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PHOTO GALLERIES
TEAM INFO
FAN SECTION MISCELLANEOUS |
Something New Added:
From a Mining Journal Article in the 1950's. Now for the Palestra. I am indebted to Gene Short and Bob Brumm for some of these notes. After WWI there was quite a bit of interest in a closed rink, large enough for hockey and winter carnivals and when it became known, in 1920, that the Palestra at Laurium could be purchased, a group of Marquette men got an option on it and that summer the proposition was put to a vote by the people to see if they wanted the city to buy it. The taxpayers voted it down, 648 to 422, and the next year, 1921, it was bought by the First Group, first called the People's Development Company, and later, the Palestra Company. The cost was $15,000. [The Palestra was subsequently bought by the City of Marquette in 1940 for about $12,000. Stock was subscribed, there was great enthusiasm, and plans were rushed so that it could be dismantled, hauled here, and erected before Christmas. Through the authorization of William G. Mather, the Cleveland Cliffs leased the land, a
section 300 feet wide and 400 feet long, to the organization. It took Edward Ulseth, a Calumet contractor, just 55 days to move the building and
put it back it was said. Some of you may remember *There was a fire at the Palestra in 1954 which destroyed the ballroom *The Palestra came down in 1974 as voted by the Marquette City Commission.
If The Palestra Could Talk The time is the 1940's; it's a Thursday night and the Sentinels are hosting Calumet. Norman (Boots) Kukuk leaps over a pair of Calumet defensemen, rockets across the blue line and scores a breakaway goal for Marquette. The crowd goes wild-and the boards of the southwest corner of the rink give way to people pressure, collapse, and spill a dozen stamping, screaming spectators on to the ice. They barely miss a clap, so partisan the support, so intense the rivalry. Now the time is fall, the night windy and wet, but raw weather is no deterrent to the steady stream of high school students wending their way to the cavernous building and climbing the stairs to the weekly dance on the second floor. Or picture a frigid Saturday night, the mercury hovering around 20 degrees below zero as several East Side youngsters shiver their way a mile northwest, intent on a skating session. One finds, after an hour on the ice, she has frostbitten feet, but snow from the edge of the rink, applied vigorously to the bare toes, soon restores sensation, and she's back with the others, circling the ice to the tune of "The Skater's Waltz". Consider many another night over the years, cars jammed along fair and Presque Isle Avenues, Third, Front and Second Streets, parents flocking to the arena to watch their youngsters perform in the annual ice show. More recently the drawing card might have read "Junior Hockey" or "Marquette Iron Rangers" or, once again, "Sentinels"-or simply "Adult Skating", "Open Skating", or "Free Skating". One word covers all these reminiscences and events: that venerable transplanted edifice brought to Marquette from Laurium in the early 1920's and, since then, home for all ice activities here...until this week. The Palestra has been superseded by Marquette's new Lakeview Arena, and this is the swan song for the old stadium, which is being gutted, its lights, bleachers, and clock to be utilized in the new arena, the rest of the building slated ultimately for demolition, unless it is acquired and moved by some group believing (as many do) that there's life in the old girl yet. Sister structure to Dee Stadium in Houghton, the Palestra was acquired by a group of interested citizens for $15,000. Transporting it by rail to Marquette and erecting it cost another $45,000, meaning the Palestra became an institution here for a total of $60,000. It was later turned over to the city. For many years, skaters and hockey fans prayed for cold weather to assure good ice conditions, since the Palestra rink had to be flooded as outdoor rinks still are today. It wasn't until the late 1940's that a public fund drive was launched to raise money for an ice plant that would do the job automatically. Residents contributed a total of $25,000 to the campaign, the city put up a matching amount, and the Palestra's ice plant became a reality. Marquette Jaycees helped install sideboards in a renovation program conducted about the same time, and the city businessmen donated time and materials to the face-lifting project. And the Palestra served...and served...and served. Many people could tell many stories about the history of the Palestra and the events held there, but Boots Kukuk took the time to write a piece about it, under the title "The Hallowed Halls of Hockeydom". It's a first person article, written as if the Palestra were speaking, and it covers a host of recollections. Following is a sampling -Not all the Palestra's customer were friends: "I did not mind so much when girl and boy sweethearts carved their initials and hearts on my wooden walls and the seats in the hockey arena...I did not mind the hockey players and older sweepers who rolled across my steel girder backbone on rollerskates to collect a $2 bet...What did hurt me immensely were