Willi Unsoeld exhibits a rappelling position. Unsoeld earned a BS in physics at Oregon State in 1951. He helped to establish the OSC Mountain Club. He taught religious studies at Oregon State in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1963 he became part of the first group of mountain climbers from the U.S. to scale Mt. Everest. Unsoeld died in an accident on Mt. Rainier in 1979.
Construction of the new coliseum was completed in late 1949 and the first Oregon State basketball game was held there against the University of Utah on December 16th. At the time, Gill Coliseum was the second largest suspended arch type of structure in the nation and was touted as the "finest basketball plant west of the Rockies."