Tarble Arena Shines

New Home for Red Men, Lady Reds Draws Raves

Anyone who has visited the new Tarble Arena at Carthage knows already how impressive a place it is. The dazzling $13.5 million renovation of the former Physical Education Center was completed in January 2009. Athletic director Bob Bonn says the renovation puts Carthage facilities among the top 10 percent of all NCAA Division III institutions.

"We were probably in the bottom 10 percent," Mr. Bonn says of facilities when he came to Carthage in 1992. "We've gone from the bottom 10 percent to the top 10 percent."

Tarble Arena houses games and practices for men's basketball, women's basketball, men's volleyball and women's volleyball.

The new facility features a parquet floor, arena seating for 2,385 fans with all red seats and theatre-style chairs on the west side, a giant video board, and state-of-the-art sound and lighting equipment. The video board and the ability to darken the house during pre-game introductions add a level of excitement unique to NCAA Division III arenas.

At basketball games earlier this year, "we attracted more fans, we put on a really exciting show with the spotlights, new audio system and video displays," Mr. Bonn says. "Those greatly enhanced spectator enjoyment."

Tarble Arena also features an exercise physiology/athletic training rehabilitation laboratory, classroom space, seven locker rooms, coaches' offices, and an indoor golf practice center used by golf classes and varsity golfers.

"It matches everything we've done at the College in facility improvements," says Mr. Bonn, who declares Tarble Arena one of the 10 best Division III facilities in the nation.

"The library, the new residence halls, the Clausen Center are as nice as you could make them. The new student center projects to be the same quality. We built a state-of-the-art facility at a reasonable cost, that fit in with the campus and the master plan."

Finished Arena Exceeds Expectations

Plans for Tarble Arena were announced in September 2006, when the Tarble Family Foundation of Los Angeles made a $5 million lead gift. But plans to renovate the PEC had been in the works since 2001, when the adjacent N.E. Tarble Athletic and Recreation Center was finished.

"When the TARC was completed in 2001, there were plans drawn to do the arena then," says William Hoare, associate vice president for business. "We actually bid the project, but we put it aside to deal with other campus priorities," namely the A.W. Clausen Center for World Business and the Oaks student villas.

According to Mr. Hoare, new plans were drawn up in 2007. The revised plans included a larger athletic strength-training center, more classroom space, the indoor golf practice center, and a seating area reconfigured "to give it an arena feel, as opposed to high school-style seating," Mr. Hoare says.

"The building is better than the building envisioned in 2001," he says.

Tarble not only hosts Carthage sports events, but also performances by top musicians and comedians, and other community events. In the future, Mr. Bonn adds, "hopefully it will help attract outstanding athletes to the school. It provides a wonderful environment for the teams to play, and it enables us to host conference tournaments, NCAA regionals and high school tournaments."

The Tarble family has supported Carthage since the 1970s. Pat Tarble's 1998 gift of $11 million helped fund construction of the TARC, named in honor of her late husband, Newton Tarble, one of the founders of Snap-on Inc.

— Bill Kurtz, Carthage College