Shake Rattle Amp; Roll (1984)
Gabriel Litke
Great times at the Coliseum. I recall the teams from the early 60s with Kent Douglas, Marcel Paille are Brian Kilrea, and of course Eddie Shore as the owner. And did you know that Don Cherry played for the Indians from 57-60 and and 61-62?
Thank you for this post. I remember the shirt swinging and the "and a roll" call. I was at both calder cup winning games and was fortunate to have season tickets growing up. I have a video somewhere of a huge brawl involving both full teams on the ice from the mid 90's. I have to dig that up.
Thanks for commenting. I was in Boston for both Calder Cups, but my friend provided me with the videotape of the 1990 cup shortly after it happened.
Another friend showed me the videotape of the brawl of brawls during the 1987-88 season vs. the Fredericton Express: =IdB7G3N9rV0.
What isn't apparent is that the injured Express player Mayotte tried to head-butt the Indians player, but it was a glancing blow. The Indians player, in turn, head-butts Mayotte HARD, cutting and dazing him.
I have very few happy childhood memories. However, before my dad walked out on us, he would take me - and only me - to the Indian's games. I loved the excitement! I was only six when it started, 9 when he left. It was 1976 when I attended my first game. My dad had been a semiprofessional athlete, well-known in the area. He knew everyone at the games. And there I was, his anything-but-a-tomboy daughter, only there for the opportunity to spend time with my dad. However, I eventually started to love going. The music, the fights, the unlimited snacks! I am now a lawyer with 6 kids and I still get super excited to go to Falcons games. My kids wouldn't understand, so I don't bother trying to explain. I never did get that relationship with my father I so longed for. But I hold on to the memories of those games and remember them often - especially when I visit the Coliseum every year during the Big E. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face!
I have great great memories of the Coliseum as well. I remember the flashlight guy! I also remember going to my older brother's HS games and playing street hockey in the empty hallways with broken sticks we would find. The place was huge and we were 8 years old running around the place being stupid kids. When I got older, I played my HS games there too... had the best ice ever! I'm too young to remember Indians games there, but I do remember going to tons of games at the civic center. Whenever I hear Bill Haley and the Comets I think of the Indians! Thanks for the memories!
Hi Tom,
I believe high school hockey games at the Coliseum stopped because the ice making machine broke and they didn't want to spend the money to fix it. What a waste! There was nothing like being in that place when it was packed to capacity for a Cathedral-Classical game.
Amadio was the precurser to Johnston. I was a kid when my dad would take me to see the games. He was from Quebec so we never missed the Aces. Those were wild. Then came the Voyageurs who spawned those great Canadiens '70's teams. Best fight I remember was Johnston and Marc Tardiff. They went toe to toe three times in one game before getting heaved. Those days were fun.
Thanks for writing this. It brought back so many great memories of the Coliseum. In the late 60's early 70's your ears would be ringing for hours after watching Cathedral, Classical, West Side, or the other big Berry Division schools play each other. Not an empty seat to be found.
Great stuff. The video you refer to in the 87-88 season with the head butting incident also has future Bruin coach Claude Julien involved in the brawl. Coliseum Charlie climbed the glass and ended up on the ice one night. Not that hard to do back then. I did it when the Kings won the Cup in 1971.
Hi
I just looked up Julien's player stats profile. I had to do a double-take on the photo--long hair and mustache! All those years in the minors with the exception of 25 games with the Nords.
I was at the game when the near riot broke out. My dad said, "Go down and see what's going on." As the players spilled off the ice unto the asphalt that was the main entrance and into the parking lot. I ran down the stairs, turned the corner and there was a player from the Americans and a player from the Kings, in the parking lot, in full uniform and skates standing toe-to-toe and duking it out. I can remember it like it was yesterday staring through the doors from inside and watching what, to me, were two grown men whomping on each other. I quickly retreated to my seat.
Hey Joey B.
It's not often something like that spills out into the parking lot!
I heard a story of another fight in which players went into the stands in the Coliseum and a fan grabbed a mop out of a broom closet and starting swinging it lol.
Man does this bring back memories, we had season tickets right on the glass in front of Charlie-he got that place rockin, between him and the cowbells I dont know who was louder. Best place ever too see a hockey game and during some point in the year you could lace up your skates at the end of the game and join the players on the ice. Two memories stand out- New Haven Nighthawks Defenseman John Bednarski flipping the crowd off and and the Nova Scotia Voyaguersscoring 2 goals in 10 sec. to win the game 2-1. Thanks for writing a great article
I never thought I would miss Springfield (I now live in South America) but when I ran across your story it brought back fond memories. I learned to skate and play hockey at the Colesium and played my high school career there for Minnechaug. I witnesses the last two Calder Cup championships and still have a seat handle from the Civic Center -the same seat handles that were so easy to remove and always ended up all over the ice, usually after a huge win, but sometimes when things didn't go the Tribe's way. The rivalry with New Haven was great. I remember one game when a huge brawl broke out on the concourse between the respective teams' inebriated fans. Great times! AND A ROLL! Thanks for the memories!
Lot of great memories here. I loved that 1971 team with Butch G. Also, the 1973 (or '74) that beat the Providence Reds for the cup was great. I always remember seeing Eddie Shore with his hat on sitting in the stands. We didn't know a lot about him as kids but we knew he was someone important. I always wore number 2 as a defenseman from Spfld in his honor. My coaches in the 70s always encouraged it. Coliseum Charlie was an original as well...lot's of laughs. BTW, I used to always hum shake, rattle and roll when I stepped onto the ice remembering the Kings/Indians...great story...
USGS map showing the reach of the 4.8 magnitude earthquake that was centered near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey. As indicated by the blue line, the rumbles of that temblor could be felt in southern New Jersey, New York City, as well as areas in Bucks, Berks, Lehigh, Montgomrey, North hampton, and Philadelphia counties in PA.
Around 10:20 a.m. many folks around the Town and Country readership area ran to their windows to see what the loud, rumbling noise was. Some just thought it was a large truck passing by or parking in front of their building.
What we felt was the result of a 4.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey. The rumbles of that temblor could be felt in southern New Jersey, New York City, as well as areas in Bucks, Berks, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia counties in PA.
restrictions were placed on Amtrak trains and the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO) suspended service to allow for inspection of their tracks and buildings. New Jersey Transit delayed bridge crossings so they could be inspected. The Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Authority kept chugging along without much of a delay while crews inspected the infrastructure.
We've had several earthquakes shake us up over the last two decades but the last time people felt close to this strong a quake around here was in August 2011 when the earth moved with a magnitude of 5.8 after an earthquake struck near Richmond, VA. But, it didn't shake, rattle, and roll us much around here.
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