#ThursdayDoors — Ball Gymnasium

Posted on August 3, 2017 by joey

Upon return to my old campus, I made several selections for #ThursdayDoors posts. This one is Ball Gymnasium, finished in 1925.
It’s currently where Burris Laboratory School plays. Burris is a K-12 school where Ball State’s teachers-in-training first teach.

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“Ball Gymnasium is an historic athletic and recreational complex with features that include an elevated indoor jogging track, swimming pool, basketball and volleyball courts, and fitness studios. From 1925 to 1963, the Ball Teachers College Cardinals (first dubbed Hoosieroons) played their home basketball games here.”

 

#ThursdayDoors is part of an inspired post series run by Norm Frampton. To see other doors of interest, or to share your own, click the link and find the frog.

About joey

Neurotic Bitch, Mother, Wife, Writer, Word Whore, Foodie and General Go-To-Girl
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61 Responses to #ThursdayDoors — Ball Gymnasium

  1. Benson says:
    August 3, 2017 at 7:52 AM

    Now that is an entry. The whole thing is impressive. Imagine if the brass was shined. Hoosieroons?!

    Liked by 2 people

  2. alongtheinterstice says:
    August 3, 2017 at 7:55 AM

    it has been a few years now that i left Muncie in my rearview mirror…now having some flashbacks. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Joanne Sisco says:
    August 3, 2017 at 8:06 AM

    ooo – I love a building that looks like it could be a chess piece! Beauty!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Norm 2.0 says:
    August 3, 2017 at 8:46 AM

    Lovely find. Gorgeous dark oak and smooth worn brass hardware. Joanne’s right, that central tower does look like it could be a chess piece 😀

    Liked by 1 person

  5. loisajay says:
    August 3, 2017 at 8:49 AM

    Those doors look amazing–and so many of them! I can imagine people streaming in and out…great post, Joey.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. vanbytheriver says:
    August 3, 2017 at 9:01 AM

    Very cool photos, I love going back to campus. And that gymnasium name…works with both capital and small “B”.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. coldhandboyack says:
    August 3, 2017 at 10:07 AM

    I look forward to this spot every week. You always share the coolest things. I think Hoosieroons is a great team name and they should have kept it.

    Liked by 1 person

    • joey says:
      August 3, 2017 at 10:19 AM

      Well that’s good to know, thanks 🙂
      I’m not a fan of Hoosieroons. We say Chirp Chirp cause we’re Cardinals, what would we say if we were Hoosieroons? 😛 Can you imagine? *bets you can*
      I’m glad you like them.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. jesh stg says:
    August 3, 2017 at 12:56 PM

    Beautiful series of doors! Love the combination of wood with metal. Seeing back one’s “old” school, my mind gets flooded with memories. Do you have that?

    Liked by 1 person

  9. JT Twissel says:
    August 3, 2017 at 1:21 PM

    They don’t make doors like that for schools anymore, that’s for sure. You’re brave – I hate returning to schools that I attended – except the university.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. Jewels says:
    August 3, 2017 at 1:34 PM

    Great set of doors! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  11. scr4pl80 says:
    August 3, 2017 at 2:01 PM

    What great doors!!

    Like

  12. Maggie Wilson says:
    August 3, 2017 at 2:42 PM

    Like how you present the photos from macro to closeup on the detail.
    Do I assume correctly that you passed through these doors in your first year as teacher-in-training?

    Liked by 1 person

    • joey says:
      August 3, 2017 at 3:41 PM

      Well, no, not exactly. This is a gym on Ball State’s campus, so I’ve been in there to walk the track with friends, but I never went to the gym as a teacher with students. Burris Laboratory school is another place entirely, but their sporting events are held at Ball Gym.Two separate places. But yes, I did teach at Burris several times, we all did 🙂
      I’m sorry if I didn’t make that clear. People are always asking what the building does now, so I wanted to include that.
      (Cause Ball State has a multi-million dollar arena now, and the Cardinals don’t play in Ball gym anymore.)

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Robert Matthew Goldstein says:
    August 3, 2017 at 5:08 PM

    That’s a great old building! it reminds me of Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library. It’s the same era. The library was finished in 1930.

