Olympia Stadium

[9606 Prest]

In the near future it looks like the Red Wings will be leaving Joe Louis Arena for a new downtown stadium. Does anyone have any memories of watching the Red Wings play at Olympia Stadium when the NHL consisted of the Original 6?

[littlebuddy]

As a kid I remember sitting there and feeling like you were going to tumble down onto the ice if you leaned too far forward. My Dad took me to alot of games back in the 60's through early 70's. Once served dinner to Gordie Howe and his two hockey playing sons at the "Sign of the Beefcarver[[eater) in Allen Park when I was in high school. For all of us young guys working there it was like a god had come in. It was beyond cool.

[56packman]

I went to a few games there in the 70s, it was beyond wonderful, you were never far from the action due to the stacking of the seating, and as indicated by Gilligan /\ , you felt like you could lean forward and fall onto the ice. The big escalator to the top floor was impressive to a kid. Later I was a guest in the pressbox during Jr.Wings games, and got to go into many non-public areas of the building, often with Lincoln Cavalerri, the manager.

[blackmath]

I've never personally gone there but I've heard so many stories about it from my parents and grand parents I feel like I've been there.

My grandparents would take the whole family every year to watch the New Years Day games. I've also heard it was really steep, giving the effect that you were right on top of the ice. That seems to be a common theme in arenas built for the original six teams as I've heard the same thing about the Montreal Forum and Boston Garden.

Was the neighborhood a really rough area back then? I've heard from a friend of mine who knows a lot more about hockey than I ever will that Marcel Dionne was mugged outside the Olympia and this is one of the reasons he left the Red Wings. I did some research but haven't found anything about that, only that he left Detroit because the Kings were offering him a lot of money to skip town, but nothing about a mugging.

Oh and this is my first post. I've been reading the board for a while now and I have to say this board has some very intelligent and well informed people on it.

[blackmath]

Heres the Wikipedia article about the Olympia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Olympia

Also, a part of the old arena still exists. There is a set of huge steel doors on the east side of Windsor Arena that were originally from the Olympia.

Here's two pictures as well
Attachment 7412

[Downriviera]

Welcome to the forum blackmath. Thats my favorite White Stripes song and I'm guessing thats where you got your moniker from. As for the Olympia, I spent my entire youth in that building, going to Wings games and playing hockey there as well. I would gladly give up all the amenities of the Mcstadiums of today if they could get me on top the action like at the Olympia. Nothing better. We never had a problem walking through that neighborhood, and I'm sure the Dionne story is a rumor. He wasn't happy here so he left.

[blackmath]

You're exactly right, Downriviera, my name is taken from a White Stripes song - also my favorite one. I found the story of the mugging kind of hard to believe as well when I heard it.

I totally agree with you about modern arenas. I also feel this way about modern ballparks - but that's a different story for a different thread. In the quest for "perfect sightlines" and wider concourses architects and planners have robbed an entire generation of sports fans the thrill of being really close to the action.

[Downriviera]

At the Olympia you could really pick up the sounds of the game, too. Skates cutting the ice, passes clicking from stick to stick, and the thunder of Bill Gadsby hip checking Bobby Hull into the boards. I get goosebumps just thinking about it. I love watching the classic games on the NHL network to relive the memories. The other great thing was the organ. The canned music at the Joe is terrible.

[blackmath]

Here's a great site with a lot of pictures and a great bio of the Olympia.

http://www.scottymoore.net/detroit57.html

[Hamtragedy]

I have, up to my left, the photograph that probably hung in someone's office, entitled "First Boxing Show" Johnny Risko of Clevenland vs Tom Heeney of New Zealand, Heeney took the decision is 10 rounds. It's a panaramic shot of Olympia taken from behind the net, referring to the first fight mentioned early in the website you listed above. Bunting, flags of all nations, giant bullhorns, and lots of smoke in the rafters, [[that place was hazy during games). Lots of fedoras, too.

Bought it at Hirt in Eastern Market for 25 bucks about 10 years ago. The picture has not fared well though, as alot of the chrome is stuck to the glass frame, kind of giving the picture an eerie 3-D effect.

[FlyingJ]

when the NHL consisted of the Original 6?

That's one of the most egregious lies in pro sports-the "Original Six" were the remnants of a dozen teams that were lost to attrition, labor disputes[[stay tuned, Ted Lindsey), arena fires[[the Toronto Arenas, natch) & plain ol' underhanded dirty dealings [[Brooklyn Americans, meet the New York Rangers)

[Hamtragedy]

Mr Norris made a small fortune as a boxing promoter. His brother [[or cousin), also a promoter, owned the Blackhawks. One Tex Ricker, famous for putting on a massive Jack Johnson fight in Vegas, [[building a 50,000 seat venue almost overnight and charging 100 bucks a ticket in the 1910s), owned the Rangers [[Tex's Rangers, I think he owned Madison Square Gardens).

So, of the original 6, three were owned by boxing promoters.

[blackmath]

Tex Rickard built the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden, when it was still located near Madison Square.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison...e_Garden_[[1925)

Never knew where the name "Rangers" came from until I read your post. Fascinating stuff.

[blackmath]

Great shot from the bench in '78

Attachment 7414

[blackmath]

The old building in 1986. Very close to the end...

