Smith College

Constructed from 1961 to 1963, Esbjornson Gymnasium, also known as "Esby Gym", 

is home to Profs' basketball, 

swimming and diving and volleyball. 

(Click on photo for directions)

The Esbjornson Gymnasium, also known as Esby Gym, was named after Roland A. Esbjornson, a physical education professor, athletic director, and head coach of basketball and baseball at Glassboro State College.

According to “More Than a Cold Stone,” Esbjornson started as a professor in the 1920s when Glassboro State was originally the Glassboro Normal School. Esbjornson formed the basketball and baseball programs, and created the project “Play Day” in which high school students joined Normal School students in various games.

Esbjornson dedicated himself to helping handicapped children. “He was a man who gave copious amounts of time and even his own money to aid physically handicapped children,” the book states, even instructing a class for teachers and upperclassman students on how to teach the physically handicapped. University President Robinson named the gymnasium after Esbjornson for his dedication to expanding the sports program.

He was inducted into the Rowan Athletics Hall of Fame in 1986.

Construction began on the gym in September 1961, costing the university about $950,000. The building was finished in June 1963, but the main purpose of the gymnasium was to serve as a space for “Glassboro’s basketballers” to play instead of having to “play on the bandbox floor in the Bunce Hall auditorium.”

Esby Gym was updated with new bleachers in 2008.

Seating Capacity  1,150

Esbjornson Gymnasium houses the locker rooms for men and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming & diving, men and women's cross country/track & field and women's volleyball. It is also home to the Profs' weight room and winter athletic training facility.