page_title: Belk Gymnasium
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Belk Gymnasium / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Belk Gymnasium, University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
context_page_description: Belk Gymnasium, known informally as The Mine Shaft, is a gymnasium on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. Completed in 1970, it was the first on-campus home of the Charlotte 49ers basketball team.
context_section_description: Before Belk Gym was built, UNC Charlotte's basketball team (then a member of the NAIA) played at various high school gyms in the greater Charlotte area.  As the full-time home of the 49ers from 1970 through 1976, the team enjoyed a tremendous home-court advantage, going undefeated at home in 1974, 1975, and 1976.  When Charlotte joined the Sun Belt Conference for the 1976–77 season, Belk's seating capacity (approximately 3,000) was too small for the conference's standards; as a result, the team moved its conference home games to the original Charlotte Coliseum.
  From 1976 until the opening of Dale F. Halton Arena in 1996, the 49ers' women's basketball team and volleyball team played in the Mine Shaft; the men's basketball team played lower-profile non-league games in the gym during that time period - at least one each season.
caption: Belk Gym entrance
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK Z612 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "230", "Image YResolution": "230", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "504", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11452", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4278", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/640", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:04:07 12:43:25", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:04:07 12:43:25", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "28/3", "EXIF ApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "117/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2128", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2832", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "11148", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "70", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}