WEEKLY POLL

Sports Arena to join legendary Tiedke’s, Swayne Field

By J. Patrick Eaken
Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Sixty years and millions of fans later, the Sports Arena is joining legendary Tiedke’s Department Store and Swayne Field as another of Toledo’s historic landmarks that have come and gone.

Plans are to raze the Sports Arena this summer, but those plans cannot erase the childhood and adulthood memories of those who attended events at the nicknamed “River Dome.”

In its final years, the nickname that became most prominent was “The Old Barn,” a reflection of an aging facility that no longer met the standards of modern amenities.

The proof was provided by Mud Hens’ general manager Joe Napoli — who decided that Toledo should go without hockey for two years because in his opinion it could not profitable in the Sports Arena.

It’s ice is not only too small for professional hockey, Napoli says business models which studied a professional franchise playing in “The Old Barn” concluded any attempt to do so would result in financial failure.

Napoli should know. His Lucas County-owned Toledo Mud Hens are now part of the new organization that will be operating the Storm under a new name in the East Coast Hockey League at a new downtown arena proposed to open in 2009.

For Sports Arena vice president and general manager Gary B. Wyse, it’s the end of a dream-come true. After 22 years serving as the facility’s top operation’s person, he, Storm, and Sports Arena employees have had to make some choices.

Wyse grew up in the farming community of Fayette in Fulton County, where an occasional trip to the Sports Arena as a youth stirred his interest.

“That’s how I kind of got interested in the goings on of the arena,” said Wyse. “It wasn’t until I was 17 or 18-years-old that I saw my first live hockey event back when the Toledo Hornets player here. I enjoyed it so much I couldn’t get enough.

“Through the mid-70s, with all the Arab oil embargos, the gas crisis, and everything, jobs were pretty tight out in the country and that’s when I looked to moving into the city and immediately got a job with the then-Toledo Goaldiggers working with then-(GM) Ted Garvin.

“One thing led to another and the next thing you know my hobby that I enjoyed in my spare time became my career,” Wyse continued. “I went through a number of positions with the team and then with the building and I’ve been here ever since.”

The Sports Arena was completed in 1947, mostly in thanks to a private investment by a German immigrant, Virgil Gladieux. He served as chairman of the board 50 years, and the arena was jointly held by 600 shareholders, including Gladieux.

The cost of its construction was approximately $1 million, said Wyse, and the cozy 5,200 seat facility was state-of-the-art at that time. For events, such as concerts, that did not need the playing floor, the available seating reached 8,250 for boxing and wrestling — 6,500 to 7,500 for concerts, and 4,400 for stage shows.

Although the arena is only 33 2/3 feet tall, it has been home to six pro hockey teams — the Toledo Buckeyes (1949-50), Mercurys (1950-62), Blades (1963-70), Hornets (1970-74), Goaldiggers (1974-86), and Storm (1991-2007).

Attached to the Sports Arena is an exhibit hall that accommodates 30,000 square feet of space. When combined with the Sports Arena’s 20,000 square feet of arena floor space, it’s a total of 50,000 square feet of exhibit and trade show space.

The exhibit hall could accommodate 2,500 for concerts and meetings and 1,800 for banquets. In addition, there are three meeting rooms totaling 5,000 square feet of space.

The multi-purpose arena and exhibit hall could host events ranging from 50 square feet to 50,000 square feet of column-free exhibition space with 1,700 free paved parking spaces. The arena could handle nearly any configuration, claimed Sports Arena officials.

“From small meetings to dances, to trade shows to concerts, we have the space to fit your needs…Every seat is the best seat in the house,” arena publicity material stated.

All exhibit space was located on the ground level. All loading doors opened directly onto the show floor.

“Since our business opened in 1947 in downtown Toledo, many millions of people have attended a wide range of events and activities at the arena,” states a letter written by Wyse for local fans that was posted on the arena’s website.

Then and now: an historical overview of hockey in Toledo

By Dan Saevig
Special to The Press
sports@presspublications.com

This article is taken from the media guide of the Toledo Storm’s 1991-92 inaugural season. The writer, Dan Saevig was a local television broadcaster and sportswriter who now serves as associate vice president for alumni relations at the University of Toledo.

Somwhere at the bottom of the Maumee River lie a pair of hockey skates. Early in the morning of April 14, 1986, Don Murdoch walked to the center of the Martin Luther King Bridge, announced his retirement, and tossed his skates into the cold water below. It was a funny, yet sad way for the former National Hockey Leaguer turned Toledo Goaldigger to say goodbye.

It may have been an omen. A few weeks later the Goaldigger organization was saying goodbye, falling victim to rising expenses in the vastly improved, yet increasingly far-flung International Hockey League. Pro hockey had been put on ice in Toledo.

The first team to take the ice at the Sports Arena was known as the Mercurys, the nickname courtesy of a sponsorship from a local car dealer. Toledo had a brief hockey fling with a semi-pro club known as the Babcocks that played at the Ice House off of Berdan Avenue, but it wasn’t until completion of the Sports Arena in 1947 and the arrival of the Mercurys that the puck and stick game became a fixture on the local sports scene.

With the conclusion of World War II, hockey players were readily available and Toledo was an exciting place to be. The crowds were large and off-ice jobs were available to those who wanted to supplement their income.

“ Toledo paid more money to get all the better players here,” Norm Grinke said. “In those days, they’d get the guys jobs with the bigger companies like Jeep. They even got my wife a job.”

The investment in Grinke and others paid off. Toledo won a Turner Cup in its inaugural season of 1947-48, adding playoff titles in 1951 and 1952.

Toledo annexed another championship in 1950, but not in the IHL. The Mercurys became the Buckeyes for the 1949-50 season, leaving the “I” for the Eastern Hockey League and a sponsorship with The Buckeye Brewing Company. The expansion icers went on capture not only the regular season crown but also the playoff championship from the New York Rovers. It would prove to be the only time a Sports Arena team would play outside the IHL until the arrival of the Storm this season.

The Sports Arena’s third team, the Blades, arrived from Omaha, Nebraska, in 1963. The transplanted squad filled what had been a one-year absence left by the demise of the Mercurys who won only 17 games in 1961-62.

“It was a learning experience that first year,” said former Blade Greg Jablonski. “We had many of the same players that were the Knights in Omaha, but it was a new city and new fans.”

It may have been a new city, but like the Mercurys and the Buckeyes the expansion Blades were quick learners, rolling to the Turner Cup behind the likes of Jablonski, Chick Calmers and Glenn Ramsay. Three years later, the Blades captured another Turner Cup. It would be the last for a Toledo hockey team until 1974.

The Blades sharpness began to dull by 1970. Changes were undertaken for the 1970-71 season, with the Sports Arena becoming a Hornets nest. But Toledo’s hockey Hornets never had much sting, finishing above .500 just once in four years before owner Paul Bright moved the franchise to Lansing, Michigan. Ironically, what might have been a death knell turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

The announcement came late in the summer of 1974. Hockey was back at the Arena, courtesy of owner Virgil Gladieux and long-time Toledo hockey administrator Andy Mulligan. Their first task was to find a coach. They selected former Detroit Red Wings coach Ted Garvin.

“I used to get such a bad misconception of Toledo when I came in with Port Huron,” said Garvin. “I used to tell the players that I would never coach there. It turns out the five years I spent in Toledo were the best five years of my life.”

And with good reason. The expansion Diggers went on to shock the hockey world by winning the Turner Cup, in the process setting a local attendance record with more than 200,000 fans. Garvin’s squad later bullied its way into the Cup finals in 1977 before winning it all again in 1978.

A Toledo team would have to wait until 1982 to drink from the Cup again. With general manager Bill Beagan supplying the players and Bill Inglis the coaching talent, Toledo iced a dynasty. Led by the likes of Dirk Graham, Lorne Molleken, Mike Greeder, Claude Noel and Dave Falkenberg, champagne flowed in 1982 and 1983.

The Goaldiggers would skate for two more seasons. Garvin returned mid-way through the 1984-85 campaign, followed one year later by former Montreal Canadien Peter Mahovlich. Neither coach was able to return the glory of past successes and the franchise was put in escrow and later sold.

