University Hall, the former home of Virginia Cavaliers men’s and women’s basketball for more than four decades, met its end on a cloudless Saturday in Charlottesville this morning at the hands of the two best student-athletes to ever play there and those of the architect of the future of UVA sports.
The implosion took place promptly at 10 a.m. as scheduled. Ralph Sampson, Dawn Staley, and athletic director Carla Williams pushed the plunger to set off the chain reaction to bring the building to the ground.
The arena’s famous ribbed concrete roof appeared to collapse without a hitch, leaving behind a massive cloud of dust and three generations of memories.