Larry,
Many venues (of which there were only a couple of regionals at that time) had the maintenance crew take out the center post on some of the doorways so robots could be moved. Our Ladder Logic (1998) robot looks to be close to 36x36 too.
http://www.wildstang.org/gallery2/v/...g_jpg.jpg.html
I might be able to check dimensions tonight. The ball was pretty big though. I don't have any rules pre-2001.