If there’s one thing Indiana takes seriously, it’s basketball. As it turns out, so do I! Us Hoosiers’ love affair with the game extends far beyond packed gyms on Friday nights- it’s reflected in the buildings themselves. Would you believe that thirteen of the fifteen largest high school basketball gyms in the United States are right here in Indiana1? Topping them all is the legendary New Castle Fieldhouse, a cathedral of high school hoops that can seat more fans than many college arenas.
New Castle has always been a basketball powerhouse, but in early days, the school’s teams played in crummy, makeshift gyms. Their first home court, from 1909 to 1911, was in a building at 123 North Main Street that later became home to the Grand Theater. New Castle’s second gym, from 1911 to 1917, was in the second floor of city hall. The third stood above New Castle’s Sears on Broad Street. The fourth was on Church2.
The Church Street Gym sat a scant 1,800 fans. It was a true crackerbox, and season tickets were only available for every other game3. By 1956, the place was an antiquated mess! Locals called it the worst in the North Central Conference. An advisory group advocated erecting a new gym by citing buildings in Kokomo, Greensburg, Huntingburg, and other schools that had built or were building new athletic facilities4.
New Castle’s leaders weren’t interested in simply enlarging their aging playing floor. Instead, they wanted to build something that would put the school on the map. As plans gained momentum in 1957, they hired Evansville architect Ralph Legeman to bring that vision to life5! Legeman had built a reputation by designing an innovative gymnasium in Herrin, Illinois. Instead of constructing an expensive multi-story arena, he started digging down.
The playing floor in Herrin sat at the bottom of a massive excavated pit, which allowed concrete bleachers to rise along the surrounding slopes. Only a concourse and roof extended above ground, which let long-span steel trusses eliminate interior columns to give every fan an unobstructed view of the action. All of it came at a fraction of the cost of a traditional gym6.
Legeman believed he had created something special and patented his revolutionary gymnasium design in 1948. Schools quickly took notice. A 2,000-seat sunken gym was built in Owensville, Indiana, followed by the 6,000-seat Huntingburg Fieldhouse. Over the next two decades, Legeman’s distinctive blueprint spread across the Midwest7. By then, twenty-seven gymnasiums in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan had adopted his concept8!
By 1957, the New Castle Fieldhouse was expected to cost $900,0009 as part of the city’s new high school- nearly $10.6 million today. A local nonprofit called Gym Now raised $200,000 toward the project, while the remaining cost was financed through a bond issue. Community support ran so deep that school officials even allowed students to leave class during the day to help build the fieldhouse10.
Work was well underway when disaster struck: just a few months into the project, four of the building’s massive steel roof trusses suddenly gave way and thunderously crashed to the ground11. More than 100 tons of steel caved in, but miraculously, no one was injured. Investigators were initially unable to determine what caused the collapse12, but Legeman eventually concluded that the failure resulted from the premature removal of the guy wires that had stabilized things13.
At first, contractors refused to return to work on the massive gym14. Fortunately, work was finally resumed and the building was opened to the public as part of New Castle’s new Walter P. Chrysler High school on November 21, 195915. The school’s strange name honored Chrysler, who acquired the local Maxwell-Briscoe automobile company in 1925 and turned the plant into the city’s primary economic engine. At one point, Chrysler employeed as many as 4,000 workers in town16!
With 9,500 seats, Chrysler Fieldhouse was the largest basketball arena in Indiana17. Although it was built primarily for sports, the first event in the gym was a concert held by the United States Marine Band18. The initial basketball game, between New Castle and Greenfield, took place on November 21, 1959. With 6,500 spectators in attendance, the New Castle Trojans walloped the visiting Tigers with a score of 65-42.
The Trojan’s first victory in their new basketball palace was only the beginning. After Chrysler Fieldhouse opened, New Castle basketball entered one of the most successful eras in Indiana high school history! Since moving in, the Trojans captured 33 sectional championships, 13 regional titles, four semi-state crowns, and the 2006 Class 3A state championship.
I remember playing middle school home games in Cowan High School’s gym, which sat a respectable 2,486 fans20. That felt enormous at the time, and I can’t imagine what it must be like to sprint out of the tunnel at Chrysler Fieldhouse and look up at nearly 10,000 people filling the stands before tip-off!
In 1979, after some back-and-forth, school board members decided to change the name of Walter P. Chrysler Memorial High School to New Castle Chrysler High School21. After Chrysler moved out in 2007, the school was renamed New Castle High School22. Still, many refer to the largest gym in the USA as Chrysler Fieldhouse.
Unfortunately, its status as the country’s largest high school gym came into question more than sixty years after it was built. Back in 2019, Hoosier basketball historians counted the seats at each of the state’s largest gyms. After years of changes, the tally revealed that the Lloyd E. Scott gymnasium in Seymour was the largest high school gym with seating for 8,228!