It’s now time to write a new chapter in Toledo hockey history. The next page features a new organization, new colors, a new coach in local favorite Chris McSorley, a direct working agreement with the Detroit Red Wings and a new loop in the East Coast Hockey League. Gone, like Don Murdoch’s skates are the Goaldiggers, Blades, Hornets, Buckeyes and Mercurys. Toledo’s team is now the Storm.

Since Saevig wrote this article for the Storm, Toledo’s most recent hockey incarnation won six division titles (most recent in 2006), two Riley Cups (1993, 94) and two Brabham Cup titles (1992, 2003).

A night at the Sports Arena watching closed circuit

By Joseph “Jay” Pilkington
From “The Neutral Corner”
sports@presspublications.com

There was a tremendous buildup to the great fight between Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987, which was one of many events broadcast via closed circuit at the Sports Arena.

The buildup of the fight began when Leonard announced he would fight Hagler in the spring of 1986. I remember watching on television when Leonard announced he would fight Hagler. I was very excited about the prospect of the fight.

Leonard had fought only once in the previous six years. His last great fight was a 1981 knockout of Thomas “Hitman” Hearns in which he sustained an eye injury (detached retina). He announced his retirement after the eye injury was diagnosed. He came back against Kevin Howard but was knocked down before knocking Howard out, and then he re-retired.

Hagler had been middleweight champion for seven years before fighting Leonard. He won the middleweight championship with a knockout win in the third round over Alan Minter in 1980. He defended his title over a period of seven years. He had decision wins over Roberto Duran and a knockout of Thomas Hearns. Hagler’s last win before fighting Leonard was a knockout of John “The Beast” Mugabi.

I remember I was working at the Way Public Library in Perrysburg the summer before the fight. I remember before the fight that I had seen Leonard in a car near the library while I was mowing the lawn. Leonard waved at me and I waved back. Then Leonard drove off.

I finished up high school at Perrysburg in January of 1987 at the age of 18. I went to work at Burger King in the winter of 1987, and then went to work at Anderson’s in the spring of 1987.

I went on vacation to Naples, Florida the month before the fight. On the way to Florida, I read an article about the fight in Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated picked Leoanrd to win. They said Leonard still had his legs and that Hagler was slowing down and slipping, that Leonard would pull off the upset, in a nutshell.

Hagler was a fighter who liked to fight; Leonard liked climbing on the edge, taking a chance, according to Sports Illustrated. They both defeated Duran, and they both defeated Hearns, so they had something in common — two victories over the same opponent.

Down in Florida, I saw Leonard on television watching a parade. He looked so handsome, he was shining, he just had this glow to him. He was ready for the fight. He said he trained “very, very hard”, actually they both did, they had to to prepare for the upcoming brawl.

I remember entering the Sports Arena in East Toledo along the Maumee River, today referred to as the “Riverdome” by Toledoans. Before the fight there was excitement in the air as locals gathered to watch the fight on a large closed circuit screen at one end of the old arena.

The crowd had a lot of men with long hair and facial hair, they were a beer drinking crowd, but I felt welcomed by them all. The camaraderie and excitement was there. The crowds at the Sports Arena at other fights got so violent from time to time that once there was once even a shooting among the crowd, not fatal, though.

I was with my dad at the fight, my mother and brother weren’t interested in the fight, of course, so it was just something special for me and my dad to go to. The crowd was getting rough and fun as time went on.

Before the fight on the big screen old fights from the past were shown. When Roberto Duran was replayed fighting Sugar Ray in their first 1980 fight, the crowd just went wild, they were ecstatic, they really loved Duran.

When the featured fight began with Leonard dancing and moving away from Hagler, he circled around him and used the whole ring with his fast footwork. He would move in and hit Hagler with a flurry of punches and then move out of harm’s way. He didn’t hurt Hagler but he piled up points in the early rounds while Hagler tried to get him in the corners.

Hagler couldn’t catch up with Leonard until the middle rounds. He finally cornered Leonard and had him on the ropes, but he couldn’t hurt him or muster enough savvy to win the fight. At various times late in the fight Hagler cornered Sugar Ray and seemed to be on the brink of putting Sugar away, but Leonard would retaliate with a flurry of punches and escape from the corner, leaving Marvelous frustrated and confused.

At one point, Sugar Ray frustrated Hagler to the point where it Hagler got to shoving and pushed him in the back. Sugar Ray just smiled back because he knew he was frustrating Hagler, he didn’t get mad at all. Hagler knew it was Leonard’s night deep down inside.

Sugar Ray got a second wind late in the fight, and Leonard danced his way to victory, hanging on in the 12 th round to seal up the decision which had crowd elated. That was the way Sugar Ray fought.

I remember the family next to us in the old Sports Arena, which Toledo officials promise to replace someday. The man next to me said, “the fight was worth every penny.” I felt Leonard won the majority of the fans, the fans rallied behind him in the Toledo arena. One fan would chant for Sugar Ray, “Go, Sugar, Go.” There were some Hagler fans as well.

The fight changed boxing history. It was the end of the line for Hagler, who never fought again, which was a smart decision by him. Hagler got out just on time and on top, a wise move.

For Leonard, the fight verified that he was one of the all time greats. He would have two more great fights—a rematch with Hearns (a draw), a last victory in the rubber match against a 38-year-old Roberto Duran, who was quite old for a fighter, well past his prime.

But Ray never reached the same peak, mentally, spiritually, or physically as he did against Marvelous Marvin.

This article was reprinted from The Neutral Corner, a Toledo area boxing publication published by International Boxing Club director Harry E. Cummins III.

Curtice man’s arena memories cover all 60 years

By J. Patrick Eaken
Press Sports Arena
sports@presspublications.com

Even 78-year-old Clifford “Chick” Shields realizes there is a time when places like the Toledo Sports Arena have outlived their usefulness.

Still working as a part-time salesman for Genoa Motors, Chick started events there when it was a spanking, brand new state-of-the-art facility. In 1947, he says, the arena was a place of wonder.

“When the Sports Arena was first opened up, I was just a young guy, like 17-years-old,” Shields recalls. “I lived in Curtice and the big thing then was we spent a lot of time at Pearson Park, which was kind of great because I lived in the part of Curtice that went to Genoa High School, so I got to meet a lot of kids from Clay, Waite, and different places at Pearson Park. I spent a lot of time at Pearson Park with kids from the East Side.

“When the Sports Arena opened up, it gave us a place we could really go and it was a big time for us over at the Sports Arena to see the Holiday on Ice, the Harlem Globetrotters would come in there, and they had wrestling,” Shields continued. “We actually thought (wrestling) was real in those days.”

Sometimes, the wrestling events would even be held in the exhibit hall, where it was often televised locally, recalls Shields. No matter what event he attended, he kept the habit of holding on to certain keepsakes, like 50-60 year old programs he has in his possession to this day.

“We went there for a lot of events. I was single and still dating, and for some reason we kept those programs and it’s really great to look back on them now and what did go on,” exclaims Sheilds.

“The one event that I have a program for was the Toledo Aquarama, which was an 11-day event with all kinds of sporting events. It was a really big time and a big deal in Toledo in 1948. They had steam boat rides; they had golf tournaments, and something for everybody to do.

“As part of Aquarama, they had swimming and diving exhibitions on a nightly basis for about 11 nights,” continued Shields.

He became a big hockey fan, following nearly every professional team that ever played at One Main Street.

“They were always crowded,” Shields recalls. “I never knew anything about hockey, but when they started playing hockey there was a group of us from Curtice that attended a lot of hockey games when they were knows as the Mercurys.”

He remembers the name “Mercurys” because he said the pro team was sponsored by a Mercury automobile dealership on Madison Avenue.

At first, Shields admits, the hockey games were difficult to follow, but entertaining.

“We didn’t know much about the game, but it was action packed so we went there for the action. I didn’t know anything about the red lines, the blue lines, and all of the rules of the game, but it was just a great place to go,” said Shields.

“I remember going to school there and walking over and watch them setting up the ice,” said Shields.

Born in 1929, Shields remembers even before the Sports Arena was built, the ice shows and other activities were often held at the University of Toledo Field House.

He was attending the then-Toledo University and would checking out events between classes, which, on occasion, were still being held there because of the busy schedule at the Sports Arena.

