Bowling Green State University Athletics
15 Moments in 15 Years of the Stroh Center: Gymnastics Moves to the Stroh
August 25, 2026 | General, Gymnastics
This summer, join BGSU Athletics as in a look back at the first 15 years inside the Stroh Center. We continue our journey through the Stroh's history with Gymnastics' permanent move to the Stroh for home meets in 2024.
Previous moments in the series...
- Opening the Doors
- Volleyball Opens the Building with a B!G Win
- Hoops Hit the Hardwood
- The NCAA Tournament Comes to BG
- Stars Step into the Stroh
- Falcons Upset Undefeated and No. 14 Ranked Dayton Flyers
- BGSU Volleyball Shocks the Stroh, Upsetting No. 13 BYU
- Stroh Center Takes Center Stage for MAC Gymnastics Championships
- BGSU Bests the Bulls Before Record Crowd
- BGSU Hosts MAC Tournament Four Times
- Falcon History Finds Permanent Home in Schmidthorst Heritage Hall
- BGSU Buzzer Beaters in the Stroh
- Volleyball Sets BGSU Athletics Record with 18-0 Start
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — For more than a decade, Bowling Green gymnastics called Anderson Arena home. That was by design. When the Stroh Center opened its doors in 2011, the program moved into the historic building on East Wooster Street, and Anderson was reconfigured into a gymnastics-only venue, its floor scaled down to a 2,800-seat competition space. It was intimate. It was familiar. And for 12 seasons, it worked.
Then, on Oct. 12, 2023, BGSU announced a change that reshaped gameday for good: Starting in 2024, every home meet on the Falcons' schedule would be contested at the Stroh Center.
"The 2024 gymnastics schedule has set our program up for a fantastic season," then-head coach Kerrie Turner said in the announcement. "Perhaps the most exciting piece of this is that our home competitions will be hosted in the Stroh Center, a premier facility for the student-athletes and the fans."
The shift wasn't just about square footage. It placed BGSU gymnastics on the same competition floor that already hosted NCAA Tournament basketball, MAC volleyball championships and a decade and a half of Falcon signature moments. It was a stage built for crowds, cameras and big nights.
The new era began on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, when Bowling Green opened its season at home against Illinois State. Doors opened at 1 p.m., admission ran $5, and for the first time, a Falcon gymnastics home meet unfolded entirely under the Stroh Center's lights. It also doubled as Alumnae Day, drawing former Falcons back to watch the program step into its new venue.
The full home slate that year included Illinois State, Northern Illinois, a tri-meet against Central Michigan and UW-Oshkosh, and a season-ending tri-meet with Eastern Michigan, West Virginia and Fisk. Four dates all ticketed for the first time in program history.
Anderson Arena didn't disappear from the program's story. The Falcons still train there, and it remains the site of preseason intrasquad meets that give fans an early look at each new roster. But the meets that count now belong to the Stroh.
The move has only grown in significance since. Bowling Green hosted the MAC Gymnastics Championships at the Stroh Center in 2026; a fitting extension of a decision made three years earlier: that Falcon gymnastics deserved a permanent home on the program's biggest stage.
What started as a scheduling change has become part of the building's identity. One more program, one more gameday experience, one more chapter in 15 years of the Stroh Center.
