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The B. Frank "Tex" Turner arena has been the home of the Railsplitters and Lady Railsplitters since 1991. Since then, it has become known as one of the top basketball facilities at the Division II level. The arena replaced the Mary E. Mars Gymnasium, which had been the home of LMU basketball since 1948.
The 87,000 square foot complex seats 5,009 for basketball contests, with another 1,000 portable seats available for other events. The distance from the playing floor to the roof is 40 feet, the equivalent of a two-story building. The arena is 230 feet (east to west) and 282 feet (north to south). It contains over 81,866 square feet of floor space, and over 4 million cubic feet of space.
The arena also serves as a practice facility for the soccer, lacrosse, tennis, baseball and softball teams. An auxiliary gym contains batting cages for baseball and softball.
Over the years, several concerts as well as district and regional tournaments have been held in the arena. The LMU spring and fall commencement services and pinning ceremonies have been held there since 1991 with DCOM and LMU-CVM ceremonies being added as those schools opened.
LMU’s athletic offices are located on the lower level. Offices located here are the administrative offices, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer and baseball . Also located on the lower level are the athletic training offices, the university press and the university post office. The LMU Athlete's Hall-of-Fame, the Turner Room and a classroom are also located on the lower level and are often used by campus and community groups for meetings and other functions.
The recently refurbished training room and weight room are located on the lower level within easy access of the playing floor and air-conditioned dressing rooms. The men's basketball dressing room underwent extensive renovations in the summer of 2011.
The upper level contains a ticket office and other offices as well as the Dean Bailey Trophy Room, which houses trophies and other memorabilia dating back to the 1920’s and is a memorial to former coach Dean Bailey. The upper concourse also is open to the public as a walking track and is extremely popular with the local community.
Entrances to the building are located on the north, south, and east ends. There are a total of 24 entrance doors to the arena (handicap access is available on both levels).
The arena was named after former LMU football and basketball standout B. Frank "Tex" Turner, who donated the funds for it’s construction. Work on the multi-million dollar facility began on May 7, 1988 and on Feb. 2, 1991 the Railsplitters and Lady Railsplitters held their first contests in the facility when they hosted the University of Alabama-Huntsville in a doubleheader. The women won 112-95 and the men lost 85-69.
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