Farewell to Matthews/Boston Arena - Former Home to the Wentworth Leopards

[Leopard_Balcony_Booster]

Great Sports Illustrated Mini-Documentary here for the legendary Matthews Arena (formerly Boston Arena). In a rather Promethean appeal, the Wentworth Leopards took up residence here in the late 1990's and with my brother on the coaching staff, I created WIT's #1 USCHO fan, the then infamous, "Leopard_Balcony_Booster".. So much fun watching the then, up and coming Leopards doing their thing from I think, up to the last Northeastern game this past Saturday night, the BEST seat in all of hockey (see Instagram pic). Anyone who frequented both venues will tell you that the first row balcony at Matthews was a modest, and in many ways better, homage to the legendary 1st balcony of the old Boston Garden. PERFECT views of the ice that made you feel like you were looking straight down into the action. As a fan and participant of the great game of hockey, I feel blessed to have played and watched games there for most of my life.

JP Giuliotti on Instagram: "1st Row balcony, the BEST seat in all of hockey! Glad I got to play high school and college hockey here as well witness the greatest game in the world from this seat in this wonderful venue."

In this nostalgic video, witness the greatness of Matthews Arena, the oldest and most legendary hockey rink in America. From high school to college hockey, this iconic venue has hosted some of the most thrilling games in history. Experience the excitement of the greatest game in the world, and...

www.instagram.com

 

[MilkUniversity]

Managed to make it to Northeastern's game against Brown a couple weeks back. So much history in Matthews and such a huge loss for the hockey world and city of Boston. I know the building is in need of replacing and plans for the new arena include features like the iconic archway, but still won't be the same.

 

[bakdraft21]

Managed to make it to Northeastern's game against Brown a couple weeks back. So much history in Matthews and such a huge loss for the hockey world and city of Boston. I know the building is in need of replacing and plans for the new arena include features like the iconic archway, but still won't be the same.

yes not on the same scale but once Oswego left The Golden Romney Fieldhouse to play in The Campus Center brand spanking new clean warm rink right in the middle of campus it was the end of an era, one that was filled with many good memories for many people, but we keep the memories and the building is still used to this day as a multi purpose facility....

 

[MilkUniversity]

yes not on the same scale but once Oswego left The Golden Romney Fieldhouse to play in The Campus Center brand spanking new clean warm rink right in the middle of campus it was the end of an era, one that was filled with many good memories for many people, but we keep the memories and the building is still used to this day as a multi purpose facility....

With a program at the D3 level as historic as Oswego definitely see how that would be a big loss. At the very least, it's cool the school managed to revitalize the space and keep it in use instead of tearing it all down.

 

[Lord_Zubin]

Agreed. Several varsity and club teams frequent romney especially in the winter. The turf from what i can tell mirrors the ice dimensions almost exactly, whereas the track mirrors the bleachers placements. If you've ever seen it person, it makes you wonder how the hell they fit 2000 people in there. Anything over 1000 people would've been a fire hazard for sure. 1500 people and you're asking for trouble. 2000 is a deathwish. From stories ive been told, anybody in the back rows were hittin their heads on the ceiling if they tried to stand.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Agreed. Several varsity and club teams frequent romney especially in the winter. The turf from what i can tell mirrors the ice dimensions almost exactly, whereas the track mirrors the bleachers placements. If you've ever seen it person, it makes you wonder how the hell they fit 2000 people in there. Anything over 1000 people would've been a fire hazard for sure. 1500 people and you're asking for trouble. 2000 is a deathwish. From stories ive been told, anybody in the back rows were hittin their heads on the ceiling if they tried to stand.

That is true. It was a crazy place.

Here is an article I wrote back when it was closing: https://www.uscho.com/2006/01/30/romney-remembered

You can't make this s--- up...

 

[Lord_Zubin]

Im sorry chain link fences for boards? The visiting team had to walk right by the fans?? No penalty box so players had to sit in the stands and get spit on????? Oh to live in a world where no one can record u at any moment in 4k.

 

[Russell Jaslow]

Im sorry chain link fences for boards? The visiting team had to walk right by the fans?? No penalty box so players had to sit in the stands and get spit on????? Oh to live in a world where no one can record u at any moment in 4k.

