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The Physical Education Building sits on Greek Row Drive on March 1. The Movin\u2019 Mavs will permanently relocate to College Park Center.<\/p>\n
Photo by Maricela Gonzales<\/a><\/p>\n As the Physical Education Building nears its final sign-off, its more than 50 years of history at UTA has already begun to mythologize. With that mystique comes questions that frequent users have occasionally whispered: Is there really a gun range hidden beneath its floors?<\/p>\n The idea of a firing range tucked below the space is a fitting addition to the building\u2019s extensive \u2014 and often quirky \u2014 lore.<\/p>\n Cezar Olivas, assistant director for adaptive sports, said it is no rumor, but is shut off and sealed to the public eye.<\/p>\n On Feb. 12, the university announced plans to demolish the PE Building, the home court of the Movin\u2019 Mavs and Lady Movin\u2019 Mavs since their founding. Backed by the integration of UTA\u2019s wheelchair basketball programs into the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, the teams will be leaving their lifelong site to live in College Park Center with the rest of UTA\u2019s Division I teams.<\/p>\n As the transition nears, nostalgia and sentimentality are setting in for those who have used the facility, including some who said their time in the PE Building helped shape them.<\/p>\n Olivas shared a memory that has stuck with him since his days as a player under Jim Hayes, founder and longtime head coach of UTA\u2019s wheelchair basketball program.<\/p>\n Hayes would sit outside and smoke cigarettes by the back entrance, waiting for Movin\u2019 Mavs players to show up for practice, Olivas said.<\/p>\n After Hayes\u2019 death, he said, members of the team would talk about still seeing him sitting there waiting.<\/p>\n \u201cOn occasion, the talk was that when we round this corner, coming from Greek Row, that we could see somebody there,\u201d Olivas said. \u201cBut then there wasn\u2019t, because it can\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that current players wouldn\u2019t know Hayes as they did, but supposedly, newer Movin\u2019 Mavs players would still see cigarette butts in that same corner.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019ll be something that at least my era will definitely always talk about,\u201d Olivas said.<\/p>\n Hayes\u2019 dedication and passion for the team were tangible, so much so that he had his wake in the PE Building gym, an appropriate notion for the former coach, Movin\u2019 Mavs head coach Aaron Gouge and Olivas said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was quite fitting to see him go in that place where we spent so much time with him,\u201d Olivas said.<\/p>\n Walking into the building now, its faded walls \u2014 decorated with memorabilia from former wheelchair basketball teams \u2014 trap the distinct scent of the now closed pools, the smell filling the walkway. The sounds of balls bouncing and wheelchairs screeching on the distressed hardwood swell in the back of the building.<\/p>\n Before people enter the gym, one of the first things they\u2019ll come across walking inside is a shared office space for the Movin\u2019 Mavs and Lady Movin\u2019 Mavs, alongside a training room.<\/p>\n \u201cIf adaptive athletics had grown in any other building, aside from the PEB, it just wouldn\u2019t be the same,\u201d said Morgan Wood, Lady Movin\u2019 Mavs head coach. \u201cThere wouldn\u2019t be that sense of grit that we\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n Wood said a distinct sound that will forever remind her of the building is the buzzing of the old score clock still used at the gym. On the possibility of a gun range or any other oddities, she said anything is possible at the PE Building.<\/p>\n \u201cIf something has happened in your life, it\u2019s happened in the PEB,\u201d Wood said. \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot more than basketball in the PEB in my lifetime, just whatever you can think of as a college student that sounds fun, it\u2019s been done in the PEB.\u201d<\/p>\n Banners commemorating the Movin\u2019 Mavs\u2019 championship wins line the gymnasium Feb. 16 in the Physical Education Building. The wheelchair basketball programs have won 12 national championships.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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