Earlier this season, waterlooblackhawks.com featured reflections on the final game at McElroy Auditorium. Today - on the 30th anniversary of the first game at Young Arena - Hawks alumni share their memories of opening the new downtown rink, which the team still calls home.

The Black Hawks spent a few extra minutes at McElroy Auditorium.  

Their overtime loss on December 9, 1994, ended the team's tenure in the historic building after 32 years.  For the next month, Waterloo was on the road. The series of trips started in Rochester just 24 hours later. The Hawks rolled on to games in Thunder Bay during the final weekend before the USHL's holiday break.  After Christmas, they were scheduled for four straight away games through early January.  

With the team out of town, General Manager Scott Brand returned to McElroy's quiet darkness.  As he walked through the deserted locker room, he wondered whether moving downtown would truly be the right thing for Waterloo hockey.

"I remember thinking about all the people that had been there in that locker room, and it was kind of emotional. It was kind of like, 'Geez, it's never going to be [the same],'" Brand says. "I remember leaving there and thinking, 'I don't know about this new rink. What's this going to be like?'"
 
Brand's uncertainties about Young Arena may have been heightened, because construction had seemed slow throughout the fall.  Work was still in progress at the Commercial Street site as players scattered for a 13-day holiday layoff.

"As it was going up, we worried about whether they were going to hit the completion date," Brand remembers. "And actually, they came very close."

Some finishing touches were still missing when the Hawks hosted the Dubuque Fighting Saints on January 14th.  Nonetheless, the game which the community had been anticipating for nearly two years was played on schedule.  Waterloo players had varying degrees of awareness about the state of the new rink.

"The funny thing is we never really went down to that area very often," remembers forward Rich Metro, who was then spending his second season in the Cedar Valley.  "So none of us were really too aware of how it was going - or not going - but they just kept talking about it. So you just never knew when it was going to actually be done."

Defenseman Wes Blevins remembers the anticipation for Young Arena differently.  Like Metro, Blevins was from Michigan, but 1994/95 was his first season with the Hawks.  The promise of a new rink had been part of what attracted him to Waterloo.

"[Head Coach] Scott Mikesch mentioned that we'd be playing in McElroy for half the season, and then in January once the New Year came, that we'd be moving to our new facility with an Olympic-sized sheet of ice. So yeah, it was definitely brought to our attention before we signed," says Blevins

"I remember the construction of it and everything," Blevins adds. "I remember walking on dirt before any of the glass was put in or any of that. It was a really nice facility."

Forward Roger Trudeau – yet another Michigander – was also playing his first year of USHL hockey.  He returned from an injury in time to be part of the final games at McElroy, and for the road trip which followed.

Trudeau remembers, "We periodically went in and checked it out and saw the progress, but we came back [from Christmas] and BAM: we're in a brand-new rink, and it almost felt like a completely new season.

"For some reason, the smell of the concrete is the first thing that comes to mind; just the new smell of it, but [it was] just total euphoria…That's probably the best way that I could say it.  Obviously it's exciting, because you know that every day, you're coming into this beautiful arena…and you really appreciate it a lot."

The building was formally opened to the public during the final days of December, more than two weeks before the first scheduled game in mid-January.  During the festivities, the Young family was recognized for contributing the property, in addition to significant financial support for construction.  Mayor John Rooff spoke to the large crowd.  Cedar Valley figure skaters and youth hockey players had their first opportunity to cut the ice.  Toward the end of the evening, everyone on hand was invited to take part in a free public skate, but there were far more people in attendance than the skate rental counter could accommodate.

For Brand and the Black Hawks' staff, the early showing was a chance to talk with season ticket holders about the location of their new seats.  Hawks players went to their new locker room stalls before strapping on helmets and stepping out of the tunnel for a scrimmage in front of the sizable audience.

From that evening onward, Waterloo players understood that skating in the new building with Olympic dimensions would be much different than defending the quirky, asymmetrical ice sheet at McElroy Auditorium.  Veteran defenseman Ben Stadey had spent three-and-a-half years patrolling the old rink.

"You had to be a skater [at Young Arena].  If you were not a good skater, maybe you could hide that a little bit better on a small surface," Stadey explains. "The biggest adjustment was just going 'Wow, look at all this room behind the net.' You've really got to change up your game. There's a lot of open ice out here and…you really had to watch it if you were playing man-on-man, because if you got burned…there's a lot more ice that you would have to cover."

