Concordia Seminary celebrates 75 years of Pederson Field House with events, alumni games

CLAYTON, Mo. — It’s been more than half a century since David Oesch played his last game for the Preachers.

That changed Friday when Oesch and dozens of other basketball alumni took to the historic hardwood of Pederson Field House to face off against, and defeat, the active Preacher roster.  

Oesch didn’t get a basket, but he did get a charley horse — and several rebounds.

“Stole one ball, too, so that’s pretty good,” the Jackson, Tennessee, resident said.

The alumni matchup was the primetime event of Concordia Seminary’s 75^th anniversary celebration of the Pederson Field House.

The building was packed with generations of Preacher basketball fans set to watch two alumni basketball games. Kids lined the balcony waving green and yellow pompoms with other alumni watched and reminisced.

“Spent a lot of time in this Pederson Field House,” said Steve Carter. “I was a tennis player and intermural sports and things like that.

“But this was almost like the second home for exercise and stuff.”

Carter, who graduated in 1966 and lives in St. Louis, remembers the NBA St. Louis Hawks using the fieldhouse as a practice facility.

“And so, in a very informal way, I got to meet Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagan,” he said.

The hall-of-fame pair, both 1958 NBA champions with the Hawks, were notable people to meet: Pettit was a 2-time NBA most valuable player and 11-time NBA All-Star; Hagan was a 5-time NBA All-Star.

Carter even shot baskets with hall-of-famer Zelmo Beaty while Beaty was rehabbing an injury.

While Carter didn’t play basketball for the Preachers, sticking to tennis and intermural sports, his grandson, who graduated last year, was on the team. He followed in grandpa’s footsteps, graduating and going into ministry.

Carter was a pastor in Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. His grandson, Josiah Schultz, is currently a pastor in Keystone, Iowa.

“This place has a lot of history, and it’s just amazing to be back and to see old friends and to think about all the amazing players who played here,” Schultz said. “…It’s a neat piece of history, and that belongs to our seminary. So, it’s really cool.”

The game itself was official, with a scorebook tracking stats and a trio of officials calling the small number of fouls. The games consisted of two, 20-minute halves.

“I’m worried for some of these guys that are out here,” Schultz said jokingly. “They’re a little bit older than most guys that come back, but that’s just a testament to this place and how treasured this place is. And you know, we are being trained to be gospel administrators, but we also have fun.”

From a surplus Kansas airplane hangar to a fieldhouse

The seminary purchased the 162-by-147-foot Army surplus hangar located in Kansas in 1949. Plans called for a capacity of 3,300 with other amenities — including locker rooms, handball courts, boxing and wrestling rooms, exercise rooms and a student lounge.

The Preachers had been playing basketball for 22 years after the relocation to the seminary’s present location in Washington University’s fieldhouse with practices in CBC’s gym, according to a 1949 St. Louis Star and Times article.

Students had been donating $5 each towards the gymnasium fund.

The floor was still under construction as Concordia Seminary Athletic Director Pete Pederson addressed 1,200 people in the campus’s new fieldhouse on Nov. 20, 1949.

The fieldhouse was the first of its kind at the Clayton campus, the result of years of student donations to the gymnasium fund.

“We have been a very patient people and therefore now a very happy people,” seminary President Dr. Louis Sieck said as reported by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

While the surplus hangar was valued at $45,000, the total construction cost was $165,000, the Star and Times reported.

Wischmeyer and Lorenz architected the building, and construction was contracted by Woermann Construction Company, the Globe-Democrat reported. The playing floor was reported to measure 120-by-80 feet.

Interior rooms, a balcony and stage were added after initial construction.  

NBA practices, concerts

Through the years Pederson has played host to choral concerts, badminton meets and plenty of high school games.

The NBA Hawks, who played in St. Louis from 1955 to 1968, used Pederson as a practice facility until the early 1960s.

The fieldhouse had one of the best basketball floors in the city, leading to it becoming the Hawks’ practice home.

Visiting teams would also practice in the building. The Hawks, following their championship against the Celtics, hosted a basketball clinic for kids and students with coaches and players.

“Ben Kerner, owner of the Hawks, was known to financially support the Preachers, provide NBA passes to Seminary students and provide the funding for the trophy case in the lobby of the field house,” according to a memory book and history about the fieldhouse published by Concordia.

Preacher drafted to NBA

The memory book highlights how 6-foot-5 basketball standout Tom Faszholz went from the seminary to the Hawks after being drafted.

“During my second year at the Seminary, I was questioning whether the Lord was calling me to pastoral ministry or teaching and coaching at a Synod school,” Faszholz said in the memory book. “The Hawks had asked me to join some of their practices, and during the NBA draft that May, they selected me.”

Faszholz went through June auditions and said he missed his first five shots but made 13 of 15 field goal attempts after, leading to a contract.

“The high point of my professional career was scoring 16 points in a game against the Celtics as we opened the University of Kentucky’s new arena,” he said.

Named for Pederson in 1981

Coach “Pete” Pederson, director of health and physical education, was the first layman to be a full-time faculty member at Concordia.

He had connections across St. Louis, from the Cardinals to the Hawks. He even called in tennis player-turned-frozen custard pioneer Ted Drewes to help with the tennis program, per Concordia’s memory book.

In 1981, Concordia named the fieldhouse after him.

Oesch spoke fondly of his old coach, talking about how while he wasn’t a natural guard, that’s the position Oesch wanted to play.

“He figured out what to do, and listened to the players themselves, where they felt they would be comfortable and do the best job,” Oesch said.

He said plays from the Hawks would find their way into the Preachers playbook. The team found victories against larger schools like Indiana State and Southeast Missouri.

History and photos of the teams of all sports are hung along the hallways in the fieldhouse.

Oesch said Pederson took an out-of-shape team and turned around a series of early-season losses, making the 1973 Preachers “one of the best teams ever.”

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