Erwin Center sent out with a packed crowd

The Frank Erwin Center, home of the Texas Longhorns since 1977, saw its final men’s home game on Monday night when the No. 3 Baylor Bears topped the No. 21 Texas Longhorns, 68-61.

[Subscribe to Inside Texas today and get a FREE 7-day Plus trial!]

The first game in the Drum was an 83-76 Texas win over the rival Oklahoma Sooners on November 29, 1977. Since then, Abe Lemons, Bob Weltlich, Tom Penders, Rick Barnes, Shaka Smart, and Chris Beard have walked the sidelines right by Interstate 35, and many of the 16,450 in attendance Monday undoubtedly saw the bookends of Longhorn basketball at 1701 Red River.

“Obviously the outcome of the game is disappointing for us, but it can’t and should not take away from the last game ever at the Erwin Center,” Beard said postgame. “A sellout, a great environment, two top 25 teams playing. I thought it was a great game and I thought it was a great atmosphere.

“Seeing all the people come in, the Erwin family, Cooley family, so many people in town, former players, the texts and emails we’ve gotten the past couple of days, I know our players and our team wanted so badly to try and win this game for people other than ourselves.”

Frank Erwin Jr., the former UT board of regents member for who the arena is named, was represented by his son, Frank Erwin III. The Cooley family was represented by two daughters of the legendary heart doctor for whom the Texas practice facility is named.

Several former Longhorns, notably TJ Ford, were in attendance. Non-basketball dignitaries like Colt McCoy and Jordan Shipley made their way into the venue. As it has been at several junctures throughout the 2021-22 season, the Erwin Center was filled and often on its feet in response to the play on the court.

That hasn’t always been the case in the Erwin Center. It has long been lambasted prior to Beard’s arrival for how docile the arena can be. When a winner is walking the halls, it fills up. But the sheer number of seats, 16,540, is tough for any basketball program to fill without a consistently exciting or winning product. That product hasn’t been there as much as Texas would hope over the last decade.

To Beard’s credit, the 2021-22 team has won 16 of 19 games at home and made tremendous efforts to reach out to the Austin and University of Texas communities.

“I thought we turned the corner a little bit and made our first stake in the ground as we built our program,” Beard said. “We did a lot of things with attendance this year, and we’ll look forward to really flipping it next year in year two.”

His “Unite the Family” campaign pointed all season to the final gathering of men’s basketball fans at the Erwin Center. Though Texas couldn’t leave the building with a win, it points to the momentum Beard has built through sellouts, student outreach, and a successful first season.

“There will be a time to reflect here in several weeks, but no doubt, we’re super proud of what we developed with the home court advantage this year,” Beard said. “Super appreciative of the fans and all the people that worked on it internally, in the city, administration, ticket office, everybody. It’s a team effort.”

After the game, Beard joked he wanted Monday to be “wrench night,” meaning people could take seats and other trinkets from the arena set to be torn down for Dell Medical School purposes. He plans to take a few of the orange seats, but it’ll have to wait until Vic Schaefer’s women’s team is through with its season (the Lady Longhorns play Saturday in the final regular season event in the Erwin Center).

The next home of Longhorn basketball, the Moody Center, sits just north of the Erwin Center and is scheduled to be completed in a few months. It’ll hold fewer people than the Erwin Center and will attempt to split the difference between top-flight basketball facility and world-class concert venue for both the university and city communities.

There will be a good opener basketball-wise with Gonzaga. Will it sell out? Probably.

But before he says goodbye to the once-futuristic looking venue, what does Beard want to take with him from the old home? A few of the orange seats, as mentioned, but also one of the pictures he sees every day of the Erwin Center with a collection of cars from over 40 years ago gathered around.

“Straight 1979 Erwin Center,” he said.