“When I started school there, it was right after World War II and all the veterans were coming back,” recalls Shields. “The Field House was the only place big enough for the freshman class. There were 2,100 freshmen at Toledo and they were all under the GI Bill and going under GI rights. I remember seeing some of the events there and even in my memory that seems like a long time ago.”

But Shields, like those who came under the employee of the Sports Arena, has accepted the fact that Toledo needs a new venue to host such events.

“I think the (Sports Arena) really served its purpose,” Shields says. “But they didn’t really add to it much over the years.”

However, it is Shields who, like many East Side residents, believes there is good reason to build the new facility on the same grounds.

“I’m one of those people who think it should stay there,” exclaims Shields. “If not saved, at least built at the same location.

“Everybody is crying for ice today for the youngsters and all that. It would be great for the young hockey teams around here,” said Shields.

“From everything I read, I guess its time to build a new arena. The Mud Hens have had such great success that I think that was what was going to trigger it.”

Wyse continued to promote arena until its final days

By J. Patrick Eaken
Press Sports Editor
sports@presspublications.com

Toledo Sports Arena general manager and vice president Gary Wyse Jr., even though not born and raised in Toledo, has as many memories from One Main Street as any lifelong Toledo resident.

“Functions are so diverse and, in many cases, so unique that many families, couples, school children, and groups of all kinds, have wonderful memories of first experiencing a live performance of their favorite recording artist, Olympic of World champion athletes, cowboys or cowgirls, local hockey heroes, ice show and circus extravaganzas, or maybe shopping for a new automobile, ski boat, or an infinite variety of other new and technologically advanced products and services in our 60 seasons of operation,” says Wyse.

Wyse’s efforts to manage a 60-year-old facility never kept him bored — and right up to the arena’s upcoming demise he was finding events to keep the “River Dome” useful.

“We strive to use our best efforts to provide a safe, clean, comfortable, and friendly public assembly facility,” Wyse says.

“We also recognize that there is, on rare occasions, a situation that you — our most valued customer — may be reluctant to bring to our attention.

“We’re happy to take a bow for kudos’ and compliments. And we are even more appreciative of your critiques when our services or products may not hit your bulls’ eye. Many of our best innovations are developed as the result of customer comments,” Wyse said.

However, Wyse won’t need to innovate any more as “The Old Barn” is expected to be demolished this summer to make room for Larry Dillin’s Marina District development.

Wyse hopes the new organization that is taking over professional hockey in Toledo will consider bringing himself and other former employees of the Sports Arena and the Toledo Storm into its employment for the purpose of a new downtown arena.

“I’d certainly take the time to give it due consideration,” exclaimed Wyse. “In fact, it would be terrific to move into a new facility with all the networking and contacts that I have.”

“Doing these shows in an aging building has its own set of challenges. The opportunity to do the same shows with a new environment, new equipment, would be a wonderful opportunity,” explained Wyse.

He does not see any effort keeping the Sports Arena’s destruction from happening. He’s not even sure exactly when the demolition will begin, but preparations have started.

“At this point, we don’t know how long we will be here,” Wyse said during a May conversation with The Press. “We are tying up some loose ends right now and we don’t know how long that will take. We really don’t have an answer how long we will be here.”

Nor is Wyse still hoping for renovation like the Lucas County-owned Ned Skeldon Stadium has gotten. The former Mud Hens stadium in Maumee has received hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep it alive as a site for hosting top-level amateur baseball events.

“That’s not my call to make, but based on all the information I have heard and read, I don’t think that’s the plan,” Wyse says. “If you want a clean slate of property, having a big building right in the middle of it doesn’t help with the marketing value of that acreage. So I don’t see that happening.”

He notes that drawings by Marina District developer Larry Dillin have included a sheet of ice for public skating and amateur hockey events, which is badly needed, Wyse agreed.

Wyse has been a Toledo resident 32 years. He raised a family here, but even during his childhood in rural Fulton County he was living through his own memories of the Sports Arena, just like everyone else in Northwest Ohio.

“Aside from hockey, the figure skating shows, the Scott Hamiltons, the Dorothy Hamils, all those names come back to me, and the WWE (wrestling) events as well,” recalls Wyse.

“Hulk Hogan’s first appearance back in 1987 set an all-time attendance record that will never be broken as long as this building is here,” Wyse continues. “Going back to those days I recall fondly The Shiek and Bobo Brazil and all those people — Jerry Graham. There’s been literally thousands of them through here.”

But even Wyse is past stages of denial and he has accepted the fact that a new arena has been badly needed in Toledo for some time.

“I think the community has got to look forward to the future,” said Wyse. “No one is prouder of the Mud Hens’ success downtown than me.

“I’m very happy that after 55 years there was another major venue downtown hosting large crowds on a regular basis. The business plan for the Mud Hens is working. I think it’ll work just fine for the future of hockey in Toledo.”

Wyse also is looking forward to continued progress leading to the 127-acre Marina District riverfront development.

“It’s making way for the future and a new riverfront. Those are important things, too,” said Wyse.

But he warns Toledoans that while anticipating a new state-of-the-art arena downtown, he won’t feel assured the project is a done deal until construction is completed and its doors are opened.

“As have learned in recent memory with the experience in Rossford, you better make sure they get to the ribbon cutting,” Wyse said. “Because before the building is ready to open; plans can change.”

From the President of the Pat Pylypiuk Fan Club

By Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Special to The Press
sports@presspublications.com

I had to work my way all through college, and since I could almost never work Monday thru Wednesday because of classes at BGSU, I often had to pick up the undesirable 4 PM to 12 AM shift at the local grocery store here in Genoa Thursday thru Sunday nights, which meant that many times I had to miss Storm home games on Fridays and Saturdays.

Still, I didn’t let my demanding schedule deter me from being a diehard Storm fan and from becoming what I considered at the time to be the unofficial president of the Pat Pylypuik Fan Club, as between studying for Sociology 101 finals and kicking out Honors English papers, I somehow still managed to find the time to create this really elaborate banner for the Sports Arena on game night, which read “Saskatoon Stalker” (Pat is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) across the front in huge, blood-red letters, and portrayed a larger-than-life Pat skating menacingly through an icy graveyard of fallen ECHL foes, the tombstones at his skates reading names like “Louisville Ice Hawks,” and “Dayton Bombers,” and “Johnstown Chiefs.”

And nor did my college course load, or my absence in the tunnel at the Sports Arena after a particularly-rough game one night that first season, stop Mr. Pylypuik from taking the time to talk to my mother, who presented him with the banner, or from signing it for my sports memorabilia collection.

But Pat also did me one better, when he called teammates and other Toledo Storm favorites such as Mike Casselman, Derek Booth, Don Stone, and big Eddie Ljubicic (I swear the sequel to the classic hockey film “Slap Shot” could’ve been filmed in Toledo, with Ljubicic playing the part of one of the bespectacled Hanson brothers) over for autographs, and chatted candidly with my mom for several moments, asking her all about me, which is the stuff that true heroes are supposed to made of.

So, without further ado, on this sad day, I pull my #3 Pat Pylypuik jersey over my head one final time, while I twirl a faded, shrunken Poison concert T-shirt over my head, and light one last number, and raise a paper cup of lukewarm beer to 29 awesome years.

And while, yes, I do embrace the imminent arrival of a sexy, new, state-of-the-art, multi-purpose entertainment venue, and rock-n-roll concerts, and quite possibly an Arena Football franchise, and most importantly professional hockey in Toledo again, when the aforementioned new building opens up a in a few years in the en vogue, up-and-coming Warehouse District downtown, I also take a sip, and at least one last toke, to old friends like Pat Pylypuik, and Steven Tyler, and Mike Eruzione, and George Lynch. . .who may not have actually built the Toledo Sports Arena, but who always lived well and full during the times that they spent in that wonderful, grandly-out-of-date old hockey barn on the eastern shores of the Maumee River, where heroes, legends, wonderful, new friends, and timeless, priceless memories, were first born.