Chain link fences for plexiglass. They had regular wooden boards. But yeah, it was wild. I'm sure bakdraft can tell us his experiences.

 

[bakdraft21]

That is true. It was a crazy place.

Here is an article I wrote back when it was closing: https://www.uscho.com/2006/01/30/romney-remembered

You can't make this s--- up...

Great article....I'll give you a quick Romney story....I transferred in from Elmira for my sophomore yr at Oz,during the first period of the first game we played there, the fans were chanting back and forth from side to side, but it was soooo loud I could not make out what the chant was, I asked my teammate WTF are they chanting, turns out one side of Romeny was yelling tastes great and the other responded with less filling.obliviously a nod to the Miller Lite commercial....fun stuff...well dont get me started how the Zamboni would break down at any given time, and I heard that some players would bring in adult beverages and leave them behind some of the wooden pillars for their friends to retrieve when they came into Romney,not that there was any big patdown...

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

I had the pleasure of attending 3-4 games at Romney as a visiting fan rooting for Elmira and remember the tastes great, less filling chant happening between the Elmira and Oswego fans.

I was also extremely fortunate that my freshmen year at Oswego was the final year of Romney. I quickly became one of the student-section leaders and brought back the old Oswego Zoo Crew with the help of some of my dormmates. My friend and I used to do laps around the arena with a flag after every goal that Oswego scored. I got a little tired during some of the games when they hung 7 or 8 goals on teams.

We would always fill up the section closest to where the locker rooms were and where the opposing teams came on and off the ice. Between that section and another student crew on the other side opposite of us, we had some real good times chanting at the opposing goalie for two periods.

I still remember Oswego getting the chance to host Plattsburgh in the old playoff format for the semifinals where it was a two-game series and a mini game. Unfortunately, Plattsburgh got the last laugh and closed out Romney with two wins. The second game Oswego got a late goal to pull within one at 3-2, but somebody threw a bagel on the ice and Oswego was awarded a bench penalty and plattsburgh scored on the ensuing power play to seal the game.

We chanted Thank You Romney at the end for a good 5 minutes...no one wanted to leave...but eventually, sadly we all filed out and sad goodbye.

 

[bakdraft21]

I had the pleasure of attending 3-4 games at Romney as a visiting fan rooting for Elmira and remember the tastes great, less filling chant happening between the Elmira and Oswego fans.

I was also extremely fortunate that my freshmen year at Oswego was the final year of Romney. I quickly became one of the student-section leaders and brought back the old Oswego Zoo Crew with the help of some of my dormmates. My friend and I used to do laps around the arena with a flag after every goal that Oswego scored. I got a little tired during some of the games when they hung 7 or 8 goals on teams.

We would always fill up the section closest to where the locker rooms were and where the opposing teams came on and off the ice. Between that section and another student crew on the other side opposite of us, we had some real good times chanting at the opposing goalie for two periods.

I still remember Oswego getting the chance to host Plattsburgh in the old playoff format for the semifinals where it was a two-game series and a mini game. Unfortunately, Plattsburgh got the last laugh and closed out Romney with two wins. The second game Oswego got a late goal to pull within one at 3-2, but somebody threw a bagel on the ice and Oswego was awarded a bench penalty and plattsburgh scored on the ensuing power play to seal the game.

We chanted Thank You Romney at the end for a good 5 minutes...no one wanted to leave...but eventually, sadly we all filed out and sad goodbye.

I had a few friends that were part of the Zoo Crew,they would come back after games with smashed knuckles due to the fact they were giving it to opposing playing when they got sent to the sin bin, they would turn around and smash a few fingers at times, but it was a badge of honor for the Zoo Crew...ahhh the good Ol days.....I am sure lakont55 has some stories for sure......also we loved to see Billy sitting in his perch at all home games...

 

[dhammond]

I used to enjoy the atmosphere at Romney coming up as a visitor from Elmira. My first road game I ever did was there in 1980. It used to get pretty raucous in there. The new arena is really nice, but it doesn’t have the personality that Romney and some of those older barns have. Miss those days.

 

[dwb]

I can remember walking into the Boston Arena in the sixties for the state championships and still can smell the stale popcorn--at the time-it was the largest rink in the state for high school hockey-