The Bren Events Center opened on January 8, 1987, when the men’s basketball team beat Utah State 118-96 in front of a sold-out crowd. Current NBA Head Coach Scott Brooks (Oklahoma City Thunder) scored 41 points for the Anteaters that night.
The Graduating Class of 1987 commissioned artist Billy Fitzgerald to design and cast the 430-pound bronze sculpture which stands in front of the Bren Events Center. Fitzgerald also designed the statue of the UCLA Bruin on the UCLA campus.
AS-061. University Communication Photographs. Special Collections and Archives, the U.C. Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. Box 128.