Mike Eruzione

Indeed, born sometime in 1947 itself approximately 24 long years before I ever even came slipping and sliding onto this giant, often-treacherous sheet of ice that is known as life, at the time the then-state-of-the-art, 5,361-seat Toledo Sports Arena grew first and foremost into the beautiful, new home of the International Hockey League’s newest, most-exciting expansion franchise, the Toledo Mercurys, from 1947 to 1962 (who like their fleet-footed name, would go on to bring first-class, championship professional hockey to T-Town in a quick and early way, hanging prestigious Turner Cup Championship banners from the barn’s rafters in ’48, ’51, and ’52, despite changing their team moniker to the Toledo Buckeyes in 1949 and 1950); then seasons later, into the barn of the Toledo Blades (who carved up the arena’s notoriously-small ice surface for seven memorable campaigns from 1963 to 1970, until they too went the way of the Mercurys, and morphed into the Toledo Hornets from ’70 to ’74); then finally, during the first, true golden age of hockey in Toledo, into the inhospitable, rough-and-tumble battle ground of the uber-popular, larger-than-life, equally-as-rough-and-tumble Toledo Goaldiggers for 12 deliciously-decadent, celebrated years from 1974 to 1986, during which the mighty green and gold not only literally raised the roof on the popularity of both the sport and the Toledo Sports Arena on the muddy, rusty shores of the Maumee with Turner Cup championships in ’75, ’78, ’82, and ’83. But who perhaps more importantly to me, opened up my impressionable, young mind to an exciting, new world of athletes-as-rock stars. And of those same rock stars always getting the girl in the end, through a cool flurry of masterful profanity, flying fists, gap-toothed sneers, long, sweaty, flowing hockey locks, and the ability to actually make their opponent’s blood bounce off the ice. And of the very fabrics of American life in a hard, rustbelt town that I still continue to embrace today. Like a gritty, blue-collar work ethic. And loyalty to one’s hometown. And fighting through life’s crosschecks, defensive zones, and blindside hits to make dreams come true. Which former Goaldigger Mike Eruzione went on to do when he led Herb Brooks’ now-famous U.S. National Team to a surprising 4-3 “Miracle on Ice” victory over the then-dominant Soviet Union team at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York, only two seasons after I first saw him play as a ’digger at the Sports Arena, as a 7-year-old in ’78.

Bobo Brazil to Ted Nugent

My earliest memory of the Sports Arena was my dad and I going to see Toledo Goaldiggers hockey games. I remember being so close to the action and getting a kick out of how the players rammed each other into the boards.

A few years later we took a trip to Detroit to see the Red Wings play, and I couldn't believe the difference in the size of the arenas. I like the Sports Arena better. Closer to the action and we were watching “our” team in Toledo.

I also vaguely remember going to the Arena to watch Big Time wrestling. Can't remember who the cast of characters were, but at the time my favorites to watch on TV were Bobo Brazil, Big Tex McKenzie, Haystacks Calhoun and the Iron Shiek.

When I was a senior in high school my high school sweetheart and some of our friends went to see the rock group Rush at the Sports Arena. It was my first concert and we had a blast, sitting on the hockey railings and just being kids.

I've also seen a few other concerts there, Ted Nugent and ZZ Top stand out. It was always such a homey atmosphere. You always felt like you were right on top of the action.

Of course, over the past decade I've been to a number of Storm games, but the feeling isn't the same as back when you were a kid. You grow older and start to realize that the Sports Arena really is past its prime, and it's time for an upgrade. But the old building with always be remembered by anyone who ever went to an event down at the River Dome.

Mark Griffin
Oregon
Press Contributing Writer

Lynch Mob

And speaking of cheap, black T-shirts, I think it was somewhere around 1992, during my sophomore year at Bowling Green State University, that I was surprisingly able to add a Lynch Mob T-shirt to my by then already-vast collection, when then one of the hottest, young guitar slingers in the business, “Mr. Scary” himself, and Lynch Mob founder, George Lynch brought his solo act to Toledo for the very first time, where he proceeded to set the Sports Arena afire with some blistering fretwork a la Jimi Hendrix, which turned out to be a really memorable stop along my own personal rock-n-roll journey for me, seeing as how I was never able to catch Lynch live, while he was playing with 1980s metal super group Dokken.

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Staff Writer
Genoa

Green Cigarettes

For individuals who attended Aerosmith and Queen concerts at the Sports Arena in the 1970s, few will deny that the smell of marijuana often left a haze and smell in the air.

But for John A. Wires of Oregon, it was in 1955 when he attended a Bill Haley and the Comets concert at the Sports Arena that he first noticed the substance. The group, which was famous for its “Rock Around the Clock” still played today as a prelude to Happy Days reruns, was accused of smoking “green cigarettes,” Wires said.

“Well, at that time with the effects of the band, it kind of looked like it,” said Wires. “One person said, ‘They gotta be smoking green cigarettes.’ You know what it is, don’t you?”

“We were more used to the old style of country music. It was sort of unusual for us. We’d never seen a big concert like that before,” Wires continued.

“They were big. It was a big event, loud, you know, and fast, crazy music, or so we thought at the time, anyways. It was pretty unusual to us people who were used to slower music.”

John A. Wires
1771 South Coy Road
Oregon

Gone are the days

As a frequent visitor to the Toledo Sports Arena (particularly from the late 1950s through the 1990s, my memories of this “old barn” are thoroughly embedded in my brain and quite frankly, very hard to forget. (I can’t say the same for birthdays and anniversaries, however).

There were some very fond memories for me as far as certain shows and sports were concerned, including:

Gone Are The Days…

• of public ice skating on Friday nights for a very small admission fee (only my sister and Dad participated in this – I sat in the stands reading comic books).

• of Holiday On Ice, Ice Capades and other skating extravaganzas.

• of smelling all the animals that were participating in the Zenobia Shrine Circus on an annual basis.

• of the hockey teams that participated yearly from 1949 up through the present day - Toledo Buckeyes (1949-50); Toledo Mercurys (1950-62); Toledo Blades (1963-70); Toledo Hornets (1970-74); Toledo Goaldiggers (1974-86) and the present but now gone Toledo Storm (1991-2007).

While on the subject. gone are the days of 10-cent beer nights at Toledo Goaldigger games where there were more fights in the stands than on the ice.

• of the Toledo Pride Soccer Team, which for one season participated in the American Indoor Soccer Association from 1986-87 only to fold (with three other teams) after being ousted in the post-season playoffs.

• of Bobo Brazil meeting once again with The Sheik in the professional wrestling ring along with other such grappler greats as The Stomper, Flying Fred Curry and The Fabulous Kangaroos.

• of Ronnie (Psycho) Raines and Joannie Weston when the Los Angeles Thunderbirds met the San Francisco Bay Bombers in yet another confrontation of Roller Derby.

• of great concert performances from singers like Three Dog Night (1971), Guess Who with Argent (1972), Emerson, Lake & Palmer with Santana and the James Gang (also 1972), Kiss with the James Gang (1974), Lynyrd Skynrd (1975) and other great rock bands.

• of honorable mentions like ABA Basketball, the WWF, WCW, Motocross Championships, Wild West Rodeo, closed circuit boxing matches and other numerous presentations to young and old alike.

Those were the days, my friend – and we thought they would never end – did we?

Jerry Shinew
Walbridge
Press Staff Writer

International Festival

I remember going to the Annual International Festival at the Sports Arena in the 60’s. My father took my 2 sisters and I for many years. While my mother and brothers did something else. We had fun testing all the different cuisines. My father would try to make the ethnic foods that we liked at home and we would assist him in the kitchen. I think this is why I enjoy cooking & eating a variety of food.

I remember sneaking into the Bruce Springsteen Concert in the Mid 70’s. It was before He became well known. The concert had already started, so we missed the first couple of songs. We found some floor seats toward the back. I couldn’t see that well, so I sat on My boyfriend’s shoulders. I don’t think Springsteen ever performed there again.

Also who could forget Aerosmith, The J. Giels Band, Queen, Bachman-Turner-Overdrive, Bob Seeger, Heart, Lynyrd Skynrd (these concerts we paid for) Things took place at these concerts that I wouldn’t want my Children or Grandchildren to do.

Beth Sofalvi
Curtice, Oh

Gene Autry & Guy Lombardo

We like to thank The Press for their asking, “Can you still remember the first song played at the first big concert you attended at the Toledo Sports Arena? Sorry to say, we cannot remember the first song played as we attended our first big concert.

