The shortage of on-campus space following World War II caused Army and Air Force ROTC units to relocate from the section of the stadium built for their use to temporary barracks. Government inspectors became highly critical of the arrangements in the late 1940s, indicating that the facilities had “met only minimum standards,” and the Air Force ROTC issued warnings that it might be forced to discontinue the program at UT unless better facilities were made available.
In the early 1950s, UT made plans to build an armory to house ROTC units, combining it with a field house that could be used by ROTC and that could replace Alumni Memorial Building for intercollegiate basketball. Also in the early 1950s, land adjacent to the football practice fields had been made available to the US Army Reserve Training Center on a 50-year lease, and an agreement was struck that would allow use of the 31,000-square-foot facility by ROTC units two to three hours a day. ROTC units began using the armory on October 19, 1953, and the Reserve Training Center was dedicated on Armistice Day (November 11) 1953. Planning and requests to the state for funding of the field house-armory continued. The 1955 legislature slashed $1 million from UT’s request for capital funds, and plans were shifted to build only the armory, which would provide classrooms, offices for military teaching personnel, storage space for equipment, and an adequate indoor drilling facility. Barber and McMurry, the project architects, developed a plan to build the arena in phases. The initial phase would incorporate a smaller arena than originally planned, with seating for 7,200. Expansion plans were for two additions: the first to increase arena seating to 9,200 and the second to increase the seating to 16,000.
In May 1955 the UT trustees approved allocating $1 million of the state’s capital appropriation to construction of the armory: $850,000 for construction and $150,000 for UT to acquire the 10 lots required for construction of the facility. The building was delayed when the low bidder, V. L. Nicholson Company, submitted a bid of $1,298,638, which exceeded the available funds of $1 million. In 1957 the trustees approved the additional required funds from the new capital budget provided by the General Assembly.
When completed, the structure seated seven thousand fans. It incorporated steel trusses to support the roof that were 208 feet long and weighed 66 tons. The building was used for other functions such as commencements and occasional concerts. Vice President Hubert Humphrey spoke there. ROTC units occupied the facility in spring 1958. The World War II surplus barracks, which formerly housed ROTC, were razed for expanded space for the athletics department’s programs. The first basketball game played in the new field house was on December 2, 1958, against Wyoming. UT won 72 to 71. The armory-field house was transformed into Stokely Athletics Center in time for the 1966–67 basketball season.