Erie County Fieldhouse Schedule Dec 1982

The Erie County Fieldhouse was home to professional and youth hockey in Erie, PA for many years. This event schedule gives you an idea of the number of games played during December of 1982. 

There were six Atlantic Coast Hockey League hockey games played at the Fieldhouse. The Erie Blades (or was it the Golden Blades?) played Hampton on Dec. 8th, Virginia on Dec. 10th and 11th and Mohawk Valley on Dec. 15th, 18th and 22nd. 

There was one college hockey game on Dec. 12th, when Gannon University played Wheeling, WV.

High school games included Cathedral Prep vs. Pittsburg Baldwin on Dec. 11th and 12th; and Prep vs. Cleveland St. Edward's on Dec. 21st. McDowell High School played Upper St. Clair on December 11th and and Pittsburgh Baldwin on Dec. 12th. 

Erie Youth Hockey played a tournament at the Erie County Fieldhouse from Dec. 27th through Dec. 30th.

Other events included an Erepa Grotto Variety Show on December 1st, and a concert by Nazareth and Toronto on December 7th.

Enjoy more historic facts and photos of Erie, PA at: oldtimeerie.blogspot.com

New Erie County Field House in Erie PA

I remember the first concert that I saw at the Erie County Field House. It was loud and there were no seats on the floor, just lots of people sitting on blankets or standing up front. I could barely see the band on stage through the haze. I was hooked!

The Erie County Fieldhouse was located at 5750 Wattsburg Road in Erie, PA, off of Route 8 near I-90. The Erie Lions played hockey there, as did the Erie Blades. When concerts came to town during hockey season, they covered the floor with sheets of wood. It was a little chilly, but no one complained. Some shows had an open floor plan and some had rows of metal chairs on the floor.

I saw a ton of shows at the Field House. Off the top of my head, the ones I remember include Mahogany Rush, Head East, Sammy Hagar, Boston, Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth, Shakin' Street, April Wine, Triumph, Blackfoot and Fastway. I'll add more when I find my ticket stubs.

I worked at a record store, and we would take unsold tickets and money up to the Field House before the show. It was fun to watch them put piles of money in a counting machine. It was also fun to get free concert tickets, even if they only cost $7.75 each. We sold a lot of tickets to closed-circuit boxing matches. This was in the days before satellite TV and the Internet. We had a seating diagram that showed which tickets we had for sale, and would then cross off the seat numbers as they were sold. This was the days before Ticketron and Ticketmaster.

There was always a handful of scalpers selling bootleg t-shirts in the parking lot before and after a concert. The shirts were cheap. When you washed them a few times, they shrunk or became deformed.

Enjoy more historic facts and photos of Erie, PA at: oldtimeerie.blogspot.com

Hank Snow at Erie County Field House 1974

-article in the Gannon Knight, April 26, 1974.

Country star Hank Snow appeared at the Erie County Field House on Route 8 in Erie County, PA on April 5, 1974. Michael Lyon attended the show and interviewed Hank after the show. The following article appeared in the Gannon Knight on April 26, 1974. Photo by Allen Smith.

Ageless Hank Snow: Still Movin' On

by Pamela Verity and Michael Lyon

Country music is known for producing performers who have careers lasting twenty and thirty years. If you happened to have been at the Erie County Field House on April 5 you had a chance to see one of these performers- Hank Snow.

Hank- at age 60- has been at this business a long time. He's been under contract to RCA records for 38 years and has released about 80 albums and numerous singles.

In previous years he used to do anywhere from 250 to 275 one-nighters a year. "That's why I look this way," he says with a smile. But for the past five or six years he has cut down to about 75 concert dates a year.

Adorned in a beautifully embroidered and sequined suit, Hank came out amidst the welcoming applause and immediately broke into his biggest hit "I'm Movin' On." From the additional audience response you could tell that after twenty-four years, it was still a big favorite.

During that first song and even after its conclusion, people kept coming to the stage to snap pictures of Hank and his band, the Rainbow Ranch Boys.

Hank and the boys, displaying the kind of warm, friendly humor that Hank is known for, quickly got into into a humorous pose which included one member of bank putting his hand behind Hank's head and making the two-fingered "Indian" sign. You could tell that they were enjoying everything as much as the audience was.

The whole show went along in that same good, fun-loving fashion. Hank did some of his past hits such as "A Fool Such As I" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore" as well as a Jimmie Rodgers' original, a railroad song, and two instrumentals.

The audience enjoyed everything he did. When Hank did his current single "Hello Love" he received his largest response from the crowd to that point. Maybe that helps explain why "Hello Love" is his biggest record in eleven years.

Hank finished his show with another of his hits "I've Been Everywhere." The audience as it had done numerous times during the show, clapped along with the song.

You don't have to talk to Hank Snow to realize that he likes performing country music. But if you do mention it to him, he doesn't hesitate to answer.

"I'm a person that likes to be occupied all the time. I don't work in the wintertime and I nearly go crazy waiting for the time to go out on the road again."

Hank says he's thought about retirement but will stick with it "as long as my health stays good and people enjoy my work." As far as the Erie area people, Clarence E. 'Hank' Snow was really impressed. "When you come to a city as friendly as Erie and you get a welcome like that, you know you've been away too long. We're not gonna do that again."