In the 60 years of our arena’s life, we attended many enjoyable miscellaneous entertaining events.

The hockey games; various sports; the circuses; Big Bands stage shows, such as, The Guy Lombardo Orchestra, and others.

The Ice shows in their individual settings always held excitement. We can vividly recall The Holiday On Ice Shows of the years past. Those shows at that time had a special glow. May be that was because their shows performed in the month of December, just days prior to Christmas. And, perhaps, it was the music. It was not “canned,” the music was from a live orchestra on stage.

Commencing in April, 1948, The West came to the East — East Toledo, for six Arena visits live on stage. The Gene Autry Western Shows — the arena would be filled at each of its five shows per weekend.

After one of the shows, behind the stage, one of our daughters felt the thrill as she patted Champion, the late, Mr. Autry’s horse. Debbi, yet today, still recalls that moment!

To The Arena, So-long Ole’ Pal — You served us well!

Loren and Alice Brown
East Toledo

Goaldigger Denial

Well this may be a little vague. I do not remember the year but I was young, maybe a freshman in HS.

It was in the Goaldiggers vs the Fort Wayne Komets. It was a playoff game. The diggers had 2 goals denied late in the game.

Fort Wayne ended up eliminating Toledo. The fans went crazy, throwing the folding chairs and the big garbage cans on the ice. They would not let the refs off the ice. both teams has all ready left the ice. The ice was littered with chairs, then Ian Macphee came back from the dressing room and dropped the puck at center ice, he skated around all the chairs and trash cans and shot the puck into the net...the people went wild.

We were standing in front of the visitors bench, there was at the time plexcie glass behind the bench, people were kicking the glass. I had just moved when it came crashing down onto my cousin Dave.

The refs were still on the ice when Ted Garvin came back and he asked the fans to let them leave the ice. They were getting pelted with beer. He walked with them toward the Toledo bench....I remember running down toward them with a few friends when the Toledo Police arrived with dogs....It was a crazy moment — something I will never forget.

Alan Singlar

Long Concert Lines

Still, as cold as it always was to stand in those long, winding lines that always seemed to snake around the building on the river side of the building before shows, once the masses of metal heads were finally permitted to pour inside to stake out their positions on the writhing, general admission floor, the Sports Arena was always the white-hot place to be, as over its storied lifetime, it’s attracted some of the biggest, and baddest names in rock-n-roll, and has treated me to well over 20 concerts throughout the excessive ’80s and early ’90s, including Poison twice, fellow glamsters Warrant twice, both Cinderella and Tesla three times, Mr. Big, pretty boy rockers Nelson, and not-so-pretty boy thrashers Korn each once, and a marijuana haze of other acts I can’t even remember today, back when you could get a concert ticket for $18.00, and a souvenir T-shirt for a mere $8.

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Staff Writer
Genoa

Golden Gloves memories

My memories of the Sports Arena are when I boxed in the Golden Gloves as a boxer and coach for the “Local 9” sponsored by Libbey-Owens-Ford.

When I returned from the Navy in 1947, I went back to Waite High School to complete my senior year. At the time, Barney Quilter, onetime state representative, was forming a boxing team ate Waite to prepare us to fight in the Golden Gloves (1947).

The following year, we moved to a gym on East Broadway, which came to be known as “ Local 9.” Fond memories of Barney and my teammates such as Elmer Scallish, John “Booty” Lee, Dick Corado, Ed Weir, Steve Torda, Franklin Floggs, Johnny Garcia, Benny and Al Perales, Harvey LaPlante, Herb Mickles and Carmen Williamson, to mention a few that I can remember.

Memories, memories, oh those arena memories will always remain in my heart.

Joe Kovacs
Oregon

First Skate

My Mama died when I was twelve and my friend Kathy, with the help of her mother, often included me in their family fun. Kathy and her Mom took me to the Sports Arena for my first attempt at ice-skating. I strapped on my rented skates and wobbled over to the ice, clutching the handrails as if my very life depended on them. Kathy took off like an ice angel, while I skated slowly and carefully around the perimeter. It was the first of many enjoyable experiences and I eventually proved to be a fair skater.

Karen McConnell
Program Coordinator
James “Wes” Hancock Senior Center
Oregon

Engagement Ring

I have many fond memories of the Sports Arena, but it was the scene of a particularly special event in my life. In the Fall of 1953, I received my engagement ring while attending the circus and life was a circus ever after.

Donna Best
James “Wes” Hancock Senior Center
Oregon

Country Concerts

I have always enjoyed country music and the Sports Arena was the place to go for some great country concerts. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to have my picture made with several big-name artists, including the incredible Marty Robbins.

Shirlie DeShetler
James “Wes” Hancock Senior Center
Oregon

On the Ice

In 1975 I took my little daughter to the Sports Arena to enjoy “ Holiday on Ice.” It was so much more exciting than anticipated when she was selected to join the cast on the ice. It was an unforgettable occasion.

Ruth Hatter
James “Wes” Hancock Senior Center
Oregon

Abused Shoes

My wife and I took our granddaughters to the circus at the Sports Arena, where we had a scary experience. While standing in a long line to gain our seats, our granddaughters disappeared. I searched everywhere, including the elephant area, where my shoes suffered serious abuse. I was panicking when I discovered the two little girls calmly sitting three rows below the row for which we had tickets. They had no idea why grandpa was so anxious.

Walter Henry
James “Wes” Hancock Senior Center
Oregon

International flavor

My favorite event at the Sports Arena was the International Festival, which took place during the first weekend of May, probably in the `60s and `70s.

This was before the various ethnic groups held individual festivals. For this festival, the Sports Arena was transformed into a veritable world bazaar. There were booths set up where one could purchase interesting souvenirs; Mexican serapes and piñatas, German felt hats on which to put tiny beer mugs or plastic Edelweiss, wooden African carvings, wooden shoes, funny T-shirts and beautiful jewelry from many countries were displayed alongside posters and flags from most nations. Especially popular were the buttons that proclaimed, “Kiss me, I’m Irish (or Polish, Chinese, Hungarian, etc.) You could even buy a cookbook with recipes from the various groups.

The German Beer Garden was always crowded with people dancing to polka music after eating bratwurst and hot German potato salad. Large pretzels were washed down with vast quantities of beer.

Other smaller booths offered whole meals or samples of foods from their culture. It was hard to decide whether to try to golubki, falafel, tacos, crepes, curried goat, fried rice, pastitsio or kabos. These were among some of the interesting foods that were unusual at that time to the average person.

The pastries were the best! You could sample or take home sweets with such intriguing names as Baklava, Bunuelo, Strudel, Maid of Honor Tart, Chruszciki, Kolachi and Pizzelles.

The seats were filled for the daily live performances of mariachi bands, singing groups and dance groups. Some that I remember are the Bavarian Schuhplattlers, the Swiss Singers, Recuerdos de me Tierra and the Echoes of Poland.

There was a variety in each of the four or five daily shows, which included performers of all ages.

Although the individual ethnic festivals are great, there was a certain charm to be in harmony with people of all shades and ethnic composition under one roof.

I always looked forward eagerly to the International Festival and would give anything to go through the doors again into that fascinating world.

Susan (Gaertner) Taylor
Curtice

First concert memories

When I was in the sixth grade in the mid`60s, my sister took me to see my favorite group, Paul Revere & The Raiders at the Sports Arena. It was the first concert I had ever been to.

I also remember being in the parking lot, along with thousands of other Goaldigger fans when they returned home from Saginaw with the Turner Cup in 1975.

Melinda Sandwisch

Goodbye, old friend

As a child, I remember “circus time,” and the parade of animals from the train to the Sports Arena. You got two events in one. You felt part of the three-ring circus because of the size of the arena.

Oh, I can’t forget the spectacular Holiday on Ice shows. We loved them and would go home to relive it through our colorful program book.

My two sisters and I would wait for open skate days. You paid a small fee and could skate on the ice. We really though we were big stuff skating on that ice.

As an adult, I attended many car, boat and house and garden shows at the arena.

Then there are my very fond memories of Goaldigger hockey games. We were season ticket holders and attended most home games. We proudly wore our green Goaldigger jackets and took our air horns to cheer on our team. Back then, even regular games had big crowds.

