January 6, 2002
Reilly Center (Capacity: 6,000)
Olean, NY
St. Bonaventure Bonnies vs Rhode Island Rams
Final Score: 96 – 74
* The arena was re-visited December 18, 2018
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This trip was almost cancelled due to weather as lightly snow-covered roads made for some tricky travel, however the real brunt of a winter storm held off until after we were back home and everything went according to plan. The snow did make for a pretty scene into the Allegheny Mountains as we reached tiny Olean, NY, a city of just 15,000. One could really call Olean a college town as Saint Bonaventure University is the main thing going in the area. The tiny catholic school of just 2,000 students has an equally small campus, which fits nicely in the rural and secluded location. Bonnies basketball has a storied history with the school’s glory years coming in the 1950’s and 60’s with several NCAA and NIT appearances. That era culminated in Saint Bonaventure reaching the Final Four in 1970. The Bonnies returned to the Tourney for the first time in over 20 years in 1999 as they took Kentucky to double overtime before losing. St. Bonaventure’s program quickly went downhill after my first visit as a scandal led to probation, shame and suicide. It took nine years to recover as leadership got back in order and the Bonnies saw more W’s on the court with a return to the NCAA Tournament in 2012. They’ve had some good seasons of late as well and returned to the Dance in 2017. My re-visit in 2018 saw a pretty similar building to what I experienced in the early 2000s. The Reilly Center is a simple, plain building facility that opened in 1966 and is known for its fans and typically great atmosphere.
Prestige Ranking: 4 out of 5
Location
Olean is pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it’s not unusual to hear the media bemoan that. The town in Southwestern New York is not far from the PA border and the rural area is at the northern edge of the Alleghenies. Bonaventure is on the edge of town and the road heading into Olean first offers a bunch of chain restaurants before hitting some local establishments downtown. There’s not much going on outside of that.
Location Ranking: 4 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
I-86 runs right by Olean and Saint Bonaventure is just a few minutes away. In fact, those arriving from the Southern Tier (Elmira / Binghamton) or from due west (Erie) have a pretty easy trip. The accessibility problems come into play in that there are no airports close by and if you are coming from Buffalo or Rochester, the highway system (I-90 for Buffalo and I-390 for Rochester) heads away from I-86, making the trip longer unless you want to use two-lane road shortcuts. Once in town, campus is easy to find. Saint Bonaventure is actually a Census Designated Place just to the west of Olean. As for Bonnies parking, we were directed to the back of campus where the Reilly Center is. It was early enough that attendants brought us to some nearby single space lots. Otherwise, additional larger lots could be found on the west side of campus. Police direct traffic out after the game.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 6.5 out of 8
Exterior
The small, brownish-red brick Reilly Center doesn’t look any different than a regular building and one might even have a tough time figuring it is a basketball arena. For the most part, the facility is square, except for the front, where there is a slightly more inviting entrance. There are also windows on the sides of the building.
Exterior Ranking: 3 out of 10
Concourse
The Reilly Center is much more than a basketball arena and that is quite evident when stepping inside. Hallways mostly act as the concourse here and wood-paneled walls / tiled ceilings give away the age of the building. The multi-purposeness quickly becomes evident as you walk by the Campus Store, Post Office, Administrative Offices and the ROTC Hall of Fame. Just one small window handles box office duties and there is a separation between that area and the basketball section. As you would expect with small lobbies and hallways, space is at a premium. Bathrooms are even more challenging to find and navigate as not all sides have one for both Men and Women.
Concourse Ranking: 1.5 out of 5
Food
On my second visit, a recent addition called the RC Café helped the food situation. While this is mainly campus dining for students, it is open for all game attendees. It is kind of an odd mix as there are many kids eating here that aren’t even going to the game. There is enough table space to generally accommodate both. Ordering procedures can be a little tricky and the only items are custom-made sandwiches. Deeper in the arena, a pair of concession stands running parallel to the court entrances only sell hot dogs and snack items.
