Any memories or stories of Olympia Stadium?

[night-timer]

Since it was demolished in '87, I will never see or experience this legendary Detroit sports stadium. Does anyone have any recollections of it? I believe it was the home of the Red Wings before they shifted over to the Joe.

[emu steve]

Since it was demolished in '87, I will never see or experience this legendary Detroit sports stadium. Des anyone have any recollections of it? I believe it was the home of the Red Wings before they shifted over to the Joe.

I do.

I was a season tix holder in the early 1970s.

Also brought a 35mm camera in the late 70s and took photos from ice level.

When I was a young kid I got to see ONE game a year, the Thanksgiving game vs Montreal.

Later I'll scan and paste a photo I took in the mid-70s [[one will notice that the hideous advertisements are not on the boards. That came later).

This is classic 1970s NHL hockey.

[Pickford-Bentler]

Both my parents had Olympia memories. My mother's uncle was a friend of Jack Adams'. So he would take my mom to visit the players a the Olympia. After being discharged from the Coast Guard for a severe head injury, my father was able to attend the two LaMotta vs. Robinson fights that were held at the Olympia in 1943.

A fine article about the fights:


http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/artic...t#.U6F1A5VOW70

[Pickford-Bentler]

After WW2, my father had Red Wings season tickets. He saw the playoff game in which a young Gordie Howe slammed his head into the boards. My father told me that the most exciting player to watch from that era was Rocket Richard. Apparently, his eyes would light up like a maniac on a mission to score.

[Smirnoff]

I had the opportunity in the 1960's to play in a midget hockey tournament at Olympia.....attended many games in the 70's - every seat in the stadium hovered over the ice, very close to all the action!

Toward the end, it was not safe at all, the neighborhood changed drastically......

[night-timer]

Emu Steve, we should talk! How did you get that name? It intrigues me because the 'emu' is a large, flightless bird in Australia... here's a recent photo I took of an emu, deep in the Australian Outback...

I'm a photographer in Sydney, Australia. I'm visiting Detroit for five weeks [[July 14 - August 19) to shoot photos, shoot videos, conduct interviews and to cover whatever news stories I can find at street-level.

My visit to Detroit coincides with the 313 birthday of your city. The week-long celebrations are being held from 19-25 July. I'll be there. [[You can't miss me - I'll be the only guy in Michigan with an Australian accent.)

I'll be posting a few questions about photography in 'The D' before I arrive. All comments are welcome. Thanks.

[DetroitPlanner]

Dad would take my brother and I there to see games all the time. We would go to red wing games, jr wing games, college games. We would drive to Grand River and get on the bus. That was a treat as we mostly took the Dexter/Joy bus.

EMU here is a school. Eastern Michigan University.

[kryptonite]

I went to a David Bowie concert at Olympia seems either 1976 or 1977.

[sumas]

Sorry my memories of Olympia had zippo to do with sports. It was also a music venue. Saw the Rolling Stones, The Wings, Arlo Guthrie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and so many others. Main floor seats were not so primo. Cardboard on ice and you would freeze your buns off.

[Hermod]

Dark and smoky with almost vertical seating.

I saw a few games there in the 50s when someone would give my father tickets.

They always had a semi-pro match there as a warmup for the Wings match with the semi-pro teams sponsored by a local business. Gage-Drummy Oldsmobile often had a good team in the local semi-pro league.

[night-timer]

Thanks!

Some of you are talking in Detroit lingo/slang which I don't understand, but thanks for the replies.

Please also let me know if it's safe taking photos of Detroit from/in Belle Isle... it looks like a nice place for 'cityscape' photos of the Detroit downtown skyline. Yet, on this forum, there seems to have been reports of drunks and 'hoons' on Belle Isle. Thanks again.

[night-timer]

I had the opportunity in the 1960's to play in a midget hockey tournament at Olympia.....attended many games in the 70's - every seat in the stadium hovered over the ice, very close to all the action!

Toward the end, it was not safe at all, the neighborhood changed drastically......

Smirnoff, midgets play good hockey - they're still young - Life has not yet "happened" to them. [[That's my take on them.)

Apart from that, because I am not a Detroiter, can you tell me more about the 'changes' you speak of?

[RedeemerKid]

Crappy seats to a Globetrotters game in the mid-70's.

[TheUsualSuspect]

I remember going to a Wings game at the Olympia with my dad. I would have been 7 or 8 years old. The vertical-ness of the stairs was beyond words. They were like climbing a ladder.

I remember holding my dad's hand like a life-line, thinking that if someone ever tumbled down the stairs...they wouldn't stop till they reached the bottom.

The up-side of those seats is that the views were nearly over the ice. No bad seats is that venue.

Gordie Howe was invited back for a tour before it was demolished. He was asked if he wanted any particular momento before they knocked it down. Gordie asked for and received the penalty-clock. Nice gesture by the Wings and excellent choice by Gordie.

