Alumni Hall was built in 1955 to suit the needs of the men's basketball program, under the direction of then-college president Rev. Robert J. Slavin, O.P. The team had previously played either off-campus or in a small gymnasium in the basement of Bishop Harkins Hall (a space which would later become the Blackfriars Theatre). It was dedicated to those alumni who had fought in World War II.

For its first seventeen years, it was the home of the burgeoning men's basketball program,