COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The building has no air conditioning, no replay screens and no trendy concession stands.

It never had a corporate name, luxury suites or loud music blaring over the public address system.

Cole Field House didn't change much in 47 years. It didn't have to.

	Little has changed inside Cole Field House since opening in 1955.

"The great thing about Cole is, when we play the last game here it will still be a great arena to watch a basketball game in," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "That's never changed. Every seat has had a great sight line, and in terms of game day, this is still an outstanding place to watch basketball."

The scene of several of the most memorable moments in college basketball history, Cole Field House will hold its final game Sunday, when second-ranked Maryland ends its 637-game run at the grand arena against Virginia.

Next season, the Terrapins will move across campus into the lavish Comcast Center, a 17,100-seat facility that will feature 20 corporate suites, a million-dollar scoreboard and new coaches' offices for most of the school's sports teams.

But it won't have the two things that made Cole Field House one of the most nation's most distinguished basketball arenas: a rich history, and the intimacy of 14,500 fans crammed together around a basketball court.

"Cole Field House has been one of the great venues in sport, and college basketball in particular," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I have always considered it an honor to go up there and play not just against Maryland, but in that grand old building. It has seen some amazing games and great players."

Plenty of upsets, too. Duke's 87-73 loss at Maryland last month marked the seventh time a No. 1 team has lost at Cole -- the highest casualty rate of any arena in the country.

Cole's most notable shocker occurred decades earlier, when unheralded Texas Western -- a team comprised solely of black players -- defeated Kentucky 72-65 in the 1966 NCAA championship game. The Miners' domination of an all-white Wildcat squad essentially paved the way for the racial integration of basketball teams at Southern schools.

It was one of two Final Fours held at Cole. The other, in 1970, featured such stars as Bob Lanier, Sidney Wicks and Artis Gilmore, and ended with UCLA defeating Jacksonville 80-69 -- the fourth of an unprecedented seven straight NCAA titles won by coach John Wooden.

That also happened to be the first season at Maryland for coach Lefty Driesell, who ultimately transformed a mediocre basketball program into a perennial contender in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Driesell stomped his foot on the sideline during dozens of amazing games, most notably the Terrapins' 31-30 upset of No. 2 South Carolina in 1971; their 67-66 win over No. 1 Notre Dame in 1979; and a 47-46 victory over Ralph Sampson and No. 1 Virginia in 1982.

Driesell's 17-year run ended in 1986 in the wake of the cocaine-induced death of Len Bias, but that did little to diminish his memory of a glorious era at Cole.

"There is a lot of history at Cole Field House. There were a lot of great games played there," Driesell said. "I hate to see them close it. There's so much good about it. It was a great place to coach."

Williams seems to think so. He's 154-35 at Cole, and has lost only one home game in the last two seasons. But his love for the building began long before he took the job in 1989.

"My favorite memory of Cole was in my senior year of high school when I was recruited by Maryland," said Williams, one of a handful of people to go through the school as both a player and coach. "I had never seen an arena of that size for basketball before. From that day on, I knew that I wanted to go to the University of Maryland to play basketball."

That's one reason the Terrapins are moving from Cole, which will continue to serve as a place where students can play intramural games, take exams and receive their diplomas. The shiny new Comcast Center, with its onsite weightlifting center and spacious locker rooms, should enable Williams to attract the quality players he needs to keep the program among the nation's elite.

"When we built Cole, it was deemed the best intercollegiate athletic in the country. We were proud of that. Unfortunately, we long ago lost that distinction," athletic director Debbie Yow said. "Maryland now gets to reclaim the distinction."

Eager to make sure the Terrapins don't lose the homecourt advantage they enjoyed at Cole, Yow kept the capacity at the Comcast Center to a cozy 17,100 and set aside the first 10 rows around the court for students.

Now, all she needs is for the place to create the same warm memories that Cole did.

"You can replace it," said former Terp guard Mo Howard, "but you can't duplicate the atmosphere, and you can't replace the teams and coaches and people that have been here. You won't find any place else."