A Cambridge hockey arena is laying its claim as the oldest continually-operated hockey arena.
While there are older arenas than the Galt Gardens Arena, which opened in 1922, none have been in operation uninterrupted for as long.
The rink is now in its 98th year of continuous operation, hosting its first hockey game nearly a century ago.
Hockey legends like Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuk skated its surface a couple of decades later.
“Everybody takes a lot of pride when they come in to work in this building,” says supervisor Dean Bevan.
The rink, built on a former bottle disposal site, was once home to the Galt Red Wings, the farm team for Detroit.
This history is not lost on the arena’s newest generation of players.
“It’s an honour to play here,” says Alex Robinson, 12, who plays peewee hockey in Cambridge. “We’re in the same dressing room as some amazing NHLers.”
His coach, Brad George, says he tries to remind his players about what sort of history the arena contains before games.
Now the building, almost a century old, has a reputation around the globe for that history, as well as its longevity.
“This past summer we had somebody from California write about this building online, and he made it part of his trip to come in and take a look around,” Bevan explains.
Several of the building’s original features remain intact, from a1940s ice-resurfacing machine to the roof and brickwork, making the history impossible to ignore.
