Branch Rickey Arena
The Battling Bishop men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and volleyball teams play their home games in 1,450-seat Branch Rickey Arena, nestled in the middle of the Ohio Wesleyan campus.
Named after Branch Rickey (1904), who integrated major league baseball while president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the arena opened its doors in time for the 1976-77 season.
Branch Rickey Arena seats 1,450 for basketball and has been the site for NCAA Division III playoff games for both genders as well as several North Coast Athletic Conference and Ohio Athletic Conference tournaments. Rickey Arena is part of the Rickey Center, which also includes the adjacent Gordon Field House.
For 70 years prior to the opening of Rickey Arena, Ohio Wesleyan home games were played in adjoining Edwards Gymnasium. Opened during the 1905-06 academic year, the still-unfinished facility hosted Ohio Wesleyan’s first intercollegiate basketball team. As many as 2,000 fans made their way into the double-decked stands surrounding the court on the building's second floor, which still hosts varsity practices and intramurals. The gym was named after John Edwards, who served on Ohio Wesleyan's Board of Trustees in the late 1890s and early 1900s. One of the biggest facilities in the state at the time of its construction, Edwards Gym was one of the first sites for the Ohio high school basketball tournament championships, which it hosted into the 1930s.
Action at Branch Rickey Arena
