The Fighting Leathernecks play all home games in Western Hall. It features stadium-style seating and wooden bleachers surrounding a parquet floor, with capacity at 4,781 for all events and 4,421 for basketball games and volleyball matches.
In July 2014, then-Athletic Director Tommy Bell renamed the playing court "The LeRoy A. Ufkes Court" to honor 1996 Hall of Fame inductee LeRoy Ufkes. A lifelong resident of nearby Carthage, the late Ufkes and his wife Joan (a 1954 graduate of Western Illinois University) have supported the Leathernecks for more than 25 years.
All 19 Leatherneck sport programs utilize Western Hall in some capacity - whether for practice, workouts, or home events. Western Hall also houses numerous physical education activities as well as all campus and community events like graduations, concerts, musicals, and multi-cultural entertainment events.
Completed in 1964, the building underwent massive construction in 1997 with the addition of the $8 million Student Recreation Center. The SRC hosts all intramural and club sports, and houses a swimming pool, racquetball courts, suspended jogging track and up-to-date exercise equipment.
A Chem-turf jogging track surrounds the court.
Updates/Upgrades[]
- During the summer of 2010, new lighting was installed inside Western Hall. The University Physical Plant staff secured a grant through the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) to upgrade lighting fixtures through-out the facility.
- The court is a product of Horner Sports Flooring.
- A practice court was built inside Brophy Hall in December 2011.