 It opened in December 1961, replacing Holliday Hall, and was home to the Texas Western College Miners basketball teams, until the Don Haskins Center, then known as the Special Events Center, opened in 1977, by which time Texas Western had changed its name to the current University of Texas at El Paso.Memorial Gym was the home court of the 1966 Texas Western basketball team that won the NCAA title, using five black starters to defeat Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky squad.Since 1974 Memorial Gym has been home to UTEP women's volleyball.