The historic Columbia Gym, constructed in 1925, is an on-campus 2400 seat gymnasium that houses the Spalding men's and women's basketball, and volleyball teams.
Columbia Gym was marked as a historical site in the city of Louisville in January 2020. In 1954, a 12-year-old Muhammad Ali's red bicycle was stolen and Ali entered the building to report the theft to police officer Joe Martin proclaiming he was going to, "whup whoever took his bike." Martin told the young Ali (then Cassius Clay), that he would have to learn to fight and rest was history. "The Greatest" went on to become a gold-medal winner in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, three-time world heavyweight champion, lit the Olympic flame at the start of the Games of the XXVI Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the most monumental sports figures in American sports history being named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Century in 1999.