{"id":44385,"date":"2025-07-29T05:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T05:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/44385\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T05:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T05:51:11","slug":"return-to-rec-games-add-historical-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/44385\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Return to Rec&#8217; Games Add Historical Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recreation Building, better known as Rec Hall, is an historic, 96-year old athletic facility on the Penn State campus that is still the primary home venue for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s volleyball teams, the men\u2019s and women\u2019s gymnastics squads and the <a href=\"https:\/\/nittanysportsnow.com\/psu-wrestling\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">wrestling team.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AC9h4nqWXQB8lRkP4MVA_bePWka2HMh3qfvwQ_UeVQiv7mvBMH_ohtyKc_wj2HaAQAGTybJIwNRZZgIootAJ01PsoY1puSiedBZ5.webp\" alt=\"Photo\" width=\"373\" height=\"280\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Rec Hall, which opened Jan. 15, 1929, has been home to 42 national championship PSU teams.<\/p>\n<p>13- Men\u2019s Gymnastics\u00a0 13 \u2013 Men\u2019s Wrestling<\/p>\n<p>3 \u2013 Men\u2019s Boxing\u00a0 2 \u2013 Men\u2019s Volleyball<\/p>\n<p>8 \u2013 Women\u2019s Volleyball\u00a0 \u00a0 2 \u2013 Women\u2019s Gymnastics<\/p>\n<p>1 \u2013 Women\u2019s Bowling<\/p>\n<p>Since 2013, both basketball programs have played select games in Rec Hall to recapture the history, high-energy and intensity that the 6,846-seat venue provides for basketball games. They are called the \u2018Return To Rec\u2019 games.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdvb2dsZWFwaXMuY29tL2dvcHN1c3BvcnRzLXByb2QvMjAyNC8wNy8wMy8zMWxZdnhEcnBWSEI3QnZl.webp\" alt=\"Nittany Lions Stun #12 Illinois in Epic Rec Hall Comeback\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\"\/>The men\u2019s team started the \u201cReturn To Rec\u201d series Dec. 14, 2013 when it hosted Princeton. The game ended up being an overtime thriller, Penn State lost to the Tigers 81-79. Then during the 2015-2016 season, PSU hosted Canisius and Louisiana Monroe and won both games 81-67 and 54-50, respectively. No. 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/team\/_\/id\/356\/illinois-fighting-illini\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Illinois<\/a> came to experience the aura of Rec Hall and left disappointed after being upset by Penn State 90-89 in February 2024. Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/team\/_\/id\/194\/ohio-state-buckeyes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ohio State<\/a> handled the raucous environment and beat PSU 83-64.\u00a0 Penn State\u2019s overall record in the \u2018Return To Rec\u2019 series is 3-2.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdvb2dsZWFwaXMuY29tL2dvcHN1c3BvcnRzLXByb2QvMjAyNS8wMS8zMS9WcklhQTRYZ1BVeDFZU3g3.png\" alt=\"Men\u2019s Basketball Falls to Ohio State in Rec Hall\" width=\"472\" height=\"189\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The women\u2019s team also joined the \u201cReturn To Rec\u201d series when it hosted No. 2 Ohio State Feb. 22, 2024. They lost this matchup 82-69 and then lost last year\u2019s game against No. 14 Maryland 82-73.<\/p>\n<p>Win or lose, make no mistake, the smaller more intimate environment in Rec Hall presents a home-court advantage. Men\u2019s basketball\u2019s overall record at Rec Hall is 518-184. The women\u2019s team is a phenomenal 203-34. Even though their new home,\u00a0 the Bryce Jordan Center, seats 8,415 more fans than Rec Hall, the electricity and the close proximity to the court at Rec Hall is unmatched. Hopefully, both basketball programs continue \u2018Return To Rec\u2019 this upcoming season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recreation Building, better known as Rec Hall, is an historic, 96-year old athletic facility on the Penn State&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,35289,831,8667,398,400,401,35290,35291,99],"class_list":["post-44385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-carolyn-kieger","tag-featured","tag-mike-rhoades","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-penn-state-mens-basketball","tag-penn-state-womens-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}