Here's a video of Hank Snow performing "I'm Movin' On" which was posted to YouTube by Gatorrock787: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRz8nXFVegc&feature=related

Learn more fun facts about Erie, Pennsylvania at Old Time Erie

Mace Electronics Spectacular 5 Erie County Fieldhouse 1982

Front of four page flyer from Sept. 1982.

Mace Electronics Spectacular 5 at the Erie County Fieldhouse in 1982

The fifth annual Mace Spectacular was held at the Erie County Fieldhouse in Erie, PA Sept. 2 thru 5, 1982. More than 25 vendors set up booths at the fieldhouse, and you could buy stereo equipment, computers, car stereos, microwaves, games and televisions. 

Vendors included Technics, Audio Technica, JVC, Teac, Panasonic, ADC, Maxwell, Loran, Bush, GE, Fisher VTR, Quasar, RCA, Fisher Audio, Sanyo, Sound Dynamics, Mura, Jet Sound, Jensen and Panasonic Auto. Tappan, Toshiba and Litton sold microwaves. Apple Computers showed its latest models. Mace Electronics had a couple of booths set up for custom auto.

You could also buy a GE eight hour video recorder for $488 which had electronic tuning and a remote control, pretty novel for the time. 

Mace Electronics' Mace Spectacular at the Erie County Fieldhouse

Mace Electronics' Mace Spectacular at the Erie County Fieldhouse

I used wait all year for the big event- the Mace Spectacular- at the Erie County Fieldhouse on Route 8 in Erie, Pennsylvania. The place was jam-packed with stereo equipment and it was LOUD! Row upon row of equipment, some of which was featured in Stereo Review magazine. I saved every penny until I could afford the massive 20 watt Technics system. It had two speakers that were so big that you could sit on them. And a turntable, for crying out loud. A far cry from the MP3 players and bookshelf speakers of today. 

OK, so I'm kidding about the 20 watt system being massive, but it was loud enough to annoy my neighbors. I could pick up Canadian rock stations such as Q-104 and hear all kinds of songs that were not played here.

It was fun to walk up and down every isle and see what new systems were available. I remember one company rep selling blue cassette tapes that would not melt in a microwave. A microwave? What was that?

Mace Levin owned Mace Electronics. He had stores at 2631 West 8th Street, the Millcreek Mall, the Eastway Plaza in Harborcreek, the Meadville Mall in Crawford County, PA, the Chautauqua Mall in NY, one on Route 20 in Ashtabula, OH and stores in State College and Altoona, PA. (Mace had a previous location at 24th and French that was destroyed by fire.)

Al Jenkins and Pete Zesinger were salesmen at the W. 8th Street store.

Read about the Mace Spectacular 5 at the Erie County Fieldhouse.

Now all the music fits on one MP3 player.

Enjoy more fun facts and photos of historic Erie, PA at: Old Time Erie

Ozzy Osbourne 1982 Erie County Fieldhouse Cancelled Show

Ozzy Osbourne 1982 Erie County Fieldhouse Cancelled Show

Ozzy Osbourne was scheduled to play the Erie County Fieldhouse on April 19, 1982. He was on tour supporting the "Diary of a Madman" album. The show was sponsored by Belkin Productions and K-104 FM. 

The tour was cancelled because guitarist Randy Rhoads died in an airplane crash on March 19, 1982, exactly one month before the tour was scheduled to play in Erie. 

Hard to believe it is the 30th anniversary of this tour! I finally found my concert scrapbook, and this is one of the pages in it. How, you may ask, did I get unused tickets from a cancelled concert? It's one of the perks of working at a record store. When I went to the Erie County Field House to turn in the tickets, I asked if I could have a sample of each ticket, one advance ticket and one day of show ticket. Pretty cool piece of memorabilia, right?

The ad reads: "Just when you thought it was safe to go back to a concert..Ozzy Osbourne, Diary of a Madman Tour. Dress for the occasion. Parental guidance advised. Eating before concert not recommended. 

Advance tickets were only $8.75.

Day of show tickets were $9.75.

Magnum was the scheduled opening band. The Fieldhouse was located on Route 8 in Erie County, Pennsylvania.

(The Erie Blades played at the Erie County Field House.)

The Erie Blades

The Erie Blades played the Beauce (Quebec) Les Jaros at the Erie County Fieldhouse on March 10, 1976. The Blades competed in Western Division of the North American Hockey League, along with the Broome Dusters, the Buffalo Norsemen, the Johnstown Jets and the Philadelphia Firebirds. One thing was for sure- if you saw the Blades, you could count on a fight on the ice, and the crowd would go wild.

I followed the Blades for about three years, interviewing Val James for the Wilson Citizen, my middle school newspaper. The story, which ran in the December 1979 issue, was the first sports article that I wrote. I mainly wrote about music.

The issue also includes articles that I wrote about the eleven people that died at a Who concert in Cincinnati, OH on Dec. 4, 1979, and article about Quill Eller. Quill Eller featured guitarist Timothy McLaughlin (Strong Vincent Class of '71).

Enjoy more facts and photos of Erie, Pennsylvania at: Old Time Erie

Quill Eller