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The Tartan floor was replaced with another Tartan floor in the mid 1970s before the current wood floor was installed in 2000.

Led by legendary head coach Joe Hutton, Sr., the Pipers won National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics (NAIA) Championships in 1942, 1949, and 1951. Hutton’s career spanned 50 years, 34 of which were spent at Hamline (1931ą1965). During that time, Hutton won more games than any other Hamline coach. His overall record stands at 588-186.

He coached the Pipers to 12 NAIA tournament appearances and 19 MIAC Championships (won or shared). Under Hutton, Hamline’s total MIAC record was 347-99.

Seven “Huttonmen” went on to professional basketball careers after their collegiate days. Hutton’s seven pro players were John Norlander, Howie Schultz, Rollie Seltz, Hal Haskins, Vern Mikkelsen, Jim Fritsche, and Joe Hutton, Jr. Hutton also had the opportunity for a professional career, but in 1949, Hutton turned down a chance to coach the Minneapolis Lakers to stay at Hamline and coach his older son.

Hutton retired in 1965 and in 1986, the fieldhouse was renamed the Joe W. Hutton Arena in honor of his phenomenal career at Hamline.

Joe Hutton, Sr. was the first coach selected to the Helms Foundation Hall of Basketball Immortals, an honor which three of his players later shared.

In 1986, he was named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame and in 1987 to the NAIA Hall of Fame.

Hamline University is known as the “birthplace of intercollegiate basketball.” Hamline hosted and played in the world’s first intercollegiate basketball game on February 9, 1895. The Pipers took on the School of Agriculture, which was connected with the University of Minnesota, losing by a score of 9-3. Though the rules and the way the game was played are different from today’s game, the game was truly a historic moment, not only for Hamline, but for the future of collegiate basketball.

State Fair Coliseum

Hamline’s men’s and women’s hockey programs both call the Minnesota State Fair Coliseum their home.

The men’s team first started playing in the facility in the mid-1970s, while the women’s team started during the 2000ą01 season, when they were officially named a varsity team.

The Coliseum was finished by the time the 1951 Minnesota State Fair opened, and it was one of the last white, art decoąstyle buildings that gave the fair the unique look it has today.
With its curved roof and unique design, the Coliseum represents a later stage of the modernistic design than the angled and faceted buildings of the WPA period.

The building was created in the postwar period and was designed to show a look toward the future. It
represented the feeling of a new technological tomorrow.

Besides hosting horse shows, trade show events, auctions, and other such things, the Coliseum has also been used heavily as a hockey arena during the winter months. The building first started to host hockey in 1976 and over the years has been home to other MIAC teams such as St. Thomas, and a list of others.
In recent years, the other MIAC teams who also called the sheet of ice at the Coliseum their home have moved out of the facility. Hamline is now the only tenant of the Coliseum for collegiate hockey.

The rink size itself measures 85 feet by 200 feet. The Coliseum can hold around 5,000 people for hockey games. The Pipers also have a small on-site athletic training room.

Gymnastics training center and Bush swimming pool

Hamline’s gymnastics team trains in the gymnastics facility that is located within Walker Fieldhouse. The facility offers more than 6,500 square feet of space to accommodate all the standard competitive equipment, including: a 52-foot resi-pit for uneven bars, tumbling and vaulting 30-foot TumblTrak, Nissen Goliath Trampoline and an extra-long channel bar.

The Pipers’ Olympic-sized Bush Student Center Swimming Pool is located within the overall structure of Walker Fieldhouse and Hutton Arena.