After I referred to Northeastern's Matthews Arena as "the oldest ice
hockey arena in the world" (taken from the NU game program), Russell
Jaslow asked me some questions about the rink. I thought HOCKEY-L
readers might be interested in a history of the building. The
following is taken from the program.
10/11/1909 Groundbreaking for the Boston Arena
12/14/1910 First college hockey game played at Arena - Harvard 4, MIT 3
1918 Arena suffers first of two major fires
12/01/1924 Boston Bruins play first home game - defeat Montreal Maroons,
2-1
01/17/1930 Northeastern plays first game at Arena - loses to MIT, 2-1;
also first season of varsity hockey for Northeastern
1932 Texas Rangers rodeo appears at Arena
12/31/1934 First college basketball game played at Arena - Notre Dame
vs. Holy Cross
11/05/1946 Boston Celtics play first game at Arena - Chuck "The
Rifleman" Connors smashes glass backboard
1948 Arena suffers second major fire
1954 Northeastern basketball team plays first game at Arena (and
only one until 1981), losing to UMass, 70-63
1979 Northeastern purchases Arena from city and renames it the
Northeastern Arena
1981 Northeastern basketball team adopts Arena as permanent home
198? Arena renamed Matthews Arena in honor of NU trustee George
Matthews and wife Hope, who donated money for major renovations
Also listed as having performed/appeared at the Arena are: boxers Jack
Dempsey, Gene Tunney and Joe Louis; track star Paavo Nurmi; Olympic
gold medal figure skater Sonja Henie; Presidents Franklin D.
Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy; and Charles
Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, James Michael Curley, the Reverend Billy
Graham, Admiral Nimitz, and General Eisenhower. Other Boston sports
stars who played at the Arena include the Bruins' Eddie Shore and the
Celtics' Bob Cousy.
The Arena has been home to many area scholastic hockey teams, as well
as a number of college teams including Tufts, MIT, BC, Harvard, BU,
and currently Northeastern and DivIII Wentworth.
It's not mentioned in the program, but when it was known as the Boston
Arena, it was also the home of the first Beanpot in 1952 (then the New
England Invitational, though it never had any teams other than BC, BU,
Harvard, and NU). And, for the first few years of the ECAC
Tournament in the early 1960s, the championship was played at the Arena.
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Mike Machnik [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc. *HMM* 11/13/93
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