The new count also certified the East Chicago gym as the second-biggest, with a capacity of 8,054. New Castle stood at third, with seats for “only” 7,829 spectators. Temporary bleachers were included in the total seat count, but they were rarely used23.
To me, unseating New Castle Fieldhouse felt like a bad faith argument. To combat that modern interpretation and regain the title, school officials added 260 telescoping seats near the west concourse and another 335 in portable bleachers in 2021. That was enough to increase the gym’s seating back to 8,424, which one again placed it as the largest high school gym in the United States24. It’s retained that status ever since.
That said, New Castle Fieldhouse has always been about more than numbers. It’s a monument to the place basketball holds in Indiana’s identity and to a community willing to dream bigger than anyone thought reasonable. The building survived a catastrophic collapse before it ever opened, then witnessed generations of unforgettable games, and even weathered a debate over whether it was still the biggest.
Through it all, one thing has never changed: to step inside is to enter one of the great cathedrals of Indiana basketball. If you’ve never experienced a packed Friday night at New Castle’s old Chrysler Fieldhouse, put it on your bucket list! There aren’t many places that capture the spirit -and scale- of the golden age of Hoosier basketball like it.
Sources Cited
1 Hunsinger, D. (2019, March 9). Indiana’s largest high school gym changes. The Indianapolis Star. p. B6.
2 Neddenriep, K. (2010). Historic Hoosier Gyms: discovering bygone basketball landmarks. The History Press [Charleston]. Book.
3 (See footnote 2).
4 Propose New Gymnasium at New Castle (1956, February 2). The Muncie Star. p. 28.
5 New Castle Gym Plans Are Advanced (1957, January 17). The Muncie Star. p. 14.
6 Kauffman, D. (2024). Ralph Legeman’s Sunken Gyms. Indiana Department of Natural Resources [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
7 (See footnote 6).
8 (See footnote 6).
9 New Castle Gym to Cost $900,000 Plus (1957, September 20). The Muncie Star. p. 30.
10 Viquez, M. (2024, May 17). New Castle Fieldhouse – New Castle High School Trojans. Stadium Journey. Web. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
11 Barnet, B. (1958, June 13). New Castle Gym Frame Collapses. The Muncie Star. p. 1.
12 Resumption of New Castle Gymnasium Work Sought (1958, July 12). The Muncie Star. p. 14.
13 Deadline Set for Resumption of New Castle Gym Work (1958, July 23). The Muncie Star. p. 11.
14 Resumption of New Castle Gymnasium Work South (1958, July 12). The Muncie Star. p. 14.
15 Opening Gym at New Castle (1959, October 30). The Muncie Star. p. 29.
16 Pitts, E. (1999, July 26). Driving Ahead. The Muncie Star Press. p. 7.
17 (See footnote 15).
18 (See footnote 15).
19 6,500 See Dedication of New Gym (1959, November 22). The Muncie Star. p. 18.
20 Yoder, B. (n.d.). Cowan (2,486) Built 1957. Hoosier Gym Journey. Web. Retrieved July 6, 2026.
21 Francisco, B. (1979, March 14). New Castle High School Gets New Name…Again. The Muncie Star. p. 10.
22 Leiker, J. (2007, November 4). Chrysler Conundrum. The Muncie Star Press. p. 40.
23 Hunsinger, D. (2019, March 9). Indiana’s largest high school gym changes. The Indianapolis Star. p. B6.
24 Viquez, M. (2024, May 17). New Castle Fieldhouse – New Castle High School Trojans. Stadium Journey. Web. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
The school’s being named for Walter P. Chrysler has some history behind it. The Maxwell-Briscoe company built a large factory in New Castle in 1907. It was expanded multiple times before the successor company (Maxwell) faltered in the early 20s. Walter Chrysler was a turnaround wizard in those years and went to work on Maxwell, which he soon parlayed into The Chrysler Corporation. The New Castle plant remained a key facility into the current century, only being spun off under Daimler-Benz’ ownership. It’s a shame that the school could not still see value in the name that kept faith in the town a century ago (and provided much of the industrial base that made the huge new gym possible).
It is a shame. Feelings hurt after the company left, I gather.
A small corner of the factory was saved as a memorial of sorts. I pass it fairly often but have never snagged a photo.
This was a great place during sectional season in the 1960s -70s. I have some fond memories of High-school games there as little Knightstown battled for victory.
I’m sad I missed the single-class days.
Yeah, High school basketball was so much better then.
“…school officials even allowed students to leave class during the day to help build the fieldhouse.”
Imagine the hue and cry if that happened today!
No doubt! A completely different time.