Hearnes quickly became one of college basketball's toughest places to play during the 1980s, when players such as Steve Stipanovich, Jon Sundvold, Derrick Chievous and Doug Smith suited up for Norm Stewart.

In its later life, the building saw several changes: a new floor was installed in 1998, rear-projection video monitors replaced the matrix boards at the turn of the new millennium, and the student seating plan was also altered.

Before Quin Snyder came to coach the Tigers, student seating was scattered throughout the arena and distributed via who picked up tickets first, and while the largest amount sat along one sideline (including the band, Student Athletic Board and the aforementioned Antlers), others sat as high as the D sections, which early in the arena's life doubled as lecture halls (to this day, their seats have fold-out writing desks).

The final regulation home game at Hearnes came in 2004, where a David Padgett buzzer-beater meant Kansas would send the building out on a Tiger loss.

In 2018, a water main broke and flooded the event level: this forced volleyball to play that year's home schedule at Mizzou Arena but also enabled Hearnes to be renovated.