For those who may have been tracking this with any kind of regularity, or those stumbling upon here for the first time wondering "well why hasn't this bugger updated?"--as tends to happen, the rest of my life decided to come beckoning. Only recently, with a promotion (and thus a more regular schedule), have I been able to even start thinking about getting back on this train, and it will probably involve me more or less starting over, from the beginning, from semi-scratch. I'll take what I have so far, but I need a clean slate (looking back I'm realizing I said the exact same thing about 9 months ago).
This means I will definitely be starting at 1938 in Huntington. I've got my basic timeline, with numerous gaps to fill:
1938: Iceland Arena opens, Stars begin playing
1941: Dick Deutsch takes over Iceland, replaces the ice surface with a year-round wood floor, renames it Arena Gardens. Marshall makes it their home, but the lack of ice knocks out ice hockey in the city
1945: Arena Gardens burns down
1947: Marshall wins NAIB championship, inspiring construction of...
1950: Veterans Memorial Field House, with an ice plant
1955: Grand Rapids Rockets, due to either poor attendance or arena issues, set up shop in Huntington as the Hornets; caretaker ownership wastes no time in trying to move the team to Evansville
1956: after two failed takeover attempts the team moves to Louisville
somewhere between 1956 and 1990: the ice plant at the Field House is removed
1977: Huntington Civic Center built
1992: discussions begin about installing ice plant at Civic Center for an ECHL expansion franchise
1993: Huntington Blizzard begin play
1994: Tri-State Ice Arena closes
1995: Blizzard ownership swap #1
1999: Blizzard ownership swap #2
2000: Blizzard close shop
2005: Tri-State Ice Arena closes
2 comments:
Lenny, as a former Huntington Blizzard booster who has since moved away from Huntington, has there been any progress in getting a team back in Huntington?
Melinda Holley
Rebel8954@aol.com
Not a lot. In '03-04 there was an effort to get a team back in the arena in the SEHL/SPHL, but the arena GM at the time wasn't very receptive to the idea. As recently as last year though the current GM proposed refurbishing the arena with, among other things, new hockey boards and equipment; however, being a municipal facility, this would require city money, and the city is a bit on the cash-strapped side. Still, I think if the right people got their heads together... well I'll elaborate a bit more tomorrow, when I'm less sleepy :^)
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