The following story was originally printed in the November 2008 issue of Buffalo Rising Magazine. Due to the completion of Memorial Auditorium’s demolition this week, we have re-published it online for you.
I’m 6 and wearing a Pat Lafontaine jersey as Dad and I leave for my first Sabres game at Memorial Auditorium. We park and walk up to the building. It’s April 24, 1993. Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In 1939, Buffalo was bustling with activity. Having experienced the same economic strife as the rest of the United States, Buffalo still managed to see a population growth from 1920 to 1940. With a population nearly double what it is today, Washington considered Buffalo to be a place in need of relief. Like many buildings of its day, the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration. The federal government allotted $1.2 million in funds in order to replace Buffalo’s Broadway Auditorium, an aging and outdated building, in use since 1898.
We’re inside, and Dad puts me on his shoulders. I see a river of Sabres fans packing themselves into the tunnels that eventually lead to our seats. Some of the fans high five me as we pass. We get beer and nachos and re-join the growing number of bodies in the tunnels. This is a new experience; I am told there are 16,000 people crammed in here. I have no prior reference for a number of this enormity, and my 6-year-old self is overwhelmed.
Construction began on November 30, 1939, and the Aud opened on October 14th, 1940, dedicated to the lives lost in the Great War (WWI) and the Spanish-American War. Construction of the Aud totaled $2.7 million–a figure that ticket sales would meet and exceed in a short time. In it’s first year, the Aud would be host to over one million people attending a broad spectrum of events, ranging from political rallies to dog shows to ice hockey. Seating capacity in those early years reached 12,200 for ice hockey, and 16,000 for basketball.
Canisius College’s basketball team would have the honor of playing the first collegiate basketball game in the Aud.
The Buffalo Bisons would utilize the Aud as Buffalo’s first professional ice hockey team. From 1940 to 1970, the Bisons dominated the AHL, finishing first in their division 10 times, winning the Calder Cup five times and claiming second place in five seasons. The Bisons disbanded in 1970 after Buffalo was awarded a team in the NHL expansion.
Whatever electricity I felt in the tunnel has been completely eclipsed by the energy inside the arena. There are people everywhere. A low murmur of excitement isn’t merely audible–I can feel the vibration of it. People have hung signs and banners from everywhere possible. We take our seats as I study the building that has just eclipsed every word I know meaning “huge”. The seats rise so steeply and so high that I have to crane my neck all the way up to see above me. I’m still looking up when the Boston Bruins hit the ice, eliciting a deep and very hostile “BOO!” from the crowd. The jeering is quickly over when the announcer introduces the Sabres. The cheer that comes next is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It’s a sound that pushes on my chest and rattles my eardrums.
The 1970’s would usher in major coups for the Aud. Not only did Buffalo receive its first NHL team, but the NBA saw fit to expand to Buffalo as well. In order to accommodate the growing demand for tickets, the Aud underwent an $8 million renovation that included raising the roof by 25 feet. The Aud could now hold over 16,000 hockey fans and 18,000 basketball fans.
As is the case with most first-year expansion teams, both the Braves and the Sabres struggled, but it didn’t take long for either team to succeed in their respective sports. The Sabres would make their first post-season appearance in the 1972-73 season, and the Braves make their first in the 1973-74 season.
The Braves, led by league MVP Bob McAdoo, headed to the 1974-75 NBA playoffs against the Boston Celtics. Despite losing top support player Bob Kauffman, the team managed to take the series to game 7 before losing in the final seconds to JoJo White’s free throws.
Possibly one of the most memorable games in Memorial Auditorium history was played during the 1975 Stanley Cup finals. The Sabres met the NHL’s universally hated Philadelphia Flyers, also known as the “Broad Street Bullies” in Buffalo for game 3 of the 7 game series. Thanks to unseasonably warm May weather, a thick fog covered the ice for some parts of the game. People at the game would later say the atmosphere inside the Aud was creepy, foreboding. A humorous, albeit bizarre, moment came when Jim Lorentz swatted a bat that had been fluttering around the ice surface with his stick. Rene Robert would score the game winner in overtime. Ultimately, Buffalo would lose to the Flyers, but game 3 reached legendary status soon after.
