Qualla: Memorial Hall (Delaware State)

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. Memorial Hall holds 1,800 people. The number does not include the four-deep crowd standing along the back walls on big game nights, the campus pep band squeezed into the corner of the stands, or the cheerleaders who pace the baseline. The arena is the home court of the Delaware State Hornets, NCAA Division I men's and women's basketball. The building is small enough that visiting coaches can hear the heckling from the third row. The home team gets a 10-point edge before the tip. The state-of-the-art arenas at the bigger MEAC schools hold three to five thousand. The Division I conference standard runs closer to seven thousand. Delaware State plays in 1,800 and likes it that way. Most of the time.

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): A War Memorial Gymnasium

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. Memorial Hall was built in the mid-1950s as a multipurpose gymnasium on the campus of Delaware State College. The name reflected a postwar tradition: campus buildings constructed in the decade after World War II were often dedicated to students and alumni who had served in the wa...

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): The 2024 Volleyball Title

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. In November 2024, Delaware State hosted the MEAC Volleyball Championship in Memorial Hall. The Lady Hornets, seeded third, faced top-seeded Howard University in the final. The match went to five sets - the maximum allowed in college volleyball - and the home team came back from b...

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): The Replacement on the Drawing Board

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the early 2020s, DSU leadership had decided that Memorial Hall, while beloved, no longer served the institution's growing athletic ambitions and student population. The arena is too small to host the entire student body at graduation, orientation, or large convocations. The lo...

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): The Old Gym That Holds Together

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. Until the new arena exists, Memorial Hall continues to host the Hornets. DSU has made periodic upgrades - new flooring, improved lighting, the Bayhealth partnership for athletic training services - but the core structure has not changed since the 1950s. The men's basketball team ...

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0

Memorial Hall (Delaware State): Old, Cramped, Out of Date, and Loved

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gregory Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0. Alumni and local media have called Memorial Hall, with varying degrees of affection, old, cramped, and out of date. One alumnus journalist wrote about the struggle to get to and from the bathroom during a packed game night and added that anything to replace Memorial Hall would be...

Image: Gregory Koch | CC BY-SA 4.0