OT: Opening ceremony for the Civic Arena
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Even more so than Pitt Stadium, that’s my favorite former Pittsburgh sports venue. That place just had an energy and a smell that I can’t explain. It was truly unique and I absolutely loved it! I like PPG Paints too, but the old Arena was just awesome!
I saw so many concerts and Penguins games there and also some huge Pitt basketball games. I was there on the afternoon whenever we got into a benches clearing brawl with Georgetown. I remember it was an afternoon game because it was being televised nationally by CBS and that was a really big deal for our program at that time. We had always been the Big East’s bottom feeder and we were finally competing with the Georgetown’s and the Syracuse’s of the world - which was a really big deal.
That brawl was just amazing! I will never forget Demetreus Gore throwing Big Sam Jefferson on the scorers table and just tuning him up. He beat the living shit out of Jefferson! I learned that day, along with Big Sam, that Demetreus Gore was not a man to be trifled with.
That all started because Georgetown was used to bullying everyone and it wasn’t working. That was a really big game and I remember we won and when it became obvious that we were going to win, they did what they always did in those days, they got dirty.
Georgetown under John Thompson was sooooo dirty. I’ve seen the 30 for 30s where they always blame it all on racism, and who knows, maybe that was part of it for some fans? However, my hatred for them had nothing to do with their race but rather the fact that they were ALWAYS the dirtiest team we played every single year.
If my memory serves, Georgetown had a undersized power forward named Perry McDonald. He was a former golden gloves boxer and he was a tough son of a bitch. He was frustrated with Jerome Lane, who was also a tough son of a bitch, and who outplayed McDonald that afternoon. The frustrated Hoya responded by sucker punching Lane in the back of the head on a rebounded free-throw.
That’s when all hell broke loose and ended with Gore on top of Jefferson literally on the scorers table. Honestly, it was like an old school benches clearing hockey brawl. People were fighting all over the court in various matchups.
Now that was the old Big East! I truly LOVED college basketball in those days - especially the Big East! It was just a heavyweight match up every single night and you could tell that it was something special.
I love the ACC and I also loved the expanded Big East under Howland and Dixson. Those were all great years. However, the Big East in the mid to late 80s was unlike anything else I have ever seen.
That’s a great photo!
I saw so many concerts and Penguins games there and also some huge Pitt basketball games. I was there on the afternoon whenever we got into a benches clearing brawl with Georgetown. I remember it was an afternoon game because it was being televised nationally by CBS and that was a really big deal for our program at that time. We had always been the Big East’s bottom feeder and we were finally competing with the Georgetown’s and the Syracuse’s of the world - which was a really big deal.
That brawl was just amazing! I will never forget Demetreus Gore throwing Big Sam Jefferson on the scorers table and just tuning him up. He beat the living shit out of Jefferson! I learned that day, along with Big Sam, that Demetreus Gore was not a man to be trifled with.
That all started because Georgetown was used to bullying everyone and it wasn’t working. That was a really big game and I remember we won and when it became obvious that we were going to win, they did what they always did in those days, they got dirty.
Georgetown under John Thompson was sooooo dirty. I’ve seen the 30 for 30s where they always blame it all on racism, and who knows, maybe that was part of it for some fans? However, my hatred for them had nothing to do with their race but rather the fact that they were ALWAYS the dirtiest team we played every single year.
If my memory serves, Georgetown had a undersized power forward named Perry McDonald. He was a former golden gloves boxer and he was a tough son of a bitch. He was frustrated with Jerome Lane, who was also a tough son of a bitch, and who outplayed McDonald that afternoon. The frustrated Hoya responded by sucker punching Lane in the back of the head on a rebounded free-throw.
That’s when all hell broke loose and ended with Gore on top of Jefferson literally on the scorers table. Honestly, it was like an old school benches clearing hockey brawl. People were fighting all over the court in various matchups.
Now that was the old Big East! I truly LOVED college basketball in those days - especially the Big East! It was just a heavyweight match up every single night and you could tell that it was something special.
I love the ACC and I also loved the expanded Big East under Howland and Dixson. Those were all great years. However, the Big East in the mid to late 80s was unlike anything else I have ever seen.
That’s a great photo!
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I was there too that day. Hilarious - we were dying laughing at the melee.
The civic arena was designed primarily as a home for the Civic Light Opera; who’s home was Pitt Stadium. The CLO was an open air performance; thus the moveable “Open Air” roof. It was only later that it became a sports palace and rock concert arena.
The movable roof was a grand idea, ahead of it’s time but completely impractical.
You could count on both hands the number of times the roof actually opened during an event. A nice idea if it actually worked.
The movable roof was a grand idea, ahead of it’s time but completely impractical.
You could count on both hands the number of times the roof actually opened during an event. A nice idea if it actually worked.
At the time, Pittsburgh had the Hornets, an American Hockey League (high minors) team that played there. Later in the '60s, the NHL had an expansion and the Penguins were born. The added seating that was necessary to first land, and then keep, the franchise would eventually make it impossible for the roof to open.
That isn't really true, unless you are talking about much, much later, when they added the second balcony, which didn't come until after the second Stanley Cup. It was still possible to open the roof until they built that second balcony. In fact I was in the building when the roof was open, long after the first balconies were added.
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