UMD Athletics

The venerable Romano Gymnasium has housed UMD men's basketball for over a half-century and women's basketball and volleyball for nearly the past four decades. Romano Gymnasium officially opened with a 73-72 UMD men's basketball triumph against Gustavus Adolphus College on December 12, 1953.

The 2,759-seat Romano Gymnasium has certainly been a hospitable home for the UMD volleyball program. The Bulldogs have won an impressive 86.2 percent of its matches in that facility since 1977. The Bulldogs have advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament 14 times under head coach Jim Boos. In addition, UMD has also turned in eight perfect home records to date (including a 15-0 mark in 2012). The Volleyball Bulldogs packed a record 2,441 fans into Romano Gymnasium on Nov. 1, 2011 to watch UMD do battle with arch NSIC-rival Concordia University-St. Paul, which shattered the previous largest turnout of 2,312 on Oct. 30, 2007 between the same two schools. 

The facility received an extensive $2 million upgrade following the 1986-87 season and another makeover three summers ago, was renamed in honor of the late Ralph Romano, UMD's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics from 1969 to 1983, in February 1988. In 2013 UMD added top of the line full color and motion graphics Daktronics LED scorer's table display and 2017, a new 14' x 20' Daktronics 6 mm videoboard was installed at a cost of $300,000 funded through the generosity of loyal Bulldog Athletics Benefactors.

In the fall of 2019 the facility received yet another facelift with the addition of two wall wraps. One located on the foldable wall reading "Welcome to Bulldog Country" and the other in front of the north balcony reading "Minnesota Duluth".