I was at our Sports Arena when we won the Turner Cup. What a thrill that was. The fans rocked that old arena. The noise from the crowd was so great, you felt it in your stomach. Many of us were brought to tears with great pride. I still have my jacket and my air horn.

My sons, DJ and Brian, grew up to enjoy that old arena every much as much I did. They both were strong Storm fans.

I have enjoyed that old arena and looking back on fond memories. It has served us well.

Good bye, old friend.

Cathy Pratt
Northwood

Meeting a soulmate

There are lots of Sports Arena memories to think about – a Bob Segar concert, Pat Benatar, Ringling Brother Circus, Big Time Wrestling with the Sheik and BoBo Brazil. Also lots of Hornet hockey Goaldigger hockey and Storm hockey.

But the most memorable is, one night in February 1981 at a Goaldigger game, I met my soulmate, and 25 years later, we have many memories. My children fortunately had the chance to go to the Toledo Sports Arena, just like we did for concerts, the circus, and of course Storm hockey.

You have not lived till you have gone to a concert at the Sports Arena, and everyone that went to concerts there knows what I mean. I am glad my children at least experienced hockey at the Sports Arena because hockey downtown will never be the same.

It will be a sad day when they take down the Toledo Sports Arena.

John and Mary Pack
Toledo

Still wrestling

Our fond memories of the Sports Arena include the wrestling matches with “Farmer Jones and his Pig,” “Billy Darnell,” “Nature Boy” – and all the lights and music. It was very exciting.

My husband and I met at the Sports Arena as 13-year-old and 17-year-old kids and we have been having our own wrestling matches for 55 years on April 23.

We have two children – one son is deceased, seven granddaughters, three great-grandgirls and two great-grandsons. We certainly hate to see the Sports Arena get torn down.

Chris Kohn
Oregon

Thanksgiving to remember

One of my fondest memories of attending a sports event at the Toledo Sports Arena was when my dad, who lived on the west end, took me to see the Harlem Globetrotters about 1953 or 1954 when I was about 12 or 13; something a poor child from the East Side never got to do.

But my biggest thrill was at the age of 15 when a friend of my mother’s gave me the $2 (which was a lot of money back then) to buy a ticket to see Elvis Presley, who was pretty much just starting out, on Thursday, Nov. 22, 1956 (I believe that was on Thanksgiving Day also).

I ended up going there alone, as none of my friends could afford to pay the $2 for a ticket, but times were much safer back then too. I still have the ticket stub and it says Section 19, Row 17, Seat 7.

I screamed along with everyone else and loved every minute of it, as it sure was better than watching him on our tiny television screen whenever he was on Sunday nights.

Carol Deal
Oregon

A chance to reminisce

My generation was the Sports Arena “concert” generation. I had seen over 20 concerts there, starting with my first: Uriah Heap, with the back-up band being Styx! Their first tour!

The tickets were $7.50. I have seen every genre there from Kiss to Taste of Honey (until ticket prices starting going up over $20 - then my money had to be spent on other things like living expenses!) Back then, we could park at the Front Street McDonald’s parking lot without being towed.

A special memory of mine was having the honor of winning a contest sponsored by a local radio station at that time, WMHE, to attend the “Stars On Ice” show. I was presented with a bouquet of roses by the stars of the show - I still have the tag from the roses!

Thank you for this opportunity to reminisce!

Robin Sopko
East Toledo

Rob Zombie & Korn

From sweet emotions with Joe and Steven in ‘95, I’ve gone on to experience probably every human sensation possible at the Toledo Sports Arena throughout our years together, including disgust (which was also slightly comical at the time, when I witnessed skinny, zit-faced dorks with long, greasy blond hair whipping it out in the Sports Arena men’s room, and relieving themselves in the sinks during a Poison concert, because the stalls and the urinals were all full, and they didn’t want to wait in line between acts); and lust (there never seemed to be a shortage of scantily-clad, buxom beauties, either blond or brunette, willing to lift their T-shirts for some lead vocalist or hot, young guitar player on stage, during metal concerts at the Sports Arena back in the lurid, late ’80s); and blood-lust (you could always count on some imposing bouncer-type breaking some scrawny metalhead’s nose after a scramble for a drumstick tossed into the crowd ensued, at virtually every show); and of course, that out-of-skin sensation of feeling really, really good, and going totally numb (like that time during the Rob Zombie/Korn concert, my last concert at the Toledo Sports Arena by the way, when my cousin Brian, two other fellow metalheads, and I proceeded to pass a J back and forth high up in the aging venue’s seats, all the while scooting ever closer to the stage, seat by seat, to get a better look at the stripper writhing behind Tempesta’s monstrous drum kit, while the band of undead launched into a live version of “Living Dead Girl.”

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Contributing Writer
Genoa

Osmonds & Jackson 5

When asked about my best memories of the sports arena it is hard to determine just what the best memory is.

I know that when my husband, Rich and I started dating 36 plus years ago, almost every time we went out for the first few months our dates were centered around the Sports Arena. What good times we had from seeing The Who, The Osmonds and The Jackson Five to watching hockey games and Roller Derbies and the Harlem Globetrotters.

There was always something going on and it was a fun place to go near home and the price was affordable. We would meet our friends and just enjoy all of the entertainment. Memory after memory, Oh, and how can I forget the "First Big Time Wrestling event" (not really).

But when my younger brother and I went to see the Cincinnati Royals play, we were very young at the time. I loved basketball and the Royals were my team. Well, my brother said something and I got mad at him and we actually started fighting. All I remember is my dad escorting us out and I don't think we were ever taken back. It wasn't funny then but now Jimmy and I are great friends and the memory will last us a lifetime.

The Sports Arena was there when we needed places to go and it always provided such a nice variety. The memories are deeply rooted in my mind and heart and I am grateful that Toledo had that to offer us back then.

Sincerely,

Cindy (Reeves) Molnar
St. Petersburg, Florida

Old Rink Rat

It all started back in 1956 while I was dating Dave Madanski. He took me to several hockey games, ice shows, and circus. We even witnessed Fred Horton (equipment manager) get married at center ice. Dave, my husband as of August 1958, first worked as an usher then became goal judge at the river end while Andy Molnar was at the Zamboni end. Both Walter and Keith, our sons, worked as stick boys for the hockey teams. Walter went on to be the assistant equipment manager.

While the boys were growing up they played hockey for the Greater Toledo Hockey Association. Many games were at 6 a.m. at the cold arena. Dave, Harry Kessler, Doc McCullough started the GTHA.

Our two boys traveled to many arenas while playing hockey, but really liked our arena the best. Dave coached many teams and was president of the GTHA. So you see I guess as old arena folks say, I’m just an old rink rat.

A lot of friendships will last long after the old building is torn down.

In the summer we would travel into Canada and visit many hockey players, John Vanderburg, John Gavel, and others.

October 2001 when the pre-season was to start, Dave worked the first game, but died on October 15, 2001. The off-ice officials and the team were very nice to our family.

Memories — memories — that’s all we have left.

Pat Madanski
Northwoood

Grandma and the Circus

My very first visit to the Sports Arena was a fascinating and memorable event to me long before I ever got to the Ringling Brothers Three Ring Circus.

My grandmother was full of good humor, adventuresome, and a great historian. She always made things exciting if it was an afternoon ride on the trolley car where there were always an ice cream treat for me at the end of the line in Maumee, or singing songs at the kitchen sink when I stood on a chair “helping” Grandma do dishes or just listening to her childhood adventures. This is where I first started hearing about the circus coming to town — how the excitement grew as the day grew closer.

Grandma herself could make an adventure of walking downtown or riding the community traction bus to “her bank” and we’d stop in front of a nearby restaurant and watch the automatic orange juice machine slide the oranges into the juice machine. And just sitting on that big old stone lion in front of the Lion’s store increased the adventure of how many more days ‘til the circus. Until then, I always thought Tiedtkes was the biggest and best thing to experience.

Daily Grandma talked about the huge building we would be going to and I could almost taste the popcorn and hear music.

The big night finally came and the bus was so full there were even people standing in the aisle and there were so many cars honking at each other while trying to park.

