44 Years Ago Today...

[mauconnfan]

Yep was there upper level about 8-10 Meriden guys. Crazy to think about to this day huh?

 

[PWS]

I wasn't there, but for some reason I've always remembered watching on TV and seeing an Al Lewis dunk.

I was there & waiting for the Al Lewis reference. He had 19 pots 10 on 5 dunks. We used to joke that Al Lewis pulled the roof down. After the game, Al was asked how did he do it. He had a blank look & replied “I don’t know.” The sad part is he didn’t know & had the game of his life that night.

&, like the others on here, I would’ve been crushed.

 

[SoFla Steve]

I wasn't, but my brother was.

 

[AzHusky]

Watched the game on TV, but was a member of the 91 club.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

What was capacity then? 16,000 or so? I imagine roughy 70,000 people will say they were there. I was not. That was around the time my dad started taking me to games though, certainly remember it well. Did the Whalers play in New Haven after? I can’t recall.

The CT equivalent of saying you caught Hendrix at Woodstock?

 

[AzHusky]

No the Whalers played in Springfield

 

[HuskyHawk]

10,500 for hockey. Hoops a little more

Yeah, it was the rebuild after the collapse that increased capacity it seems.

 

[LIUCHusky]

Sitting in Section 103 to watch Al Lewis have his career game against UMASS. Next morning viewed the destruction driving from West Hartford to PWA. Definitely memorable.

Sat in either 103 or 104 at the time. If my wife and I weren't the last paying customers to leave the concourse we were among the last 5. Will never forget waking up the next morning and hearing the news.

 

[Jim]

I wasn’t at that game, but I was at the Knicks-Celtics game a few days earlier. The only reason I got tickets was that it was snowing hard and my brother-in-law didn’t want to go out in the storm, so he let me have them. And those were some sweet tickets— three rows back behind the Knicks bench. I’m still amazed seeing the size of Patrick Ewing’s sneakers up close…

 

[cohenzone]

Wasn’t there, had listened to the game. But I was working in those days in the Gold Building. The next day bunch of us went up to the top floor where we had a clear view and I remember seeing part of the roof frame sticking up like a mangled erector set. So lucky nobody was in that place when the roof fell.

 

[TRUCONN76]

I wasn’t there but I was supposed to go, played in a game in a rec league instead. What I remember though was reading Jeanne Dixon’s predictions for the new year in the NH register a couple of weeks before around New Years and she predicted that the HARTFORD Civic center roof would collapse!

 

[superjohn]

My mom's ceiling collapsed today in her living room. Luckily she wasn't in there.

 

[zmart]

I was there with my business partner. Mid court, 4 rows up - no chance.
He still has the ticket stubs.

 

[Huskybass]

I wasn't there, but for some reason I've always remembered watching on TV and seeing an Al Lewis dunk.

Grandpa Munster could dunk? Who knew?

 

[alphasigko]

I was sitting in the sun as a Grad student at ASU at a bar on University Ave and saw a newspaper with the headline.... Blew my mind!

 

[Chin Diesel]

Now that was a blizzard. I remember it well

Nah, the big one for New England was a few weeks later.

HCC roof collapsed after catching tail end of blizzard through Ohio and PA.

Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[wheelerdog]

Nah, the big one for New England was a few weeks later.

HCC roof collapsed after catching tail end of blizzard through Ohio and PA.

Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I remember my dad leaving for work in the morning and not being able to come home for 2 days.

 

[CL82]

As a kid, I got to see the Corny & Company play a bunch at the NH Coliseum after the collapse but where did the Whalers play? I just Googled it and nothing was coming up.

Springfield, I remember my dad driving us up there to the games.

I remember studying the collapse at UConn years later. If I were to call correctly it was largely due to the fact that they used center drains for the water and a freeze thaw cycle cause the drains to be covered in. Wet snow became too big a load for the roof to bear. Hindsight being what it is, it seems like a pretty glaring error.

 

[CL82]

I wasn’t at that game, but I was at the Knicks-Celtics game a few days earlier. The only reason I got tickets was that it was snowing hard and my brother-in-law didn’t want to go out in the storm, so he let me have them. And those were some sweet tickets— three rows back behind the Knicks bench. I’m still amazed seeing the size of Patrick Ewing’s sneakers up close…

Pretty sure Ewing was still in high school back then.

 

[Ricker]

So few people attended, you could sit where you wanted. I chose right next to one of the tunnels out. No premonition regarding the storm, the scoreboard was so huge and hanging from the center of the ceiling, and the whole roof didn't look supported for it, so I never trusted it. I still think the scoreboard took it down with help from the snow, rather than the storm being the key cause. When you entered a tightly packed bar I would take note of the exits without really thinking there would be a fire. This was sort of the same thing. Kudos to you guys remembering the game itself. I've got nothing in that regard

 

[dogpause]

What was the actual attendance that night?

 

[Greathusky]

The Civic Center roof collapsed. Any Yarders at the UMass game 6 hours earlier?

Yep. I worked at Travelers then and went to the top of a nearby hotel the next day to see the damage looking at where I had sat the night before,

 

[jayfromfla]

Dr Ij was drafted to the ABA in 1972 and was on the 76ers the night the roof caved in. I had tix by didnt go due to weather

 

[wheelerdog]

What was the actual attendance that night?

I believe around 5500

 

[Chin Diesel]

The tradition continues.........

Dangerous winter storm, bitter cold rolls across winter-weary East

Sleet, snow and bitter cold temperatures continued to sweep across a wide swath of the South and East on Thursday.

www.usatoday.com