[sumas]

Thanks!

Some of you are talking in Detroit lingo/slang which I don't understand, but thanks for the replies.

Please also let me know if it's safe taking photos of Detroit from/in Belle Isle... it looks like a nice place for 'cityscape' photos of the Detroit downtown skyline. Yet, on this forum, there seems to have been reports of drunks and 'hoons' on Belle Isle. Thanks again.

I've been Detroit most of my life. Not sure about Detroit lingo, what's a hoon?

Belle Isle is quite safe and very beautiful. Detroiters are about the friendliest folk you can meet. If you are nervous several people on this forum provide body guard service.

[Honky Tonk]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...alks-home-help

[EastsideAl]

As teens we used to take the bus up there and get the cheapie standing room tickets for Red Wings games. These were behind the rail of the cliff-like upper deck, so aptly described by UsualSuspect above. You could usually then score a seat somewhere [[this was the 70s, with lots of crappy Wings teams drawing less than full houses). But even if you couldn't, the stands were so steep that you had an unobstructed view of the ice. When I was at Cass, sometimes a group of us would even just walk up there and save on half the bus fare.

When I was a kid I was also dragged there by relatives for several other events. I remember rodeos, horse shows, wrestling [[Dick the Bruiser and Baron Von Raschke!), closed circuit showings of various fights and even World Cup soccer [[remember when that was the only way you could see them? I saw the Ali-Foreman 'Rumble in the Jungle' that way), tennis matches, and the good ol' roller derby. For a few years the Detroit-area Scottish community would have shows there of marching massed pipe bands [[called a "tattoo" in Scottish parlance), often including overseas military bands like the Black Watch. My Scottish grandmother and my father just loved those shows. My dad sometimes still talks about them.

Those late teen years were also the heart of my concert-going years. Mostly supported by scalping tickets outside of Olympia, Cobo, etc. I saw lots of big shows there, including the 1976 Bowie show mentioned by Kryptonite above. I saw Paul McCartney, George Harrison [[terrible show - he was high as a kite and didn't even come on until after midnight), Led Zep, Pink Floyd, an epic Clapton & Santana show, Elton John, Alice Cooper, Yes [[too much boring stoner noodling), ELP [[ditto), the unbelievable P-Funk extravaganza, a Kiss show where I got stuck with a ticket right down in front of the amps and my ears rang for a couple of weeks, an absolutely terrible Dylan show at the beginning of his 'mumbling barely audible things' period, Ray Charles, and a dynamite Earth Wind & Fire show that I think was the last concert ever held there.

Generally speaking though, Olympia was an inferior concert venue. The metal roof, omnipresent ice surface [[barely hidden below cardboard, as Sumas said), and lots of exposed metal girders made for lousy and echo-y acoustics. And the lack of air conditioning could make it very uncomfortable with a large packed-in crowd, and the inevitable giant hanging cloud of cannabis smoke. Cobo was much preferable [[although with a smaller capacity), which is why many more concerts were held there.

[Benedict]

I saw Yes in the round in 1980! Fun time. [[I was kinda into the stoner noodling in those days, lol)

[sumas]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...alks-home-help

Still clueless as to you being on Detroit Yes.Certainly Detroit has issues and problems. If you want to be bogus why not post on Freep or the Detroit News, they love negativity.

[EastsideAl]

Thanks!

Some of you are talking in Detroit lingo/slang which I don't understand, but thanks for the replies.

Please also let me know if it's safe taking photos of Detroit from/in Belle Isle... it looks like a nice place for 'cityscape' photos of the Detroit downtown skyline. Yet, on this forum, there seems to have been reports of drunks and 'hoons' on Belle Isle. Thanks again.

You'll have no problems on Belle Isle. The whole island is very nice, but the western end facing downtown is truly wonderful. Don't forget to walk over to the nearby Scott Fountain! [[now on the other side of the giant concrete field where the pits are for the auto races).

[Detroitnerd]

I guess Elvis played there once. I read that somebody threw a shoe at him onstage. A puzzled Elvis picked it up and threw it back to a few bars of "Return to Sender."

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

Sorry my memories of Olympia had zippo to do with sports. It was also a music venue. Saw the Rolling Stones, The Wings, Arlo Guthrie, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and so many others. Main floor seats were not so primo. Cardboard on ice and you would freeze your buns off.

What a great and eclectic set of performers! You have good taste.

[EastsideAl]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...alks-home-help

Terrible story, but what the hell does it have to do with Olympia?

[sumas]

My Dad liked Hockey. I would watch with him. Nice memories of shared time.

[lpg]

Saw the Globetrotters play there. Got free tickets to a wrestling match. We sat on the aisle about 10 rows back from the ring. Dick the Bruiser walked by and a couple of rows up from us a old lady stood up and clocked him with her purse. People took their rasslin' seriously back then.