Food Ranking: 3 out of 8
Interior
Inside features mostly side seating with a wall at each end abruptly stopping the arena. Small bleachers sit on the floor at these ends (which is for the students). Sideline sections run from wall to wall and the seating starts from the floor and runs up to the top in three different sections, colored blue and red. The first section is pull-out seats, while each of the top two are reserved and permanent. Two separate walkways divide each section and these lead to doors that exit/enter the gym. Seats themselves aren’t too shabby as they are wide and have a nice cushion, despite being old. Most of the gym has a decent sightline, but there are issues as you get further from the middle. You have to turn to center yourself and lower sections may have a few heads in the way. It’s also not great high up in the seating bowl as the roof is low enough that it obscures the top portion of the arena. Without being cramped, they really put as many seats as possible in here as the back row gets close to the ceiling. It’s also against the back wall that there are windows that offer a unique perspective, not usually seen in a sporting arena.
Interior Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Scoreboard
The scoreboard looks like a guillotine and I guess it makes sense that there are only two sides given the very small amount of seating at the ends. These are where the students sit though and it sucks for them not to have access to video. Instead, they need to look at the end walls to find time and score. For everyone else, the board has a clear screen and gameplay is shown throughout.
Scoreboard Ranking: 3 out of 4
Displays
There are several dedication plaques around the facility and while many are not basketball-related, they offer a nice insight to vital people associated with the school. Trophy cases near the entrance to the inside of the gym have various memorabilia that are interesting. There is also a cool display for the Stith Brothers that sits just underneath a figurehead that goes back to the days when the team had the nickname “Brown Indians”. Simple picture frames with action shots or team portraits are periodically placed on the concourse walls. Inside the arena, they’ve added banners to the rafters for each NCAA/NIT appearance, plus they made their 1970 Final Four and 1977 NIT Championship stand out on an end wall. Bona has a lot of displays, somewhat splattered around, but at least they showcase team history.
Displays Ranking: 4.5 out of 6
Cost
Free parking and tickets costing $13 or $15 was a pretty good deal for a solid mid-major conference. Over 15 years later, the tickets were up to $20 for my return visit, which is still an understandable price. Overall, I’d call a Bonnies game a bargain, plus the limited food options aren’t priced too high either.
Cost Ranking: 7.5 out of 8
Fan Support
The Bonnies do very well considering how small both the school and regional population is. We had a true sellout on hand for the first game I saw in 2002. Many years feature overall attendance that is near capacity. After the dark days of the program have passed, fans have come back and recent games are being back played before a packed Reilly Center.
Fan Support Ranking: 7 out of 8
Atmosphere
This is what makes the Bonnie experience stand-out. Both games I saw at the Reilly Center featured a loud, passionate crowd and they did a good job on this afternoon to make the place rock. Fans are knowledgeable and they loudly applauded each basket while also getting on their feet at times. For the return game I saw them play against a ranked Buffalo squad, They went nuts when Bona cut the lead to 15! Granted, this was a big game, but I saw on TV a solid atmosphere for their opener against Bucknell earlier in the season, while most A-10 games last year featured Reilly loud and jumping. Students at this UB game were remarkably boisterous and they had a quite a few organized cheers. Unfortunately, their vulgarity was over the top with chants of “F*&% UB” and “Bull#%@#”. Outside of this, the Reilly Center is a great college basketball experience. I’d even go as far to say that 2-3 games per year, it is near the top of the sport for overall atmosphere.
Atmosphere Ranking: 12 out of 14
Other Stuff
Saint Bonaventure changed their nickname from “Brown Indians” to the “Bonnies” in 1992. Seemingly derogatory, the Brown Indian nickname was in honor of the nearby Seneca Tribe, who supported its use. However in the 1990s, the school feared negative feelings that were surfacing despite the honor and changed the name……The arena is named after Coach Reilly, a former football and basketball coach at the school…..Be careful when exiting your seat because at the end of the row, half of the stairs go down a level and can easily be tripped on.
Game (Initial Visit)
Jim Baron, who coached the Bonnies for nine previous seasons, returned as the visitor with Rhode Island and the crowd gave him a nice ovation. Saint Bonaventure’s J.R. Bremer absolutely dominated this game as he scored 29 first half points with 7 three-pointers. He finished with 35 in a great performance as the Bonnies cruised to a 22-point win.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
