For more than 40 years, the turnstile was the fan’s gateway as they entered the fever of Assembly Hall.
Now, the turnstile — which bore witness to three NCAA championships and six Final Four teams — will be a crown jewel in Mike Maroney’s sports memorabilia collection. He plans to build a shrine to it, to make it comfortable, because he knows what it’s worth.
Maroney is one of winners of the Indiana University Surplus Stores’ auction of 24 turnstiles from Assembly Hall. Two of them will be displayed for the public — one in the IU Archives reading room, the other in the Monroe County History Center.
The others are up for grabs.
Todd Reid, Manager of Indiana University Surplus Stores, said he’s been amazed at the public’s response to the turnstiles.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Reid said. “We’re getting well over $2,000 for these things. The highest one sold for $2,700.”
The Indiana University Surplus Stores sell anything and everything the University decides to retire, from computers to shelving units to precious pieces of memorabilia like the turnstiles.
The turnstiles came to the surplus store two years ago, when renovations began at Assembly Hall. Reid said he’s been waiting for the right moment to make them available to the public ever since.
“We’ve been looking for the prime time to sell them,” Reid said. “Now that we’ve got a nationally ranked basketball team, we knew people would be really interested.”
A variety of people have expressed interest in the turnstiles from around the country. Some are intense fans of IU athletics. Others are former players, or families with deep history at the University.
Maroney stumbled upon the turnstile auction through Twitter, and immediately knew he wanted to get his hands on one.
“They just had so much history and memory, so I looked at it and thought, ‘Oh my god, I have to have one of these,’” Maroney said. “So I set a bidding limit for myself and watched to see what the first few went for.”
Maroney collects memorabilia from a range of sports, and said the turnstile will be his most prized item, alongside an autographed jersey from a baseball player he idolized when he was growing up.
When he attended IU in the 1970s, Maroney played trumpet in the Marching Hundred, which allowed him to experience games in an intimate way. He was attached to all the details and tradition that defined IU’s sporting events, and said he was surprised to enter Assembly Hall a couple years ago and see the turnstiles missing.
“It seemed like a sign of moving into the electronic age,” Maroney said. “We just scan the tickets now, so we don’t need the turnstiles anymore I guess.”
When he found out he won the auction for the turnstile, Maroney told his cousin, who is a grad of University of Michigan and Duke University. His cousin joked Maroney should stick the turnstile in the doorway of his house, so he could display it prominently and still give it some action.
Maroney isn’t sure whether he will restore the turnstile, or leave it to rest as it is, with all the knicks and scars that speak of all the people who passed through it. For now, he’s going to keep it safe in his basement, surrounded by its commemorative plaque and certificate of authenticity.
The remainder of the turnstiles will be auctioned off through GovDeals.com. Those interested must register as bidders on the site. The starting bid for each one is $500, and the store hopes to auction all of them off before the end of March Madness.