the hockey fans and dance hall enthusiasts who stuffed their empty moonshine and wine bottles into any hole, nook or cranny they could find in my side walls. I think I can safely say I was one of the first glass-insulated buildings in America!" -Recollected with gratitude are the trainers who worked with hockey teams-Mike Greenleaf, Louie Beaudoin, Skinny Davis, and Roy Bullock. Thanks to these men and others like them, along with liberal applications of Sloan's Linament, many a hockey player left the dressing room refreshed, his wounds treated, ready to play another day. -Kukuk reminisces about "the beautiful daughters of dedicated figure-skating families" such as the Murray's and the Olsons, the latter perhaps more widely know for their hockey talents. And he writes about the city's free-skaters, their grace and rhythm, citing among the standouts: Buzz Saunders, retired mailman who "to this day trips the light fantastic on ice"; Clarence Matt, the hockey player, who "will be remembered for his long graceful free-skating strides, even though he was often black-and-blue from the body checks in the game the night before". And the late George (Soup) Bureau, who "was one of the Palestra gang and always in center ice doing figures in spare moments away from his barber emporium". Sympathy is expressed for the Palestra caretakers and managers. "The long line starting with Big John MacLamora and including Jim LaFortune, Fred Bernardi, Gordon Heughens, Leonard McKie, Jim Palmer, Clarence Meyers. Bob Smith and Jim Engle worked hard to remove eight to ten 50-gallon barrels of empty whiskey bottles to the city dump after every hockey game". Cuts bruises and more serious injuries were part and parcel of the Palestra's hockey history. Kukuk remembers some of the more spectacular incidents-as when Morgan (Mugs) Gingrass of Marquette removed his skates and dumped a shoeful of blood on the floor after cutting an artery in his leg just above the ankle during a Sunday afternoon game... Or when Norm Webster, a young Canadian professional, almost bled to death on the Palestra's south blue line. The team Physician, Matt Bennet, credited quick action on the part of Kukuk's wife Grace and Al Jacobson, then Sheriff, in preventing Webster's death from a severed neck artery. It took 60 stitches to close the wound. And there was Big Red Anderson, 240-pound Soo Indians defensemen, who took a hockey puck in the forehead, was knocked senseless, fell and broke his nose on the ice. In the words of the personified Palestra: "Broken fingers, arms and legs, eyebrow cuts, fractured cheekbones and noses were common occurrences. In those days, if a hockey player did not take his teeth out upon entering the dressing room, he was not considered experienced". On and on goes the history-ranging from the days when German bands played between periods of hockey games and doubled as dance orchestras on the second floor every Saturday night to the World War II era, when inductions of local boys leaving for the armed services were held in the Palestra. Tex Ritter and his famous white horse mad an appearance at the Palestra, and Abbott and Costello, the zany comic duo of the decade, performed there during a WWII bond drive program. The Detroit Red Wings played an exhibition game in the arena, and many years earlier, wrestling fans in this area had the opportunity to watch Gus Sonnenburg of Marquette wrestle there-while he was World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion! It's hockey, however, for which the Palestra will be remembered, along with hockey players who left their mark on the arena, among them Taffy Abel, Ching Johnson, Doug Young, Doc Allaire, Pope Demars, Waino Koski, Wacky Olson, and his hockey-playing brothers, Kukuk, Tony Bukovich, Pappy Gresnick, and a myriad more. And as Kukuk said: it was men like Leonard Oakie Brumm and his father Ike before him who repaired, rebuilt and restored the Palestra periodically or, to quote Boots: "It would have died by the wayside decades ago". Bowing out, Kukuk said, the Palestra might have spoken thus to the Marquette residents: "I was brought here by your great-grandparents, I served your fathers, and I can remember you growing up as children. Your children passed through my doors, and I lasted long enough to enjoy the company of your grandchildren". So exits the Palestra, but it will remain a hallmark in the archives of Marquette and Upper Peninsula community and sports activities.
Beloved Rink Was Home of Rangers |
the railroad cars on which the sections were loaded were switched over to the street car
tracks, and the material unloaded on a spur track near the location.
John McNamara came here from the Copper County to run it. The project was
finished in plenty of time, but then came the warm weather, which plagued
the operators from that time and for many years afterward until the artificial ice plant was installed. However, ice was finally made and the
grand opening was held December 28, featured by a game between Eveleth and the American Soo Bearcats of the American Amateur Hockey
Association. It cost $900 to bring the teams here, but a crowd of over $2000 turned out,
so it was a great success. Outside teams were brought in that winter to create hockey interest. 
