Fordham's Rose Hill Gym Home to a First: The Rams Are the Visiting Team?

Fordham's Rose Hill Gym opened in 1925. It's the oldest Division I basketball facility still in use.

Written on the back of the team's media guide is a reminder that the Rams' home arena was labeled a "Cathedral of College Basketball" by ESPN The Magazine and that USA Today deemed it one of the "10 Great College Basketball Arenas."

Last Saturday, the old gym added one more feat to its record book: it became the visiting team's home court.

I'm half-joking, of course, but in the Rams' 76-58 loss to Dayton, the crowd of 2,872 was mostly wearing red (Dayton's colors) and could be seen and heard throughout the night. You had to really look hard to find a Fordham fan.

It should be noted that the university's students were returning from break the next day, but it wouldn't have made much of a difference. This night belonged to the Flyers, on and off the court.

It started with a "Let's Go Flyers" chant. Then encouragement for Dayton on the defensive end. There was also the ever-so-popular "We Are UD." All took place as soon as the game started and carried on well into the night.

If you didn't know any better, you would have thought you were in Ohio, not in the Bronx. Dayton travels well. Fordham stays locked in the basement.

To be fair, so much of that is understandable. Fordham has been a losing program for a long time. In 19 seasons in the A-10, it's finished above .500 just once. More recently, the Rams have won 44 games since the start of the 2008-09 season.

Fans have been beaten down. They're tired of waiting. They no longer believe.

But it's also true that the university as a whole, its basketball coaches and players and the program's true fans, deserve better. You can't let an opposing team come into your building and turn you into the visiting team. I half-expected the Rams to come out after halftime in their road maroon.

Of course, we could also go here: Fordham needs a new arena.

The Rose Hill Gym is a comfy, quaint facility, but it can't compare to the new modern arenas that have sprung up, notably the ones that Atlantic 10 schools have built. It can't compare to most arenas for that matter. It's not going to impress recruits, and it doesn't help attract fans (unless you consider those the opposing teams bring in).

For now, and since there are no plans in place for a new facility, the Rams are forced to deal with what they have.

Fordham athletic director David Roach addressed that reality in an interview with Bleacher Report last July.

"I like to say, 'Focus on what you have, not what you don't have, and be positive and move forward,'" Roach said. "It [Rose Hill Gym] might not be the best venue, but we're in New York City. ... Let's get it going enough to where this place is rocking and packed and you can't get a ticket."

On Saturday, you couldn't get a ticket. Dayton's fans had them all.

In the final seconds of the game, Fordham head coach Tom Pecora stood a few feet away from his team's bench with a quizzical look that said it all. Sure, he was upset that the Rams had lost their third in a row to open A-10 play. A few minutes later he'd express frustration with his veteran players, who all seemed to have off nights at once. Shortly thereafter, he promised there would be changes.

But as Pecora stood there motionless and staring across the court, you know he heard it. How could he not? By then, Dayton didn't just take over the house; it became their house.

"It stinks," was how Pecora responded when asked about the pro-Dayton chants and all the support the Flyers got. "Everyone was saying we were selling a lot of tickets. I said to people here, 'I hope they're all Fordham people,' but I kind of knew what the outcome would be."

Like he always does, Pecora took the high road. He didn't knock Fordham's fans. He didn't question their loyalty or their support. He has too much class to do that.

Instead, he talked about Dayton.

"The University of Dayton is a storied basketball program," Pecora said. "We played Dayton my first year here in a blizzard, and I was silly enough to think people wouldn't come out. I came out of that runway, there were 10,000 people in red sweaters. Snow was coming down sideways, and it was two feet on the ground."

He was exaggerating a bit about the attendance that day, but he made his point: Basketball is a big deal in Dayton, Ohio. In fact, Dayton basketball is a big deal anywhere the Flyers are playing.

Dayton has a winning basketball tradition. This year it's 14-2 overall and 4-0 in Atlantic 10 play. Last year the Flyers made it to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. In 1967 they lost to UCLA in the NCAA championship game.

Pecora knows the power of the Dayton brand. It was on display Saturday night. It always is, he said.

"The commitment to men's basketball there, the level of history of basketball...you know the deal. You say 'Duke,' it's a basketball school. You say 'Notre Dame,' as good as they are in hoops, it's a football school. You say 'Florida State,' people think football. Dayton is a basketball school."

Fordham is a great school, but it's still trying to find itself on the basketball court. That's what makes this story, a story that's been told many times through the years, so compelling.

The Rams have some really good fans. If you're around the program—off days as well as game days—you see them. Many are proud alums who made it big but would give anything for some wins. Some are New York basketball fans who love the game and would love to see the Jesuit school in the Bronx finally make it one day.

And you have the families of the coaches and parents of the players, who passionately watch the team they've adopted as their own. There's emotional support, and there's financial support. No different here than anywhere else.

Don't let anyone tell you that what was on display Saturday night tells the whole story. But it is part of the plot, part of the last two decades of basketball at Rose Hill. Fans want a winner; I get that. But they have to do their part, too. That means showing up. That means not letting another team's supporters school you on what it means to be a true fan.

"[At] a pregame party they had 250 people," Pecora said about Dayton fans. "They travel well. They did it last year [at the A-10 tournament] at Barclays. I wasn't surprised by it."

Still, there was a part of Pecora that couldn't help but notice that his team was so heavily outdrawn in its own home. Everyone knew Fordham would have a tough time against one of the A-10's elite programs. What we didn't know was that the Rams would be playing a road game on their own campus.

"Obviously it's not a good feeling," Pecora said. "You don't expect that in your home gym."

Which raises the question: If the Rams lose a game and nobody is there to see it—nobody from Fordham, that is—does it still count as a loss?

I checked the standings. It does.

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Follow him on Twitter: @CFCostello