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Dan Antion says:
    August 3, 2017 at 5:24 PM

    I’m gonna vent on your page cause Joey understands. WordPress is making me login to EVERY site I visit before I can like the post. Then, it’s making me login AGAIN and enter name, email and blog site EVERY time I want to comment !!! 😡😤

    Ok, back to you. I love that building and those doors! I can picture a mob of kids blowing through them. I can slmost hear it.

    This was a great Doors post.

    Liked by 1 person

    • joey says:
      August 3, 2017 at 5:48 PM

      Oh dang! I’m so sorry. The Mister has that experience QUITE often, and he does get ranty about it.
      I have been having to do that at Marian’s for so long. No autofill working, either. How awful is it that I sometimes skip commenting just so I won’t have to fill out three fields and click a box? Terrible.

      I’m glad you like the doors 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  15. Luanne says:
    August 4, 2017 at 6:44 PM

    Beautiful building and beautiful doors. Buildings like that do my spirits well. What will happen when most of them are gone :(?

    Liked by 1 person

    • joey says:
      August 5, 2017 at 1:07 PM

      May they never! Ball State University has an incredible architecture program, and these things are prized. Going away isn’t likely to happen to such an historical building there 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      • Luanne says:
        August 5, 2017 at 5:20 PM

        So glad to hear that. My school Western Michigan University had the entire original old campus left and they tore most of it down last year. We lost the fight to keep it. So sad.

        Like

        • joey says:
          August 5, 2017 at 5:43 PM

          Oh, that is VERY sad. Ugh.
          Many of BSU’s have had restoration and even interior gutting and overhaul, but their true character stays intact.

          Liked by 1 person

          • Luanne says:
            August 5, 2017 at 7:45 PM

            I love that. I wish we had been able to manage that at WMU. It doesn’t even fit with the Kalamazoo image, but I guess it was all about money.

            Liked by 1 person

            • joey says:
              August 6, 2017 at 1:36 PM

              So sad.
              I will say, given the dorm in which I got to see the interior, the renovation resulted in smaller rooms, which is obviously also all about money. I don’t know what it was like for you, if you dormed, but I didn’t sleep three feet from another student. Our room was fairly spacious.

              Liked by 1 person

              • Luanne says:
                August 6, 2017 at 3:41 PM

                Oh, that is a shame. Typical, though, because the average apartment size has gotten smaller as houses have gotten bigger! I lasted one night with a roommate at the dorm. She moved in ahead of me, and the window sill was already completely lined with cigarette butts. I applied for a private room the next day. It was a real shame because it isolated me too much, but I couldn’t have lived with that girl.

                Liked by 1 person

                • joey says:
                  August 7, 2017 at 8:47 AM

                  OH MY.
                  I took the single room for 5 semesters myself. I didn’t feel isolated, or I’m too introverted to care. I had QUITE the rotation of roommates before that. Oh the stories I could tell. Ugh. So drama. I only had one I really, really liked and she ran off to get married. *sigh*

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • Luanne says:
                    August 8, 2017 at 2:16 AM

                    You drove her off? hahaha, just kidding. I think it was that I had the single room after one day on campus. I hadn’t met a soul. And then I had to pay for the dorm myself and ran out of money after one semester and had to move home. So then I “ran off” and got married next year.

                    Liked by 1 person

  16. Judy E Martin says:
    August 5, 2017 at 1:01 PM

    I love these solid doors and the huge archway too!

    Liked by 1 person

  17. bedlamanddaisies says:
    August 5, 2017 at 8:00 PM

    Wow! I like details in the stonework. The doors are awesome. I love that the hardware is so well worn. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Jean Reinhardt says:
    August 6, 2017 at 2:07 PM

    A gym that looks like a castle, that’s so cool, Joey. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  19. marianallen says:
    August 7, 2017 at 11:23 AM

    LOVE the Burris Lab building! It’s like a freakin’ CASTLE!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. circadianreflections says:
    August 11, 2017 at 7:12 PM

    Those are some impressive and gorgeous doors! I love the whole building actually.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. reocochran says:
    August 13, 2017 at 11:53 PM

    This was so fascinating to me! So the education department uses this building for their practicing teaching? It’s almost midnight so if I have this wrong ignore my comments.
    Lucky Ball State education students!!
    This is a gorgeous building, really heavy duty wooden doors with beautifully aged brass bar handles and the arched area with Windows above these doors is a great “cherry on top” detail.

    Liked by 1 person

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