History
The facility, originally named Rosemont Horizon, was intended to be the home of the WHA Chicago Cougars, but the franchise folded in 1975. The Village of Rosemont issued $19 million in bonds to finance the cost of the arena with exclusive contracts with Araserv, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and MFG International.
On August 13, 1979, the uncompleted roof of the Rosemont Horizon collapsed, killing five construction workers and injuring 16 others.
The Rosemont Horizon was featured in the 1985 music video "Big City Nights" by Scorpions.
Allstate Corporation signed a ten-year contract worth more than $10 million on June 9, 1999 to acquire naming rights to the arena and renovate it.
On December 14, 2003, the floor at the Allstate Arena was named Ray and Marge Meyer Court in honor of Basketball Hall of Famer Ray Meyer and his wife. Meyer coached DePaul's men's team for forty-three seasons and is the school's all-time winningest coach.
Read more about this topic: Allstate Arena
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”
—Richard M. Nixon (b. 1913)