Many championships were won there and the former downtown rink also had its fair share of disappointments, too.
Ground was broken in the early 1930s for Barrie Arena, located at the corner of Eccles Street and Dunlop Street West. It became more commonly known simply as Dunlop Arena.
The old barn, which opened in 1934, could hold 3,000 spectators for hockey games and was the home rink of the Junior 'B' Barrie Colts and the Junior 'A' Barrie Flyers for many years, including stints from 1945-60 and 1966-79.
It was the focal point of the city's sporting community for decades, prior to the opening of the Barrie Molson Centre (now known as Sadlon Arena) in 1995. In fact, the OHL's Barrie Colts played some games in the downtown arena before the former BMC was ready for action on New Year's Eve 1995.
For local native Mark Ragot, now 51 years old, the downtown arena is still etched in his memory, dating back to the mid-1970s.
“This arena was just so damn cool and historic,” he tells BarrieToday. “It was the place on Saturdays where you went to get your skates sharpened. I loved playing and practising there and it hurt a lot to see it torn down.”
Barrie Arena closed in 2007 and was demolished in 2008 to make way for the new Barrie fire station and headquarters.
“I remember driving down Dunlop Street and they had removed the facade and you could see the original front entrance,” Ragot says. “Seeing that brought a tear to my eye as it deeply hurt. A huge part of Barrie's history being torn down.”
For Ragot, his decades-old memories will never fade from that special time in his childhood, from the wooden bench seats for the fans and the wooden rafters.
“When you walked into the arena, all you had to do was take a deep breath and it was awesome with the smell of the old wood, French fries and hot chocolate," Ragot says.
When the fire station was built on the site, some of the old wood was used in the new building, including a series of roof trusses in the museum portion at the front of the hall. Some of the salvaged wood was also used to construct the kitchen table in the firefighters' kitchen area.
But, perhaps most interesting of all, the concrete floor with the centre-ice dot was kept and the small, rectangular piece of historic flooring is now part of the fire hall's lobby design.
When Ragot began playing there, he says the original entrance was off Dunlop Street, but renovations led to the entrance being relocated to the Eccles Street side. He says many people may also not remember there were two basement dressing rooms.
“What I remember the most was the hardwood floor where you walked out of the dressing rooms to the ice. Modesty was not in the forefront with the dressing rooms as your parents and fans were in the foyer and if the dressing room door opened at the wrong time…,” Ragot jokes.
Coming up through the Barrie Minor Hockey Association (BMHA) ranks, Ragot spent countless hours at the downtown rink en route to making the jump to junior hockey. He later played in the Western Hockey League with the New Westminster Bruins, as well as the OHL’s Belleville Bulls and Junior ‘A’ Owen Sound Greys.
His playing days at Barrie Arena began in 1974-75 with the Barrie Legion House League.
“The ice was divided into three for three games at once,” he says. “For some reason, I thought it would be cool to be a goalie; that lasted one year.”
Ragot attended the Roger Crozier Hockey School followed by the Barrie Summer Hockey School at the Dunlop Street arena for two weeks every August.
“It was two on-ice sessions a day with a break in between where you went upstairs and watched Peter Puck and Howie Meeker videos, all while eating licorice and drinking swamp water. Good times," he says.
Another “great” childhood memory from Barrie Arena was an older gentleman named Ronny “who basically lived at the arena” and watched all of the BMHA games.
“I always loved hearing him cheering and yelling ‘LET’S GO BIG BLUE’,” Ragot says. “He actually travelled with my team to the Quebec Winter Carnival Pee-Wee tournament.”
Gene Pereira, longtime sports editor at the former Barrie Examiner who began chronicling local sports in the city in 1991, covered many hockey games at the old rink.
"Barrie Arena was the place. It was kind of a central location for everyone to gather," Pereira tells BarrieToday. "Barrie loved getting behind their teams and attendance was always great there — they got used to some pretty good hockey teams. They turned Thursday nights into hockey nights. It started in the Junior 'B' days and carried on to the OHL."
And despite what the weather conditions might be, "that didn't hold fans back one bit. That's one of the things that stood out to me when I first came to Barrie. If it was a hockey night, it was a hockey night. Everybody made that trek to the Barrie Arena."
With the former Barrie Central Collegiate located pretty much next door, some of the growing city's biggest sporting moments happened on that block, either at the arena or in Red Storey Field in behind.
"I spent a lot of my time covering sports in Barrie right there," says Pereira, who now writes sports features for BarrieToday.
Some of his earliest visits to Barrie Arena still stick out.
"When I first walked in it and looked around, it was just like the old, classic hockey barn," he says. "There was just something about it, with the tradition and having known what had gone on there before. It was an old arena, but you just had the feeling that you were part of something and part of tradition."