Brand says Waterloo and Young Arena were early adopters of an anticipated trend which never materialized.

"At the time, everybody was supposed to go to Olympic ice, and I think we're the only ones now, right?" Brand notes, thinking back on early impressions of the change.  "The first time they got to skate on the ice, particularly the defenseman, kind of stopped short of the boards because they were waiting for the [wall to] wrap around. It's like, 'Oh [crap], I've got to take three extra strides to get to the boards,' so I remember the first practice. They're like, 'It's huge!' Everybody was in awe. Just the newness and everything else. But it did take adjusting."

Sometimes the puck went to unexpected places when it bounced off the end wall.  Sometimes shots created odd rebounds.  It took time to understand the liveliness of the glass and boards.  Those things bedeviled defenseman and goalies for a while, but forwards like Metro gladly embraced many of Young Arena's advantages, with one exception.

"It made Scott Mikesch's bag skates even longer," Metro says, half-jokingly.

"At McElroy auditorium, I think there was only two feet behind the net. It was a really, really small area behind the net, and then you're going into the new arena and you had tons of room…more room to make plays behind the net. You had a little bit more room taking the defenseman wide, attacking with speed. Your entries in into the zone were just a little bit different. Teams weren't used to playing on Olympic-sized ice.  It's about three or four more hard strides to get the puck."

Right back to the road after taking part in Young Arena's ceremonial opening, the Black Hawks were on the wrong end of a 6-2 decision against the Omaha Lancers December 30th.  The next night – New Year's Eve – they were still on the bus as 1994 ended, rolling home from a 4-2 loss against the Sioux City Musketeers.  The defeat left the Hawks winless in 11 consecutive games.  Although that skid ended with 6-3 victory over the Madison Capitols the following weekend, Waterloo earned just six wins from their 27 games.  The Hawks' 18 points ranked ninth in the 10-team USHL on the eve of Young Arena's first game.

Whatever was destined to happen on the ice January 14th, Brand was determined to have Waterloo's staff well-prepared.

"We practiced," Brand recalls.  "The week before, we ran through everything with the PA and the lights and everything else. We weren't going to mess this up, because the last thing I wanted to be remembered [for was], 'Hey, it was opening night in Young Arena, and we didn't have any pucks.' So we practiced two or three times."

Even so, during the final days before the long-awaited matchup with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, it became clear that the bleachers behind the west goal would not be installed in time.  Four sections beside the Zamboni tunnel would be nothing but concrete steps, 15 rows high.  The Hawks advised several hundred fans to bring their own seating for Sections I, J, K, and L.  

"In hindsight, it was probably a good thing, because we put more people in the building," Brand reflects.

Dubuque was Waterloo's most significant rival of the era.  The Fighting Saints had originated in 1980 when a Black Hawks team was relocated to the Five Flags Center.  While Waterloo reorganized in time for the 1980/81 season, the Hawks flailed and the Fighting Saints flourished during much of the decade.  By the 1990s, the teams were more evenly matched, and the rivalry still simmered.

"I think that particular year, our team and Dubuque weren't great. We were more towards the bottom of the of the rankings," concedes Trudeau, who also remembers his introduction to the rivalry several months earlier.

"My first time driving to Waterloo from Michigan, I got pulled over for a speeding ticket. It was right in between Waterloo and Dubuque. When the police officer came, I thought maybe I'd try to use that I was going to play for the Waterloo Black Hawks, and maybe it would help me out. He didn't say anything, and he came back with the ticket, and as he left, he goes, 'I'm a Dubuque fan.' I had a 50-50 chance on that one, but it didn't help me out."

In October, the Hawks had scrambled to a 4-4 tie against the Fighting Saints. Dubuque had won both matchups in the months since, including a 3-2 overtime decision during Waterloo's 11-game winless streak.  The Fighting Saints walked into Young Arena's visiting locker room for the first time with a 16-10-2 record. They were tied for fifth in the USHL.

"It was a little nerve-racking, because I knew we were outgunned or outmanned, talent-wise, skill-wise," says Stadey. "And you're thinking just, could we maybe not worry about the win, but really 'We've got to play well and represent, and it just can't be a blowout.'"

While players stretched, taped sticks, and adjusted their routines to new surroundings, Brand approached his finish line.

