New book celebrates 100 Years of the Stratford Arena

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Stratford’s iconic William Allman Memorial Arena nearly didn’t make it five years, much less 100.

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The Classic City Arena Company that owned the building went bankrupt in 1929, and there was talk of knocking it down and selling its bricks and beams to construction companies. Remortgaging kept the building going, and its prospects turned around for good in 1941 when the City of Stratford took ownership.

It’s a little-known story Stratford’s Ian Denomme uncovered while poring over information for his new book, 100 Years of the Stratford Arena.

“It’s been really fun,” he said. “It’s been really encouraging and heartwarming. I wasn’t sure how many I would sell or print, but the response has been overwhelming, and they’re selling quickly. People are enthusiastic. They want to talk about it and tell their own stories, and it’s been fun to see. I’m really happy I did it.”

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The 41-year-old started to think about the book in 2010 when CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada came to the city. Denomme covered the event for Yahoo! Sports, and he left thinking someone should write a book about the venerable old barn at the corner of Morenz and Lakeside Drive.

The idea bounced around in his head for years, but it wasn’t until the arena’s 100th anniversary approached that Denomme decided to get serious.

“That was the moment,” he said. “It’s now or never.”

He spent months digging through artifacts at the Stratford Perth Archives and conducted 40 to 50 interviews with the likes of Tim Taylor, Nick Libett and Emily Fulton, all former professional players from the city. Dan Mathieson and John Kastner were “fountains of knowledge,” he said.

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Denomme, The Athletic NHL’s deputy managing editor, didn’t know where it would take him or even if others would care the same way he did about one of the world’s oldest operating arenas.

“I learned pretty quickly I wasn’t,” he said, “and that was a big boost.”

A turning point came after a conversation with Ed Olczyk, who spent one dominant season in Stratford in the early 1980s before representing the United States in the Olympics and embarking on a long NHL career.

“He remembers everything,” Denomme said. “That was the moment I said there’s something here.”

Denomme, who went to Jeanne Sauve and then St. Mike’s, has his own memories of the arena. Rotary Hockey Final Days were a big deal. So, too, was playing under the arena’s bright lights during an intermission of a Cullitons game.

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“You skate out there and it seems huge,” he said. “I don’t know whether it’s the arched ceiling or the 360-degree seating or blue and red seats, it’s kind of awe inspiring. As a little kid, you don’t know any better. It might as well have been Maple Leaf Gardens.”

The Willy, as it’s affectionately known, is where Wayne Gretzky scored his first minor hockey goal, where the Cullitons and senior men’s teams celebrated several championships, and where Eric Lindros once filmed a commercial.

But you likely already knew that.

It’s also where the American Hockey League’s Cleveland Barons held training camp in 1952 and played exhibition games against the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, with Johnny Bower, Tim Horton and Ted Kennedy.

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Another story Denomme didn’t know until he dug deeper into the arena’s rich history, and one of many surprises included in the book’s 144 pages.

“At the end of the day, it’s a building, and that’s not necessarily the most exciting thing,” he said. “But it’s what’s happened there that was interesting, and the people who lived it and experienced it, that’s the story. It’s the collective memories contained within the building … and hoping they live on forever.”

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Denomme will be at the Allman on Friday during the Warriors and St. Marys Lincolns game selling copies of the book for $30. A paperback version is also available on Amazon, and orders can be placed by emailing [email protected].

[email protected]
@CorySmith1980

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