The Ernest N. Patty Building was completed in 1963. It houses a 1,792-seat gymnasium, a 25-yard swimming pool, courts for handball and racquetball, weight rooms, a rifle range, classrooms and locker rooms with saunas. It is also home to the university's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program as well as UAF’s NCAA varsity teams, which include Division II men’s and women’s basketball, cross country running, cross country skiing, coed rifle, women’s volleyball, women’s swimming and Division I men’s hockey. In 1979, a 1,300-seat ice arena was built to the west of the center.

The center is named after Ernest Newton Patty, who joined the first faculty of the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines as professor of geology and mining in 1922. Patty served as president of the university from 1953 – 1960.