"I just remember looking out the glass windows and seeing the cars and the people lined up two or three hours early," Brand says.  "And I was like, 'Holy cow. The circus is in town' and it was just amazing."

The big crowd was officially listed as 3,250.  Brand is sure it was unofficially more.  They were already lively as the players warmed up.  After the pregame skate, Brand ceremonially poured out a cup of water which had been McElroy Auditorium ice, symbolizing the transition from – and connection between – Waterloo's rinks.  From there, he climbed to the press counter to join the KWWL television crew broadcasting the game live throughout northeast Iowa.

"I think everybody was pretty amped up," says Metro. "It seemed like it was a pretty rough game, but it seemed like the crowd was really into it, and there was just a lot of energy built up to that game."

"It was loud," remembers Blevins, who was one of the starters on the ice for the opening faceoff.  "It was an electric atmosphere. And you could tell that the fans were really excited to watch us play in our new facility."

Waterloo was turned away on an early power play, giving the Fighting Saints' Andy Powers the chance to score the first goal in the building during a Dubuque advantage midway through the period.  It was 2-0 by intermission, and the teams had combined for 36 penalty minutes, including a 10-minute misconduct on Stadey.

"Someone took some liberties. I think I took some liberties back in front of the net with my stick," Stadey explains. "I was a very small defenseman for that era, and I just felt like sometimes you had to carve out your own space, literally and figuratively."

One of his first shifts back on the ice, Stadey helped create the play which sounded Young Arena's goal horn for the first time.  During a power play, he and Metro assisted on Andrew Tortorella's pointblank power play goal.

Dubuque was ahead 3-1 after 40 minutes, but Trudeau and Todd Steinmetz assisted on Eric Brown's goal in the first minute of the third period.  The building really roared to life when Brown scored again at 5:30, tying the game through the middle stages of the third.

However, a former Hawks standout contributed to Waterloo's undoing. Defenseman Jeff Kozakowski had recorded 43 points to rank fourth in team scoring a year earlier.  He started 1994/95 as a Black Hawk but was among the various players traded as Waterloo struggled through the first half of the schedule.  In fact, Kozakowski's departure was sealed when he was on the ice for a Dubuque overtime-winning goal against the Hawks in November.  The meeting at Young Arena was the first time the teams had faced each other since that game and the Kozakowski trade which followed.

"When I first got there, he was my defense partner," Blevins notes. "He's two years older than me, but I knew him from Garden City [Michigan]. I learned a lot from him for sure."

With 6:42 to go, Kozakowski assisted on Dan Stepanek's go-ahead goal.  It turned out to be the game-winner.  The Fighting Saints won 5-3.  Although the Hawks had rallied to tie the score in the third, Dubuque outshot the home team 47-18.

A week later, Waterloo earned a home win at Young Arena against the North Iowa Huskies.  The team slowly adjusted to their new home ice during the final two months of the regular season.  Late-season success at Young Arena kept the Hawks in playoff contention.  Waterloo went 6-2-1 during their final nine home games but a road loss to the Fighting Saints with just over a week remaining ended the Hawks' postseason hopes.  

The 1994/95 Hawks had closed one building and opened another.  Thirty years ago, they were on hand at a pivot point in Waterloo hockey history.  For many, it was also an impactful time for themselves.

"It was one of the best times of my life," notes Blevins. "I went on to play college hockey and then I played in the East Coast Hockey League and pro hockey for almost eight years. But playing in the USHL, playing in Waterloo, definitely prepared me for the next level."

"It was an incredible place to play," says Trudeau. "I have really good memories of playing in Waterloo…My second year, the All-Star Game was there. It was a chance for other players to say 'Oh man, this is a place that I want to play.' You know, it's a lot easier to recruit with a brand-new building, and it was absolutely gorgeous."

"Obviously Waterloo has an unbelievable fan base and such great people that support that program," Metro reflects. "Just for their experience, moving into a new rink had to be extra special, just for the sight lines and being on top of the teams playing. You probably felt a little more a part of it. So I think for them it was, it was well deserved."

"Waterloo will always have a place in my heart," says Stadey. "I think every player who has played there will say the same thing. I just feel so fortunate…I'd never seen Waterloo until I flew in to live there and play there, and I couldn't have asked for a better town, a better place to live away from home."

For three decades now, Waterloo hockey has been better for having a well-loved, boisterous, Olympic-sized home on Commercial Street.

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