This column first appeared in October 2012.
We all have memories of the old Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis (I know, I know, it was renamed the “RCA Dome” in 1994 but I never really got used to that name). Some of those memories revolve around the Dome’s opening in 1984 while others revolve around it’s implosion in 2008. For me, I was proud that a classmate from my Westfield High School graduating class of 1980, Todd Kemple, was credited with naming the new venue. I also attended the very first event there in August of 1984, an old timer’s baseball game. I remember taking an extended lunch break from my job as Deputy Auditor of the State of Indiana to watch in fascination as the old-timers arrived in town.
I watched in amazement as the aging “Boys of Summer” checked into the Hyatt Regency for the game. There they were, Hall of Fame legends and heroes of my youth, walking around my hometown swapping stories and catching up with teammates they hadn’t seen in decades — Joe DiMaggio, Don Larsen, Sal Maglie, Smoky Burgess, Billy Williams, Bob Feller just to name a few. I went to the game later that day and was shocked when I realized that the right field fence was only 182 feet from the plate. Dome officials winced in batting practice and during the game whenever balls were hit into the stands, fearful they would crack the glass on the new suites. Heck, 77-year-old Luke Appling, cracked two dingers off the upper seats alone!
The old timer’s baseball game was an early attempt to convince Major League Baseball to expand to Indianapolis. A group of investors, including Fred Simon (brother of the Pacer’s saviors Herb & Mel), were trying to lure the Minnesota Twins to Naptown. As many as 12,000 people put down deposits on season tickets, and Harry Caray spoke at a downtown rally in support of bringing a Major League club to Indy. But after that old timer’s game, it became apparent that the Dome was not built for baseball.
Most people forget that the dome was built before we ever got the Colts. Under the administrations of Mayor Richard Lugar and succeeding Mayor William Hudnut, Indianapolis made an ambitious effort to reinvent itself into a “Great American City” by building the Hoosier Dome. It was sold to the public with the promise of boosting the city’s convention business and, secondarily, to lure an NFL expansion team. It was completed as part of the Indiana Convention Center with a price tag of $77.5 million; the costs split evenly between private and public money.
For anyone unfamiliar with the old Hoosier Dome, let me give you a walk through. The roof was made up of Teflon-coated fiberglass and weighed 257 tons, held up by constant air pressure from within the building. The ceiling was 193 feet high, though the height varied up to five feet as the materials expanded and contracted with the weather. Like its cousins, the Minnesota Twins Metrodome, Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome, and Detroit Lions Pontiac Silverdome, the Hoosier Dome had many signs posted at the exits warning guests about the high winds at the exit doors. I am among the many who can recall getting yelled at by security guards when I left through one of the “unapproved” exits.
The stadium seated 56,127 fans and was the smallest stadium in the NFL. The dome was officially dedicated on August 11, 1984, as a sellout crowd watched the Indianapolis Colts defeat the NY Giants in an NFL preseason game just a few days after that old timer’s baseball game. Later on that year, the “World’s Largest Basketball Game” was played at the Dome. It was an exhibition game between an NBA All-Star team led by Larry Bird and the U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball team led by Michael Jordan and coached by I.U.’s Bob Knight. The Dome also served as the site of the NBA All-Star Game in February 1985, where a record NBA crowd of 43,146 saw Rookie Michael Jordan take on Dominique Wilkins in the slam dunk contest. Since then it hosted four NCAA Final Fours (1991, 1997, 2000, 2006), a Women’s Final Four in 2005 and events including the closing ceremony of the 1987 Pan American Games. In addition, it hosted the World Gymnastics Championships in 1991, and of course, WrestleMania VIII in 1992. The largest crowd ever to attend a high school basketball game filled the dome in 1990, when 41,000 fans attended the state championship game won by Damon Bailey’s Bedford North Lawrence team.
The Hoosier Dome played host to music concerts and festivals as well. However, my favorite event at the Dome came in the summer of 1997 when I had the keys and full run of the building for an entire weekend. I, along with partners Bob Netolicky (former ABA Pacer) and Dick Tinkham (former ABA Pacers President), planned and hosted the 30-year reunion of the old ABA (American Basketball Association). The event featured a banquet hosted by Bob Costas, a sports card show, autograph signing and culminated with an auction of memorabilia whose proceeds benefited the players of the old outlaw basketball league. For one glorious weekend, legends like Julius Erving, Dan Issel, Louie Dampier, Darnell Hillman, George McGinnis, Billy Paultz, Charlie Scott, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore, Freddie Lewis, Donnie Freeman, Maurice Lucas, and many, many more had full run of the venue. Heck, I parked my van at mid-field for the entire weekend.
On September 24, 2008, the roof of the Dome was deflated. It took about 45 minutes. In December of that year, the Dome was demolished as part of a project to expand the attached convention center. During the process, the roof material was saved and collected by “People for Urban Progress,” a local Indianapolis non-profit organization headquartered in Fountain Square. The remaining durable white, red and black fabric material was recycled for use as messenger bags, wallets, clutch purses and, along with some of the old Dome seats, as roofs for bus stop shelters around the city.
A few years ago, Irvingtonian Andy Whitehurst asked me if I had ever heard about the ghost of the Hoosier Dome. Of course, I hadn’t and I asked him to share the details. Seems that Andy was a member of the Special Response/Security team at the Dome for a couple years after the Dome first opened. Andy worked second shift (3 to 11) and his shift included “key rounds” that involved walking off the Dome while checking/rechecking the locks to be sure that all was secure.
“There was a constant wind sound in there,” Andy said, “It’s hard to explain, but it was like a humming from the fans that were constantly running to keep the roof up. I would often hear the sounds of footsteps accompanied by whistling and keys jingling when I was alone in the building. At first, I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me but eventually I got used to it.” Andy never saw anything to account for the noises and could never discover the source. He said the sounds were always coming from “the cheap seats in the upper tiers” above the suites in the old Dome.
“A few years ago, I ran into a woman who used to have the same job as I did, but at a different time. She told me, ‘I hate going up there (the upper tiers), there’s something up there. It creeps me out. Whenever I’m walking on that top level, I’d swear someone was walking alongside me.’ “ Andy said, “When she found out I worked there too, the first thing she said was,‘There’s a ghost in the Hoosier Dome.’”
Andy stated that he has no idea who it could be, but that many of his coworkers claimed to experience the same thing. They thought it was either a guard or a maintenance man but they didn’t know of anyone who died there. Andy would love to hear from others who may have experienced the “Ghost of the Hoosier Dome”. And so would I. If you have a story to share, shoot me an e-mail. I’d love to hear it.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.
