

This is also where major concerts were held, including the Neil Diamond and Elton John ones that Liz and I saw.

Chick Evans, however, was more like an oversized high school basketball facility with nothing but bleacher seats.  What we needed to grow our basketball programs was a bigger, more modern facility.

The new facility seats 10,000 and is west of Chick Evans Fieldhouse and nearer to the Lincoln Highway.  A good description of it is that it is a really big round white building.

The Convo Center opened in 2002 and I saw the first NIU basketball game that played there as well as Bill Cosby, who had the first non-athletic event.  I can still remember his first words in the show.  He said he was flown into the DeKalb air port on a small plane and a girl approached him and handed him an ear of corn and said, "Welcome to DeKalb."  We're kind of known for corn out in the area.

Yeah, Bill.  Real Corny.   --RoadVo