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Our state's basketball history is woven tightly through the towns in the southern coalfields. Area gyms used to be packed on Tuesday and Friday nights during basketball season.
Here are some thoughts on some of the great basketball cathedrals in southern West Virginia.
* Brushfork Armory - By day it's a National Guard Armory, but by night it's a basketball cathedral. It even looks and feels like a small arena as you drive up to it. Good to see the Bluefield Beavers playing there again this winter. I remember seeing a Northfork-Bluefield game there in the winter of 1977 and seeing, for the first time, an incredible young sophomore at Northfork, future WVU star Russell Todd.
* East Bank gym - The first time I walked into the East Bank gym to watch a game in 1965, I was mesmerized by the jersey of Jerry West that hung over the doors of the main entrance. The gym itself wasn't the...