College Hoops

Top 10 basketball moments at the Norfolk Scope

Top 10 basketball moments at the Norfolk Scope

The Norfolk Scope is one of the most unique looking venues in American sports. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Tidewater Virginia’s grandest indoor venue for live events.

The Scope opened in November 1971, three years after construction began on the 11,000-seat venue and accompanying 2,500-seat concert space known as Chrysler Hall. Renowned Italian architect Pier Liugi, best known for the modernist buildings he created for the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics, brought his unique design sensibilities to the Scope.

The arena was named for the wide range of human endeavors its boosters planned to bring to the venue. The Scope has proven to be the magnet for fantastic live events that its founders had envisioned—everything from professional sports to college games to professional wrestling to rock concerts and religious revivals.

It has been a particularly esteemed venue for big time college basketball. Here are 10 of the greatest moments in the basketball history of the Norfolk Scope:

10. Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Men’s Basketball Tournament, 1979-1985, 1988-1990:

The Scope served as the home of the CIAA’s hotly contested conference basketball tournament for much of the 80s. Featuring teams primarily from the Mid-Atlantic, the CIAA is an NCAA Division II conference, which consists of historically black colleges. The most noteworthy NBA player to come through the CIAA tournament during this period was Virginia Union’s Charles Oakley, who was tournament co-MVP in 1985.

9. Norfolk State 122, Old Dominion 119 (OT), December 9, 1971:

Until Old Dominion jumped to Division I in 1977, the ODU-Norfolk State men’s basketball rivalry was one of the hottest tickets in Division II. These perennial powers battled for regional dominance for years, frequently spoiling one another’s shot at a national title in the 1960s and early 1970s. Quite fittingly, the first college basketball game at the Scope was a 122-119 overtime barnburner between the ancient Tidewater rivals played before a packed house. Norfolk State had the last laugh that afternoon but, four years later, Sonny Allen’s ODU club earned a degree of immortality for their basketball program, winning a Division II national title.

8. Old Dominion Lady Monarchs Women’s Basketball, 1980-Present:

Courtesy of Old Dominion University Athletics. Marianne Stanley posted a 416-222…

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