Today's Star Tribune has an article on Mariucci arena and the sentiments
that are being stirred up as we approach the last regular-season game
in the old barn (Friday night vs. St. Cloud):
 
Mariucci memories
As end nears, everyone has a tale to tell
 
By John Gilbert
Staff Writer
 
High intensity play without emotional highs has been the Gophers hockey
team's hallmark with coach Doug Woog.  But if the Gophers' emotions don't
hit a peak Friday night, in the final regular-season game at Mariucci Arena,
it will be time to take their pulses.
 
"I hope it's an emotional thing for them," Woog said.  "When you take in 50
years of history, they'd better have some emotion or they're missing the
point of being here."
 
Captain Travis Richards, goaltender Tom Newman and winger John Brill
[will] be featured in the traditional introduction of seniors before their
final regular-season home game.  But when the Gophers face St. Cloud State at
7:05 p.m. Friday, it also will be a might to pay tribute to Mariucci Arena.
 
After the game, the banners for various league and national championship
teams will be lowered and entrusted to captains from those teams until they
can be transported across 4th St. and raised in the new Mariucci Arena.
 
For current players, there is excitement about moving into the new building
next season.  But their priority has been making a strong showing in the
final weeks of the WCHA season, and their 6-1-1 record in February
clinched a first-round home playoff series next week.
 
"It's true that it isn't going to be our last game in there,"  Woog said.  "I
think when you walk off the ice after the last playoff game it will hit you
the most.
 
"If we could make a circle and salute our fans, that would be pretty special.
Another thing I feel good about is that, unlike football, they're not going to
crumble our building.
 
"It's still going to be there, with different things going on."
 
Built in 1928, Williams Arena was divided to house a hockey arena that
opened on Feb. 17, 1950.  The Gophers beat Michigan State 12-1 before and
inaugural crowd of 3,723.  A couple of years later, when future Gov.
Wendell Anderson, John Mayasich, Ken Yackel and Jimmy Mattson played
for coach John Mariucci, a 10-year-old Doug Woog watched his first game at
the arena.
 
"I didn't sit low, because you can't see," Woog said.  "I don't think much has
changed, when you think about it.  They probably haven't been able to get
up and wash the windows.  They've always had great ice cream cones and
popcorn, and they've had the same seats, just planks.  And it might be cold
in there, so the people always dressed practically, not stylishly.
 
"It even seems like the same Boy Scouts are still there as ushers."
 
Assistant coach Bill Butters' most indelible memory was as a player in the
1972-3 season, after he had been separated from a tussle in one corner and
was ushered out to center ice by officials who then returned to break up
more fighting.  The 15 players on the Colorado College bench taunted
Butters, who glared for a few moments.
 
Then Butters took off, his legs churning like a cartoon character as he
charged the Colorado bench, hurling over the boards to crash into the
stunned opponents.
 
"That's probably my most memorable moment, because I didn't make a lot
of end-to-end rushes," Butters said.
 
"I do remember playing for Glen Sonmor as a sophomore when we were
down 5-0 to Wisconsin with 10 minutes left.  Our fans booed us, then they
left.  But we came back to tie the game and beat 'em 6-5 in overtime.
 
"There's no question, it's the end of a great era, although my fondest
memories are of the players I played with rather than the arena itself,"
Butters added.  "I think walking down that corridor, up the wood steps,
hearing our band playing the Rouser, our fans screaming and knowing
they're going to play a good-skating team, probably makes the visiting
teams feel the mystique of this place more than our players."
 
Every coach coming in this season has remarked about using their last game
at Mariucci as a psychological tool.
 
Gino Gaparini, the North Dakota coach who might be bringing his team
back for the playoff next weekend, split a pair of 8-4 games with the
Gophers to open the season.
 
"As a player, I remember Dick Paradise getting me with a check that got me
10 stitches above the eye," Gasparini said.  "So I've left a little blood in
that place.  And I remember the last game of the regular season in 1979, with
Herbie Brooks on one side and me on the other, playing for the title.  Talk
about memories.  That was the all-time great series."
 
Brooks, another former player, recalled his first game as coach in the
building in 1972.  "I remember playing there, too." he said.  "The various
emotions of John Mariucci, the uniqueness of that building, the
crowd...They might build a new Mariucci Arena, but it'll never be the
same."
 
The fans have filled the seats despite sight lines so poor that people in the
first 20 rows have to stand to see much of the action.
 
The best view comes from the  upper deck on the north side, which has
about 20 percent of the seats, but about 80 percent of the arena's clear
vantage points.
 
In the 1950's and '60's, that balcony was for students and general admission.
In those days, when the doors opened at about 6 p.m., the whole building
would tremble from what sounded like an earthquake.  Actually, it was a
stampede for the balcony, which would be filled before fans in the lower
seats showed up.
 
Bruce Wick of Roseville has seats up high in Section 27A, Row 29.
 
"We were down in Row 6, but you can't ever see the puck there," he said.
"Up in our seats, we've got an obstructed view because there's a girder right
in front of us.  But it only blocks center ice, so we can see both goals.
 
"When we get our seats in the new arena, I'm bringing a plastic pole and
setting it right in front of me.  Otherwise, it won't seem the same."
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!!!