Ernie & Bernie packed the house. Olympians Justin Gatlin and Benita Fitzgerald ran there. Elvis even gyrated there.

Its heyday long over, Stokely Athletics Center will be going away in the next three to six years.

Long-range plans are in play for the University of Tennessee athletic department to vacate Stokely, men's athletic director Mike Hamilton confirmed Friday.

UT's master campus plan calls for the athletic department to turn the facility over to the academic realm whenever space can be found for employees and sports teams.

"That will be a three- or four-year process,'' said Jeff Maples, UTK senior associate vice chancellor. "We've just now started talking about options.''

It might be even longer than that.

"It's conceivable it might be five or six years,'' Hamilton said.

"There's no immediacy, but it is something we have to plan for down the road.''

There is immediacy for women's volleyball and the indoor track teams.

A fire marshal ruled last year the building was no longer fit for crowds. Volleyball was granted a waiver for the 2007 season, Hamilton said.

Volleyball games will move to Thompson-Boling Arena next season, although the team will be allowed to practice in Stokely, its home since a 1998 renovation.

A match last November was delayed for an hour because rain leaked through the roof.

Indoor track can also practice in Stokely but UT's men's and women's teams will have to compete at meets away from home.

The building has also been ruled off limits to UT's summer sports camps.

Hamilton said the men's and women's athletic departments have to find other space for 110 employees, as well as the two sports.

There is limited office space available in the McKenzie-Lawson Center, Hamilton said. Baseball eventually will move its offices to Lindsey Nelson Stadium, Maples said.

Stokely's most likely fate is the wrecking ball.

"Renovation would be very, very costly,'' Maples said. "That's not a very good option."

Hamilton said new facilities for volleyball and indoor track will eventually be built.

"What we've got to decide is whether that's one facility or two separate facilities,'' he said. "The first preference is one.''

In addition to athletics, the Department of Military Science also has offices in Stokely.

The site occupied by Stokely began as the Armory Fieldhouse, a 7,500-seat gym for basketball that opened in 1959.

The success created after the arrival of Ray Mears to coach men's basketball in 1962 necessitated a larger venue.

A gift from William B. Stokely Jr., allowed UT to expand the Armory to the 12,700-seat Stokely Athletics Center for the 1966-67 basketball season.

Spurred by the popularity of the Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King teams in the 1970s, UT decided to go bigger again. Thompson-Boling Arena opened in 1987.

Thompson-Boling became UT's primary venue for not only sports but concerts and other events.

A number of major entertainers performed at Stokely, including Elvis Presley in 1972.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.