When we finally got inside I remember looking up and to my amazement there were people sitting all the way up to the ceiling.

There were more balloons than I’d ever imagined seeing, sawdust all over the floor, brand new smells all mixed together and oh, the cotton candy that mysteriously disappeared in my mouth. I definitely remember Grandma wetting her handkerchief on her tongue so she could wipe the stickiness off my face!

Next there were all the animals I’d only seen in books — even they were decorated. The clowns took my mind off those big animals’ nearness and size. All the spotlights, colored lights, costumes with feathers and jewels sparkling left me breathless. Those pretty ladies in their magnificent costumes flying through the air so high above. It’s a good thing I never had a chance to pursue my dream of doing just that because I don’t like heights!

Every time I pass the Sports Arena, I recall my very first visit there with Grandma holding my hand.

Later on came the Disney productions, world class skating exhibits and great hockey events—sportsmen to take pride in and such fun for the fans!

The powers that be could have left the arena and worked around it until the new arena was completed. I sincerely hope they don’t take the wrecking ball to those exquisite W.P.A. buildings at the zoo to improve and beautify that venue — another great part of Toledo’s history to be found only in books and photographs.

M. Stover
Toledo, Ohio

A Thanksgiving to remember

My fondest memory of the Sports Arena was attending the Elvis concert on Nov. 22, 1956. Elvis had two shows, that day, which happened to be Thanksgiving Day. The first show was at 2:30 p.m. and the matinee show was at 8 p.m. Tickets were $2 and $2.50. Hearing “Hound Dog,” “Don't be Cruel” and others was quite a thrill for my girlfriend Patricia Morgan who later became my wife. I remember her screaming, as she was so excited to see Elvis in person.

Gary Revill
Lebanon, Indiana

Food Festival

I remember sneaking into the Bruce Springsteen Concert in the Mid 70’s. It was before he became well known. The concert had already started, so we missed the first couple of songs. We found some floor seats toward the back. I couldn’t see that well, so I sat on My boyfriend’s shoulders. I don’t think Sringsteen ever performed there again. Also who could forget Aerosmith, J. Giels, Queen, Bachman-Turner-Overdrive, Bob Seger, Heart, Lynyrd Skynd (these concerts we paid for) Things took place at these concerts that I wouldn’t want my Children or Grandchildren to do.

Beth Sofalvi
Curtice

Female Goaltender

According to wikipedia.com, the Toledo Storm once featured a female goaltender, Erin Whitten, who on March 7, 1996 became the first woman ever to appear in a professional hockey game in a position other than goaltender; she played at forward for 18 seconds in a game against the Madison Monsters. She was the first U.S.-born woman to play professional hockey when she appeared for the East Coast Hockey League's Toledo Storm, and on October 30, 1993, became the first woman goaltender to record a professional victory. Erin was a goaltender for the United States National Women's Team for the 1992, 1994, and 1997 World Championships. She was cut from the American national women's hockey team shortly before the 1998 inaugural trip to the Olympics where the US Women's took home the first ever gold medal in women's ice hockey in Olympic history.

Lots of memories

To the editor: My father, a Libbey-Owens-Ford employee also was an usher at the Sports Arena. I would go with him when I was a child.

Memories of the Toledo Mecurys stand out. My favorite player was #9 Billy Booth. He was small but had no fear of fighting anyone. There were also Goose Tatum and the Harlem Globetrotters and Thursday watching wrestling with stars like Gorgeous George, Nature Boy, Zebra Kid and my favorite Hans Schmidt who was disliked by most.

The most famous star has to be Elvis, who performed in 1957 for an astronomical $25,000 which is probably five times what a factory worker would make in one year.

Lot of memories, I spent a lot of nights there.

Wm. Dewey Caldwell
Oregon

A dream come true

I am writing about my Sports Arena memories. I have been going to events there for 18 years, and I have seen rock concerts, hockey games and wrestling events.

The memory I will cherish forever is with my husband and son March 25, 2007 – the Road to Wrestle Mania. We had ringside seats. John Cena, who was the main event, is my son Joshie’s favorite wrestler in the world.

We made a poster that said, “Future WWE Super Star wants you to sign this,” in hopes we would get an autograph from someone.

I told my son I would do everything I could to get him John Cena’s autograph. Cena came out and everyone who watches Monday Night Raw knows that Cena throws his shirt into the crowd. He leaned over the turn buckle, looked at Joshie and threw his shirt right to him.

Joshie and I started crying with excitement. John Cena also signed his poster and shook both of our hands. Cena told Joshie that he saw his sign from a mile away. I thanked Cena from the bottom of my heart, because he had made an 8-year-old boy’s dream come true.

Elisha and Joshie Dennis
Curtice

Day of Wrecking Ball

The day that the dreaded wrecking ball finally delivers that imminent death blow to the Toledo Sports Arena, and the wonderful, though grandly-out-of-date old hockey barn that has slumped lazily on the eastern shores of the Maumee River for so many memorable years like a favorite, underachieving uncle dipping his dirty toes into the water sadly lies down and dies, there’ll no doubt be the usual contingency of snobby out-of-towners, longtime, local critics of the landmark building, and of course, spoiled members of an all-new generation of hockey fan who are always on the prowl for more loud bells, more dazzling whistles, and just plain more constantly cruising by the whitewashed rubble that will protrude from the pockmarked ground around old One Main St. like so many tombstones, where they’ll point their boney fingers, and snicker poisonous things like “It’s about time.” And “Dude, it was always a dump anyway.” And “Good riddance to bad rubbish,” as they whisper about what the ramshackle, 60-year-old venue was never able to become.

Though like at most funerals for beloved, old friends, past drinking buddies, and partners-in-crime that we all pray we’ll never have to attend, along with the Riverdome’s many detractors, you can bet your last East Side Jungle Juice (over the years, that’s what my friends and I affectionately came to call the ginormous beers that Gladieux Concessions served in those flimsy paper cups during hockey games, which always seemed to be merely lukewarm and somewhat watered-down, but which never failed to quickly mess you up, and always caused you to act like an animal) that I’ll also be there, emotionally holding the old wreck’s hand as the workmen pull the plug, lower down the old, familiar Jose Cuervo scoreboard sign, and somberly cart it away under a black shroud funeral procession style. All while I casually dab at my red, sniffling nose with the red and white sleeves of my well-worn Pat Pylypuik jersey, let loose with the occasional “Hit somebody!” to drown out all of the sobbing, and even share a few heartwarming stories of good times had, even-better friends won, and tough games lost with generations-upon-generations of like-minded hockey fans, burnt-out longhairs in Motley Crue T-shirts, and fresh-faced kids in WWE Undertaker garb as the city melts the ice one last time, and we all stand around reminiscing about what our always-colorful, often-tarnished, old friend, the Toledo Sports Arena, always meant to us in life.

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Staff Writer
Genoa

Steppenwolf Concert

My favorite memory of the Sports Arena is back in the 60’s. A friend of mine was dating a girl whose father worked there. He got us four tickets to see Steppenwolf. We were at the very back of the arena. As it turned out, they weren’t the main attraction. At the intermission, they announced that The Doors were coming to the University of Toledo. The whole crowd went “Ooohh.”

Of course, we know that concert didn’t happen. People protested because Jim Morrison was arrested for indecent exposure in Miami. That got them banned for life at U.T.

David Bartus
3503 Bayberry Place
Oregon, Ohio

Cassius Clay

My oldest memory of the arena was being taken to see the “ Holiday on Ice” skating show sometime during my grade school years.

A few years later, we went to see the new Toledo Mercurys hockey team. One of the players had worked with my father as a pattern maker. I still have the Mercury’s team program, which at the time was sold for 25 cents.

In 1954, I graduated from Central Catholic High School. We had our commencement program at the Sports Arena, because we had such a large graduating class.

After graduating from school, I went to work for Reddish Sporting Goods Co., calling on schools for their athletic needs. It was then that I became friends with Andy Mulligan, who was the manager for the arena. Mulligan was a former hockey player with the Mercury’s team. Mulligan then hired another hockey player from his team, a Mr. Leo Richard, to be his assistant.

While I worked for Reddish Sporting Goods, I began to coach Federation basketball. Our players were made up of ex-high school and college teams.

