Ben Stadey saw all the signs that junior hockey was going to make it in Waterloo.  As a 16-year-old rookie defenseman in early 1992, Stadey was there when the United States Hockey League's biggest stars – Chris and Peter Ferraro – were traded to the Black Hawks.

"The Ferraros were so dynamic, and you could see this was where hockey was going," Stadey remembers. "And I thought they were just an amazing combination of skill, talent, and violence."

The twin Ferraros helped Waterloo battle into the 1992 playoffs before moving on to Maine and later the NHL.  Meanwhile the Black Hawks and Stadey welcomed young Jason Blake to the Cedar Valley in the fall of 1992.  Blake was good that year and spectacular the next, producing a 100-point season in 1993/94 from an even 50 goals and 50 assists.  As Blake climbed to the NCAA, Stadey remained for a fourth year in Waterloo, and witnessed the most significant omen of hockey's long-term resurgence in the community.

After 31 seasons at McElroy Auditorium, the Hawks planned to open one more campaign on the National Cattle Congress campus before finishing 1994/95 at Young Arena, still under construction two miles away.
 
"A lot of us cut our teeth at McElroy, and that's all we knew. I think it's one of those things where you don't know what you have until it's gone," Stadey reflects, now nearly 30 years since the final game at Waterloo's original rink on December 9, 1994.

"It was a great building," says then-Hawks General Manager Scott Brand.  "You know it obviously didn't have the amenities that Young has, and it had poles everywhere, but…the thing I remember seeing was a lot of older fans with newer fans. It was kind of like generational to see the fans that had been there in the 60s bringing their grandkids and their kids and saying 'we're leaving home and we're moving to a new home.'"

In 1962, McElroy – also historically called Waterloo Auditorium and the Cattle Congress Hippodrome at different points during its existence – received a major overhaul.  The addition of ice-making infrastructure brought the Black Hawks and USHL hockey that fall.  The Hawks proved to be the team of the 60s, winning five straight league titles beginning in the spring of 1964.  A rink packed with 5,000 people became the expectation on Saturdays and Sundays.  In 1969, the Minnesota North Stars moved their top farm club to McElroy, and dozens of future NHL standouts passed through the building during the lone season the Iowa Stars patrolled the rink.

The game and the business of hockey changed in the 1970s.  Waterloo was back in the USHL, and the Hawks were generally still competitive, but greater professional opportunities meant more competition for talented players.  By the end of the decade, the USHL merged with the Midwest Junior Hockey League, with the intent to convert to all-junior rosters.  The championships Waterloo won during the transitional 1977/78 and 78/79 seasons would be the last ever celebrated at McElroy.

The 1979/80 hockey schedule was nearly the last in Waterloo hockey history.  Attendance sagged, and the team moved out of town, although another club was acquired and quickly branded the "New" Hawks in the summer of 1980.  In large part, the decade which followed resembled a guerrilla campaign to keep hockey alive.  If the Black Hawks continued to play, that assured ice would be installed at McElroy, meaning the continuation of youth and high school hockey programs.  For many parents, that was better motivation to help the Hawks than any hope junior hockey might find a substantial audience.

The calculus changed in 1993.  Across the Cedar River, the Waterloo Diamonds baseball team left town.  Waterloo was without pro baseball for the first time in 90 years.  With the pipes under McElroy's concrete floor corroding and the building becoming ever harder to maintain, it was increasingly evident that hockey might disappear too.  The regret over not building a new ballpark still stung city leaders as they decided the time was right for a new rink.

Even late in its life as a hockey venue, McElroy Auditorium had character.  A new ownership group took over in 1992, hiring Brand after his colorful career as a referee.  Brand's creativity and promotional flair, plus the arrival of some exceptional players, helped to bring fans back for Black Hawks hockey.

"When that place was sold out, like when we had it going pretty good those two years, it was a really hostile environment," notes forward Rich Metro, who joined the Hawks in 1993.  "You could tell you had a home ice advantage, that's for sure."

Uninitiated visiting players had to adjust to some of the building's idiosyncrasies even before stepping on the ice.

"The locker rooms were side by side," says Metro.  "The Zamboni doors were behind the net…and that was also the way you went to and from the rink's ice surface.  They had metal fold-out chairs and there was an orange carpet that you walked on to go to your locker room. Our locker room was to the left and the visiting locker room was to the right, and basically both were across from each other. So if you got into a fight and got kicked out of the game, you and the guy you fought were literally right next to each other going off the ice."

"It was an old barn and it had a lot of character," says defenseman Wes Blevins, who arrived for the 1994/95 season with the move to Young Arena imminent.  "It was tough; the games were physical. The crowds were loud…It was an old, old barn, and it was dark, too. I remember that the lighting was darker, much darker, than Young Arena, that's for sure."

Adding to the home ice edge, Waterloo players like Blevins and Stadey knew how to find their way around McElroy's unique dimensions in that relative darkness.

