My most curious sports cliches include "both sides of the ball", which I assume means a side for offense and defense. But the basketball is round and sides are hard to define. And a football is oblong, making it better to say both ends of the ball. Maye they mean both ends of the court or the field, either on offense or defense. I understand that about as much as I do "shooting from the elbow" in basketball or "in the paint". In my high school "barn" built in 1949 and Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum opened in 1956, the free throw lanes were not painted, but were the same varnish as the rest of the court. It took me a while to figure out where the paint was. The picture below shows the now McCamish Pavilion, then with 6 basketball goals used for varsity practice. The court floor was laid on concrete, giving me four years of shin splints playing in no-cushion Chuck Taylors. We ran the concrete stairs ten times after each practice, which I still despise today
The Hawks used our court for practice and home games from 1968 to 1972. Temporary lighting was put in for their home games on TV because the single light in the top center of the 32 steel beams made the court dimly lit. There were no Tech games broadcast on TV during that time, our first being at UCLA and the NIT games of 1970. The fans' seats were wooden bleacher seats, where fan experiences was watching the game with no amenities, and bring your own cushion or seat back. The then all-freshman team, coached an assistant full time, practiced in the still existing freshman gym, where the cheerleaders practice today. Weight training did not exist. Today the Zelnak Center provides a practice court and weight training facilities as well as locker rooms. We, as well as the Hawks had locker rooms with concrete floor, a wooden bench for changing shoes, and gray steel lockers with a 4 digit combination lock. I still remember my lock number. The Hawks has player-coaches Richie Gueren and Gene Tormolen and Pete Maravich was a rookie my junior year. We shared the one shower room with the Hawks. We sneaked in the players' entrance to the coliseum to see the Hawks games and sat in the upper utility area where the AC units were. Al Ciraldo did his WGST radio broadcasts from that same area. The cost of a Hawk ticket then was $4 for all seats. Seating capacity was 7,700.
On the bottom left of the picture is the original tunnel that both teams would enter and exit the court, often intermingling in the tunnel at halftime and the end of the game to the locker rooms. Unknown to the public, there were quite a few unfriendly words spoken and even a few fights in the tunnel. The team benches (actually gray folding chairs with no padding) were on the tunnel side of the court, which was the south side in the direction of Grant Field.
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