Attachment 7415

[Gistok]

The old Olympia was designed by Detroit architect C. Howard Crane... architect of the Fox, Opera House, Orchestra Hall, United Artists, State and 250 other theatres in the USA and Britain.

Crane had a genius for "difficult" building designs, as well as building on difficult sites. Most of his theatre designs were not even remotely alike, and his building of Olympia in 1927 and London's Earl's Court Convention Center a decade later [[built above railroad tracks... a difficult site if there ever was one) showed his talents for building buildings for large crowds that often had great acoustics and eye appeal to the masses [[although the inside of Olympia was rather Spartan).

I had only ever been to Olympia once... the last year the Red Wings played there... and it can truly be said that Crane's expertise in theatre design gave him a keen understanding of "great sight lines"... such as those of Olympia. Granted the upper level of the arena could cause vertigo for those unaccustomed to the steep pitch in that area of the arena... but you were rewarded with an intimacy with the game that has been lacking in modern facilities ever since.

[Zacha341]

Nice shot. I grew up near the Olympia. Walked by it with my mother and dad many a day. I recall Elvis's last concert there. And the "Roller Derby" events. It was a huge land mark. You could see it for miles around.

The old building in 1986. Very close to the end...

Attachment 7415

[Mikeg]

The first season after receiving my drivers license [[1968-69), my younger brother and I would often drive down to Olympia, park in the Northwestern HS parking lot and wait for the Red Wings standing room tickets to go on sale [[if I remember correctly, they went on sale one hour before game time and were $2 each). As soon as we had our tickets, we would run up the escalator to the new balcony and stake out our favorite standing location down low along the right-side aisle next to the wall. The sight lines from there were terrific - it was like looking down over the goalie's right shoulder.

The only "trouble" we ever experienced attending games at Olympia was making sure that the person collecting the money for the parking was legitimate.

A few years later, I learned that one of the guys in the engineering department where I worked at GM was also the organist during the Wings games at Olympia. His name was Art Quattro and his son and daughter at that time were just starting to find success in the music industry.

[Hermod]

Sid Abel, Ted Lindsay, Gordie Howe, Terry Sawchuck............

I used to see a lot of games as the scrap dealer that dealt with my father would always produce tickets for football, baseball, and hockey.

There used to be a preliminary match [[I don't know if it was amatuer or semi-pro) before the Wings match. I remember that Gage-Drummy Olds sponsored one of the teams that used to play. You got to see two matches instead of one.


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[Wingnatic]

I have many fond memories at the old red barn starting around the 1955-56 season . We almost always got standing room tickets which was nothing like standing room tickets at JLA . Most of the time we sat on the steps leading up to the assigned seats . If we were real lucky we got seats in the promenade which was ice level in one corner of the rink . We'd always leave our seats early before a period was over and walk around the hallway behind the bench where employee's would set up rubber mats and sawhorses and the players would walk across the hallway to the dressing room , so you could get up very close to the players for a few seconds .
Later on when I grew up I bought tickets in advance [[good seats) and would take my dad . Later on I remember Kronk boxing would host boxing at Olympia about every 6-8 weeks or so and thats when I first saw Hearns , the late Mickey Goodwin etc until some of those Kronk boxers talents outgrew the venue lol I remember the Quattro's and I believe I read somewhere many years ago that musicians loved Olympia because of the acoustics were excellent .

[zitro]

I have a copy of the pic above, here is a close up of the marquee, with the classic wrastlin' matchup of Dick the Bruiser vs Alex Karras.

[mallory]

I have two distinct memories of the grand old Olympia. One is of attending games with my dad, and how the place would fill with cigarette smoke during the course of the game. By the last period, if you were in the nose bleed sections, you might not have been able to even see the game. And those steep steps!

I also remember a guy that I worked with in 1986 who said he went to the stadium as it was being torn down and got into many of the different areas of the stadium looking for stuff to take. I think he grabbed some seats if I'm not mistaken. Then again, he could have been bs'ing.

[rb336]

My memories of the old barn

several red wings games with dad and granddad [[always against chicago)

seeing Peggy Fleming at the Ice Folies and her looking straight at me during the curtain call, me wearing my brother's giant coat, the sleeves hanging way down from my hands while i was resting my arms on the boards, and laughing

the "four together" world hunger year benefit with Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot, John Denver and James Taylor - and a touching tribute to Bing Crosby by denver and lightfoot

[zitro]

Olympia bricks

[Carey]

Wingnatic touches upon one of the most memorable aspects of a fabulous arena -- players walking across the public hallway to go from the bench to the locker room. As a kid, I stationed myself next to the red saw horses at every opportunity. When I first started going to Red Wing games in the early 1960s, you could watch both the Wings and the visitors, but as times changed, they eventually covered the visitors' walkway with a canvas barrier.
I'll never forget the thrill of being inches from the sweating stars as they walked off the ice. To a kid, they seemed like giants as they passed by on their skates, and you could see details that you never saw from the seats, like how their uniforms were torn and bloodied, and their faces were criss-crossed with scars, Ted Lindsay especially, though Marcel Pronovost's face scared me because it was so messed up. Once, when I stood watching the Montreal Canadiens, I thought I had seen God when Jean Beliveau walked past.