Our seats are against the glass, front row, to the right of the goaltender and even with the face-off dot. My dad introduces me to two of his clients, but I can’t be distracted from the ice. I’m at a Sabres playoff game, and I’ve got to take this in. The game starts out pretty rough. The Bruins come out flying. Down 3 games to 1, they’re hungry for a win. The crowd chants “Sweep! Sweep!” but they are quickly silenced by goals from Joe Juneau, Peter Douris, Brian Leetch, and Dave Poulin.
While the “Fog game” is considered one of the most memorable games in Aud history, the Sabres crushing defeat of the Soviet Wings in 1976 can’t be forgotten. The Soviet Wings were the second best team in the Soviet Elite Hockey League, second only to the Red Army team. Both teams, supplemented with the Soviet Union’s best players, toured 8 U.S. cities playing NHL teams. With the Cold War at its height, tension and hatred ran high.
Both the Wings and Red Army teams dominated the NHL teams. It was ugly. When the Wings arrived in Buffalo, they certainly believed they would run over the Sabres with the same ease. To say the atmosphere in the Aud was charged would be a gross understatement. Several players noted that the crowd noise lasted several minutes after the initial puck drop. The Sabres used that energy to blow past the frustrated Soviet Wings in a 12-6 romp. The Soviets would leave Memorial Auditorium with a new perspective on NHL hockey.
During a TV timeout, I pound on the glass, eliciting a nod from Donald Audette. One of my dad’s clients shakes my shoulder in excitement. “That was all you!” he says. I am awestruck. The Sabres trail 5-2, but Donald Audette scores on Andy Moog to begin the Sabres comeback. My dad and his clients tease that I inspired Audette to score the goal, as I wish it were true. Alexander Mogilny scores soon after to take Buffalo within one. A goal by Yuri Khmylev late in the third ties the game and the Aud surges with noise.
In 1994, the Sabres would take on the Devils in the playoffs, e
ngaging in a game 6 battle that went until 2 in the morning. The grueling contest was deadlocked at 0-0, an intense defensive battle that ended on Dave Hannan’s goal over a fallen Martin Brodeur in the 4th overtime. It was the 6th longest game in NHL history at the time. Dominik Hasek made 70 saves for Buffalo.
Sometimes, great moments in the Aud weren’t reserved for Buffalo. Hockey’s greatest player, Wayne Gretzky, broke Phil Esposito’s 12-year-old single season record of 76 goals with a hat trick to beat the Sabres on February 24, 1982. The Oilers beat the Sabres that night, but what kind of hockey fans would we be to deny the significance of the NHL’s best, breaking a record in our hometown?
And then there was the Sabres’ last game. April 14, 1996. Every seat in the house was filled to see the Sabres play the Hartford Whalers. After defeating the Whalers 4-1, the team held an emotional goodbye ceremony. Each banner was slowly removed to James Horner’s Apollo 13 score. A post-game skate featured the greats from Sabres past and present. They skated alongside one-another, each player carrying a single puck around the ice, the Sabre-dance accompanying them. Pat Lafontaine book-ended it all by carrying the puck all over the ice. For the finale, he stopped in the crease, saluted the fans, and put the puck into the empty net to a thunderous “Let’s Go Buffalo” chant. It wasn’t just goodbye for the Sabres, it was goodbye for Buffalo.
It’s overtime now. The excited energy has transformed into a strained quiet. Several tense minutes go by. Pat Lafontaine wins the face-off. As the Sabres break-out, he gets tripped up in the neutral zone, but manages to get a pass to Brad May, who puts a Mogilny-esque move on Ray Bourque. He fakes the slap shot, dekes around a fallen Andy Moog, and scores the series-clinching goal. Memorial Auditorium explodes with a sound I’ll never forget…
And now the Aud is being demolished. Most of us can recall our favorite memories, the times that we were connected to thousands of Buffalo sports fans, leaving the place thrilled with a victory or bitter over a loss. It’s sad to see it go. But I have to ask; is it worse to watch our favorite building removed to make way for commerce, or let it rot, our last memory of the place a decayed, forgotten eyesore? I’d rather let it go out with dignity. When the Aud is gone, it will become a legend: the place that shaped our love for sports and made us proud.
…They brought the house down.