The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team came to the Sports Arena every year. My friendship with Andy Mulligan and Leo Richard allowed me to play a preliminary game before the Trotters game. I would always announced the preliminary game, and in doing so had the opportunity to do announcing at other functions at the arena.

One local player that played in the Federation League and played in the preliminary to the Harlem Globetrotters game was picked up by the Trotters and stayed with them for the next seven years as the predecessor “Goose” Tatum O’Neil and Meadowlark Lemon.

In the late 1960s, the American Basketball League formed. I remember the Detroit Pistons came to play at the Sports Arena — I believed they played Cincinnati and they had Oscar Robertson on their roster. The arena was sold out. Later on in the 1970s, the American Basketball Association, which was new, played an exhibition game at the Sports Arena.

Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) fount at the Sports Arena in the 1957 finals of the Golden Gloves tournament against opponent Jefferson Davis from Kentucky, and Cassius won the championship. I got to meet Cassius close up, which was just prior to his entering the Olympics, and he had a very outgoing personality even as a young lad.

Larry Erard
Oregon

Meadowlark Lemon & Curly Neal

But, my biggest thrill was at the age of 15 when a friend of my mother’s gave me the $2.00 (which was a lot of money back then) to buy a ticket to see Elvis Presley, who was pretty much just starting out, on Thursday, November 22, 1956 (I believe that was on Thanksgiving Day also). I ended up going there alone, as none of my friends could afford to pay the $2.00 for a ticket, but times were much safer back then too. I still have the ticket stub and it says Section 19, Row 17, Seat 7. I screamed along with everyone else and loved every minute of it, as it sure was better than watching him on our tiny television screen whenever he was on Sunday nights.

Carol Deal
1105 Cardinal Bay Drive
Oregon, Ohio 43616

Concert, carnival memories

I was born and raised not too far from the Sports Arena. I have many fond memories of concerts and carnivals held there.

My first concert there was the rock band, Kiss. At 15 years old, I witnessed the greatest show in the world with characters so close I could almost touch them. Over the years, I’ve seen countless bands that close – my favorite place to see a show.

It was big enough, but small enough to get a good look at what you paid for and to meet and greet friends in the community.

Later, after I was married and had children, we’d take them to the carnival in the parking lot. Even later on in years, I worked parking security for special events.

The Toledo Sports Arena will be truly missed, not only by me, but countless others who live and thrive in Toledo area.

Ronald E. Bohmler
Lebanon, Indiana

Big Time Wrestling

In 1968, my father took my friend Donald and I to Big Time Wrestling at the sports arena. We got to sit ringside. As we were leaving, we ran into Bo Bo Brazil, a big time wrestler, and my dad asked to buy him a beer. He accepted, and we got to talk to him and shake his hand. For two ten year olds, this was the coolest thing ever... We had the greatest time at the Toledo Sports Arena!

-B. Bechtel, Millbury

Alcohol, Drugs, and Girls

Though while Mike Eruzione and Team USA were busy winning the gold in upstate New York in ‘80, and six years later, Toledo’s beloved Goaldiggers were in the process of casting a gray, heartbreaking cloud over the city of their origin, with no silver lining in site, when the club announced its decision to relocate to Kansas City to become the Blades following the 1985-1986 season, my once-innocent, Dutch Boy haircut was first slowly, but surely beginning to sprout out into a “do” of razor-sharp, product-sluiced spikes in junior high, and then in my later high school years, into a full-on, Joe Elliot of Def Leppard-style mullet, as my teenage passions began to swing from watching hockey players, to listening to heavy metal music, and imbibing on all of tasty trimmings that went along with it, including alcohol, drugs, and of course girls, girls, girls, which the Toledo Sports Arena -a virtual den of iniquity throughout the 1980s- was also happy to oblige me with (I saw my very first hard rock concert there as a sophomore in high school when glam rockers Poison came to town with special guest Tesla, and to this day remember very little about that show, except that we were sneaking swigs from a flask of Snakebites in the parking lot, and burning our stocking hats and gloves in a trash barrel to keep warm, as a frigid, sub-zero wind was whipping off the unforgiving Maumee, as we waited to get into the venue that day).

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Staff Writer
Genoa

Aerosmith Tours

But then again, while on the topic of rock memorabilia and legendary, all-time super groups, I believe that it was on a particularly sultry summer night in ’95 that I finally left the Toledo Sports Arena, which was like Hell with the lid off that evening, clad In an XL, sweat-drenched souvenir T-shirt from one of my favorite rock-n-roll bands of all time, Aerosmith during their “Eat the Rich” tour, which to this day nearly 12 years later remains one of my favorite concert tees in my closet even though it’s faded and splattered with white paint, as it is a true piece of timeless rock history, and commemorates the one and only occasion that I had the privilege of breathing the same stale, magical air as the venerable young one, the human firecracker himself, Mr. Steven Tyler, who did handsprings across the stage that night well into middle age, and proved that there is no such thing as a midlife crisis as long as you stay young at heart, and “Let the Music Do the Talking,” all the while his antithesis, Mr. Joe Perry, slumped inertly by, the living, breathing portrait of the quintessentially-cool, bored guitar hero with a moist cigarette dangling from his parched lips, his churning Gibson Les Paul carrying the feverish masses on a bluesy, freight train-of-a-trip through the entire catalog of Aerosmith classics, including “Back in the Saddle,” “Rag Doll,” and “Sweet Emotion.”

Jeffrey D. Norwalk
Press Staff Writer
Genoa

ABA Basketball

TOLEDO, O. — Coach Jack McMahon will lead his Pittsburgh Condors on the Basketball floor at the Toledo Sports Arena Wednesday, September 29th, to play the Floridians. Both teams are members of the Major League American Basketball Association.

Total commitment has its hazards, a fact long recognized by girls who dance around behind balloons without their clothes on and guys who reach in other people’s pockets for a living. Maybe the state of ultimate dedication was best described by that immortal crapshooter who, cleaned in a dice game he knew to be crooked, blissfully sighed, “Yeah, but it was the only game in town.”

Jack McMahon would’ve understood; for him basketball is the only game in town. Eight months a year he coaches the Condors; four months a year he waits for the season to begin. No pouring over the Wall Street Journal, no impassioned affair with golf. Just basketball.

He does not take his work lightly, having once been employed by a gent who one day blithely informed him that his company’s new computer would make the championship purely a matter of showing up for the games on time.

“I’ve never been anything but a pro basketball player or coach,” McMahon says. “It’s what I do, and I still feel that same excitement every time out.”

In that excitement are both the seeds of McMahon’s success as a coach and the weakness he strives to overcome. Basketball turns him on. This past summer he was in the gym every morning at 9 o’clock to work with a rookie that needed polish. And he spent part of his vacation scouting a player in a summer league.

Because he works hard, and because basketball has been his thing since he. a skinny kid on the mean streets of Brooklyn’s Red Hook section, Jack McMahon is the winningest coach in the American Basketball Association.

“My main asset is developing an offense,” he says. “What I do best is to set up situations where my players have the best possible shots. I regard myself as primarily an offensive coach.”

His record indicates offense is a marketable commodity. Last year almost every Condor improved his scoring over the previous season. Utilizing McMahon’s offensive theories, George Thompson became one of the league’s most feared guards and John Brisker barely missed winning the scoring championship.

Tickets for the basketball game are available priced at $3.50 and $k.50 for reserved seats and $2.50 general admission and are on sale at Reis Westgate, Sears Woodville Mall, Central Travel and Ticket, 4612 Talmadge, Masonic Auditorium, and the Sports Arena. The game will start at 8 p.m.

Andy Mulligan, General Manager
From a Sports Arena press release, September 17, 1971
(courtesy of Larry Erard)

ABA Basketball

“I’ve never been anything but a pro basketball player or coach,” McMahon says. “It’s what I do, and I still feel that same excitement every time out.”

“My main asset is developing an offense,” he says. “What I do best is to set up situations where my players have the best possible shots. I regard myself as primarily an offensive coach.”

Andy Mulligan, General Manager
From a Sports Arena press release, September 17, 1971
(courtesy of Larry Erard)

Mike Eruzione

The Current Weather for Millbury, OH USA

BUSINESS DIRECTORY

COMMUNITY RESOURCE