"McElroy was shaped like an egg," says Stadey. "It was unique. As a defenseman breaking the puck out from the space behind the net - and how oddly narrow the corners were - you really had to adjust your game to that rink."

Not all of McElroy's quirks could be regarded as "advantages."

"People forget that we came in on the tail end of a rodeo every year at the National Cattle Congress," reflects Brand.  "For the month of October, it was dead flies everywhere. On the ice. Dead flies all over. I mean, it still smelled like, you know, cow droppings. There was still the dirt they'd used. The seats were still covered in dust."

"It was literally built for the rodeo, right?" Metro notes rhetorically as he also reflects on the locker rooms. "Everyone's stall had a mirror with light bulbs that wrapped around, I think so the rodeo clowns could put their makeup on.

"Sometimes we'd break a pane of glass around the rink, and we had [to replace it with] plywood in the corner.  We used to tease Scotty Brand and say that he was selling those seats for half price behind that plywood."

Brand and Head Coach Scott Mikesch had other unique challenges as the 1994/95 season began.  Which players would be right for the roster as the team transitioned from the small, asymmetrical ice surface at the Cattle Congress grounds to the big new rink on Commercial Street?

"One of the things we actually asked for is: 'hey, can we just take the same size ice surface from McElroy and move it over?'" says Brand, laughing. "But you know, I think that was the first thing: do you build your team for the first half and the second half?"

One thing was certain: many of the players would come from Michigan.  At the time, prospects were often acquired through AAA feeder programs tied to a designated USHL club.  Waterloo's connections were in Michigan.  In addition, Mikesch himself was from the Upper Peninsula.  Metro, Blevins, and a host of others came from the state.  So did veterans Bobby Hayes, Todd Steinmetz, Jeff Kozakowski, and Austin Crawford, all members of the 1993/94 Hawks squad which went 33-15-2, enjoying more success than any Waterloo team in more than a decade.  

Forward Roger Trudeau was another Michigander.  The first-year forward remembers a roster in flux during 1994/95 as the Hawks struggled at the outset.

"We had a lot of people coming in and out of our team that year and had some injuries. We had a lot of players getting traded," says Trudeau, who himself missed much of the early schedule due to knee surgery.

"We had quite the team the year before. We had a lot of guys move on, and it was definitely a rebuilding year," agrees Stadey.

The Hawks did not put together consecutive wins at any time during the first two months of the schedule.  Overtimes were especially problematic.  Waterloo lost four of them during that early span, including three at McElroy Auditorium.  By the time the rink finale arrived on December 9th, the Hawks had just five wins in their first 19 games and had gone winless in five straight.

Brand and the Hawks had played up the farewell campaign for McElroy, and the building saw above average crowds in October and November.

"Not very many teams get an opportunity to do it," says Brand. "You don't know when the last game is [at the end of a season] because of playoffs and stuff like that. So it was a great marketing opportunity."

Unfortunately, hopes for drawing one more 5,000-fan crowd were overly optimistic.

"We were kind of expecting there to be more people," notes Trudeau. "I can't remember for sure, [but] it was a decent crowd."

Official attendance was reported as 3,650.

The Hawks went shorthanded early, and the visiting Thunder Bay Flyers capitalized on the first power play.  David Hoogsteen scored the first goal of the night just 5:36 after the initial faceoff.  It was a feisty first period, with three sets of offsetting penalties.  Waterloo had just finished an unsuccessful power play a minute-and-a-half before Trudeau tied the game, putting a shot under the crossbar to finish a three-on-two rush.

Early in the second, Trudeau gave Waterloo the lead with his second goal.  He buried a rebound chance to put the Hawks in front for nearly half of the period.  Hoogsteen tied it for Thunder Bay, but Hayes followed up an initial shot to make it 3-2 at 13:03.  Waterloo couldn't nurse the lead to intermission.  Jason Kelly leveled the score 2:40 before the break.

The third period was scoreless, but the Flyers dominated the overtime.  Hawks goalie Jeff Melnechuk made eight saves in just over six minutes of extra play.  Thunder Bay's ninth shot won it.  Jayme Adduono – who would become a Black Hawk the following season – scored the game-winner at 6:40. The 4-3 result was Waterloo's fifth overtime loss.

Players went down the tunnel and over the orange carpet to their respective locker rooms.  The Flyers turned to the right and celebrated.  The Black Hawks went left and wondered how another close game slipped away, leaving them with just five wins in their first 20 games.

The Black Hawks announced that McElroy Auditorium itself was the night's #1 star.  Fans filed out of the rink one last time.  If they glanced back toward the ice surface, they might have seen Brand walk out onto the rink with an empty cup in his hand.  Waterloo's general manager scooped up a cup of snow that been chopped up during overtime.

That cup of shavings would go along with the team to Young Arena and provide a symbolic connection between the Black Hawks' new home and the rink where Waterloo players had won, lost, fought, and bled for 32 years.

Where Are They Now features are presented by Karen's Print Rite, 2515 Falls Avenue in Waterloo.