50th Anniversary Events | Assembly Hall's Greatest Games

The University of Illinois is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Assembly Hall on March 2, 2013. In it's first 50 years, nearly 10 million fans have seen over 700 games at the Hall, creating countless memories.  We asked Fighting Illini fans to recall their personal memories, both for basketball and entertainment events, at the historic building. Here's what you had to say... 

This Saturday when the Nebraska Cornhuskers come to town (4:15 pm tip on BTN) we'll be celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Assembly Hall. The grand opening of the $8.35 million architectural marvel was on March 2, 1963, exactly 50 years to the day from Saturday's game. During those first 50 years, the Fighting Illini have an impressive record of 553-149 (.787) in the building and have created countless memories for the more than 9.6 million fans that have come to watch them play. Below is a list of some of the Assembly Hall's greatest men's basketball moments. Tell us yours in the comments. 

What a night at Assembly Hall. On Feb. 7, 2013, Tyler Griffey made an uncontested layup as time expired to give the Fighting Illini a thrilling 74-72 win over No. 1 Indiana in front of a sellout crowd at Assembly Hall.

Brandon Paul got the assist on Griffey's game-winner, inbounding the ball from the right corner with 0.9 on the clock. Griffey cut down the lane un-guarded, got the shot off quickly, the ball went though the hoop as the clock hit 0.0 and bedlam ensued at Assembly Hall. Re-live the night with a look at the social media reaction by Illini Nation below.

Hello, this is Derrick Burson, Associate Sports Information Director, writing to you from the Gran Cafe Roma here in Italy. The Fighting Illini basketball team arrived in Rome following 21 hours of travel. We left campus on Wednesday at 11:30 am and arrived at Chicago O'Hare Airport at 2 o'clock for our 4:30 departure. An eight-hour flight on a Lufthansa Airbus 333 brought us to Dusseldorf, Germany, where we arrived at 7:30 am local time Thursday. To help adjust to the time change, we were encouraged to sleep as much as possible on the flight. Some were successful and some, like myself, tried countless times to fall asleep with little success. But I did enjoy two movies and learned more than I thought possible about lions and their quest for power and control of the Kenyan wildlife reserves thanks to a National Geographic documentary.