The Auburn women’s basketball team wasn’t shedding any tears when it likely said its final farewell to the “hot box” Friday.

The gym Auburn uses when the happenings at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum interfere with its practice schedule got its nickname for a reason. The white brick walls trap the heat inside the small, compact cell of a gym, creating heat that is only pacified by a few open doors and windows.

All the sweat and frustration from occasionally practicing on a court fit for low-level high schools is going away because the 40-year-old Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum is going away.

Today’s regular season finale against No. 16 Kentucky may not signal the Tigers’ final game in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum — they’ll play an exhibition game there in November — but it most certainly draws the “hot box” era to a close.

“It’s not bittersweet at all. Not for me, at least,” coach Nell Fortner said. “I’m so excited about the new coliseum. I think it’s all good. It’s all very positive.”

The women’s team hasn’t been playing in the arena as long as the men, but they certainly had just as grand of an opening.

Susan Nunnelly, now a physical education instructor and Auburn’s PA announcer, was a band member for the men’s opener in 1969 and eventually became the Tigers’ head coach. Crowds were tough to draw for women’s games at the time, with the Title IX movement just gaining steam, so Nunnelly had no problem playing her team’s games in the student center.

In fact, she preferred it.

“I played them in the sports arena to get the crowd, what little crowd might come, closer to the court to have any kind of homecourt advantage,” she said.

It wasn’t until 1974 that Nunnelly finally decided the time had come. Enough with just practicing in the brand new building, the Tigers were going to play a game there, Nunnelly decided.

And who better to play than Alabama, right?

The Tigers won their SEC opener in style, 69-31.

“We took care of them quite handily,” Nunnelly said.

With Nunnelly at her current post as one of the league’s most recognized PA announcers, the Tigers began playing their games full-time at BEMC for the 1979-80 season, the first year under Joe Ciampi.

It may not have had everything to do with Auburn’s success over Ciampi’s 25 years, but it certainly appeared to be the right decision. Ciampi, who finished with a 607-213 overall record, guided the Tigers to 16 NCAA appearances, which included 10 berths in the Sweet 16, six appearances in the Elite Eight and three Final Four appearances.

“We had some great teams with Joe,” Nunnelly said.

Ask Auburn’s players and coaches of today about their favorite BEMC memory, and the answers are unanimous. The Jan. 25, 2009 rout of perennial powerhouse Tennessee before an arena-record 12,067 fans — 1,567 more than the arena’s listed capacity — served as the crowning moment of Auburn’s banner season and will be tough to match even in the brand new Auburn Arena.

“Our goal was to fill the Coliseum up and we actually did it,” Fortner said. “We established a great core base of fans for women’s basketball here that we can continue to build on and that was just as important.

“We probably got a whole lot of new fans that day and that’s carried over to this year. Even though this year wasn’t like last year, they’ve been very supportive and very loyal fans.”

Fortner expects them to be just as loyal in the new building, the carrot that’s been dangling at the end of a string for the past four or five years.

“We’ve been here for a while now and this gym has been for a while,” guard Alli Smalley said. “It might be a little bittersweet, but it’s exciting to get to the new place.”

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