Dayton Diary: Fieldhouse ovation

In the late winter of 1962, I missed the first six weeks of the spring semester. I had slipped a disc and was in traction. When I returned to campus, I had to wear a corset with two steel rods to support my back.

I was a music education major and played in the pep band at all the basketball games at the Fieldhouse. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to sit in the stands with the rest of the band, tucked up under the scoreboard. I was not allowed to sit in anything except a wooden straight-back chair.

Before games, the teams would come running out of the tunnel to the cheers of the crowd. On my first day back at the Fieldhouse, the Flyers came running out. Soon after, I followed with my cane in one hand and my trombone in the other. And the crowd stood and cheered for me, too.

And the crowd stood and cheered for me, too.

Charlie Swope, the Fieldhouse director, had arranged everything.

He had also solved my seating problem: He put a wooden straight-back chair at the end of the court, just for me. I walked over to it, and the rest of the band moved to be near me. We played the entire game from the end of the court. I’ve never forgotten that.

That year, the Flyers won the NIT.

Illustration by Dan Zettwoch.

A version of this article appears in print in the Autumn 2026 University of Dayton Magazine, Page 63. EXPLORE THE ISSUE — MORE ONLINE