From the Los Angeles Kings holding their training camp at the arena to countless minor hockey games, and the Flyers' championships to TV legend Don Cherry playing there for a few years in the early 1950s, Pereira says the building held a "rich history."
From a reporter's point of view, scribes usually sat in the stands, which were long wooden benches.
"They did have a press box that was elevated above, but it hadn't been used in some years. It didn't look too sturdy," Pereira says with a laugh. "It came down from the ceiling and I guess they started to worry it was going to come down."
BARRIE ARENA'S HEYDAY
The Barrie Flyers were founded at the end of the Second World War by former NHLer and local native Hap Emms. The Flyers rapidly turned into one of the most powerful teams in the Ontario Hockey Association as an affiliate of the NHL's Boston Bruins.
The Barrie team was a runner-up in the 1948 Memorial Cup, after being swept in four games by the Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) West End Bruins at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens. The clinching game was a 9-8 overtime victory for the Bruins.
However, the Flyers would claim junior hockey's holy grail in 1951, sweeping the Winnipeg Monarchs in games held in Toronto, Barrie and Quebec City. As winners of the George Richardson Memorial Trophy and representatives of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) by coming out of eastern Canada, Barrie outscored Winnipeg, 23-10, in the series.
Two years later, the Flyers dispatched the St. Boniface Canadiens, 4-1, during games in Winnipeg and Brandon, Man. Only the final game, a 6-1 Barrie victory, saw the teams combine for less than 10 goals.
During their days at Barrie Arena, the Flyers won the J. Ross Robertson Trophy as OHA champs four times during a six-year stint from 1947 to 1953. Emms relocated the team to Niagara Falls in 1960.
Some of Pereira's fondest memories, though, involved Junior 'B' exhibition games between the Colts and the Wexford Raiders, a top team in a different league.
"I'd never seen it that jammed and sold out. They had to turn down at least another 300 to 500 people at the door. There were lineups way out into the street," says Pereira, who would make the trek down Dunlop Street to the Examiner building, which was then located near the Five Points, to write his stories. "It was fun covering teams back then."
The acoustics inside the arena could make it deafening when there was a lively crowd.
"One thing I learned (coming to the city) was Barrie fans loved their teams; they loved hockey and they came out and supported them," Pereira adds. "They really jammed the Barrie Arena, which people used to call the Dunlop Street arena. You know, the old, smaller dressing rooms and a lot of history. I also coached minor hockey there, so definitely some good memories with Barrie house-league hockey with the kids. It was a fun place to be."
Covering the "powerhouse" Junior 'B' Colts in the early 1990s were some of the best times for Pereira. The lineup included future NHLer and Stanley Cup winner John Madden, as well as Steve Walker and Patrick Armatage.
"That was the year they went 47-0-1," Pereira says. "They were absolutely dominant, winning the Sutherland Cup by defeating Kitchener."
Ragot also recalls several special games at the Dunlop Street rink.
As a boy, Ragot remembers the 1974-75 Barrie major-midget team beating the Russians for the Wrigley Cup Tournament. That Barrie team included future NHLer and Hall of Fame inductee Mike Gartner. There was a display honouring that Barrie team, although Ragot says he’s unsure what became of its contents.
Outside of his own playing days, Ragot says there were other fond memories at the arena, including the old Barrie Flyers and Junior ‘B’ Colts when they sported their white, green and yellow colour scheme.
He also remembers his 1983-84 team playing against a squad visiting from Finland. One highlight in particular was Ragot’s father, who’s half-Finnish and could speak the language, announcing the players’ names in their mother tongue.
There were also the CFNY travelling video concerts and local native Darren Rumble’s Stanley Cup party with Kim Mitchell.
With delays in construction of the new Barrie Molson Centre in the south end, the OHL expansion Barrie Colts played some of their first games at Barrie Arena.
"To be honest, (coach) Bert Templeton hated it," Pereira says with a laugh. "For Bert, it was just too old and he wanted to move into the new rink, because it was a proper facility that had storage, offices and a weight room, things you just couldn't have at the old Barrie Arena.
"I know, just from watching practices there, that he did not like it one bit. He was anxious to get out of there."
The OHL Colts played their first game at the BMC on New Year's Eve 1995.
"I met a lot of great people that worked at the old rink, some of them who had been there for years," Pereira says. "When they moved to the Molson Centre and here's this big, new rink, but yet when you talk to those guys, Barrie Arena held a special place for them, just the tradition. It may have been an old barn, but it was definitely one that people won't forget."
But Pereira also knows Barrie Arena had run it course.
"Everything kind of has its time, but it is sad," he says. "There's a lot of memories that are there with it. I loved it.
"It's just something about those old barns, with the creaky seats."
