During the day, the interior of the arena is bathed with natural sunlight, so much so that a curtain was installed on the western side of the building to prevent glare during afternoon events.

The largest crowd ever to witness a game on the hardwood of Monte Hale Arena was 11,807 on February 26, 2004, when the Blue Raiders defeated the WKU Hilltoppers 73–59.

The Lady Raiders volleyball team staged matches in Murphy Center until 2002, when the program moved to the neighboring Alumni Memorial Gymnasium.

Especially during the 1970s and 1980s, but even through the late 1990s, Murphy Center was one of the Nashville area's premier concert venues, having the largest capacity of any suitable indoor facility in the region.

Occasional concerts are still staged at Murphy Center, although they are typically geared toward the MTSU student body and feature lower-tier artists that draw smaller crowds.

Monte Hale Arena inside Murphy Center is used for occasional convocations of MTSU students, including CUSTOMS events for incoming freshmen and transfers.

The idea of a new arena for then-Middle Tennessee State College was conceptualized by school President Quill E. Cope in the early 1960s, as a response to MTSC's growth.

When Cope retired in 1967, new University President Mel Scarlett combined the two concepts into one facility and envisioned a larger arena that could accommodate sports and other events, with a side benefit being the ability to move graduation ceremonies indoors.

In a 2011 interview with The Daily News Journal, MTSU Athletics Director Chris Massaro envisioned a new indoor track facility elsewhere on campus that would allow the bleachers to be removed and replaced with suites.

[1] The building underwent significant renovations in recent years to modernize the roof, lighting, air conditioning system, concession stands, and restrooms.

[9] The upgrades were completed in phases in order to prevent total closure and keep the building functional for most events through the renovation period, although area high school graduations were moved elsewhere.

[9][10] As a result of the 2014 renovations, the white foam waffle-shaped ceiling panels, a highly-visible and distinctive characteristic of Monte Hale Arena, were permanently removed.

[8] Other improvements implemented since 2002 include a new wooden floor, all-new blue seats in the reserved seating sections, two new scoreboards (one above the bleachers at each end of the court) with HD videoboards included, four new LED video scoreboards (one above each of the four tunnels at the corners of the court), a new sound system, and modernizing the existing bleacher sections (painting gray, replacing retraction motors, and bringing to ADA standards).

The court's design was rotated 180 degrees, along with correspondingly moving the benches, scorers' table, and media row to the opposite sides in order to better accommodate television broadcasts.