Ice Aged

The oldest continuously operating arena in the world, Galt Arena Gardens blends hockey’s past and present.

BY KRISTINA RUTHERFORD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY EUGEN SAKHNENKO

The man had to be in his 80s, his suntanned face revealing that he didn’t live anywhere near here. He took his daughter on a slow walk through Galt Arena Gardens, told her about the many changes to the old barn since he played here with a teenager now known as Mr. Hockey. It was back in 1944–45 when the Ontario Hockey League’s Galt Red Wings, an affiliate of Detroit’s NHL club, called this Cambridge, Ont., arena home. The man had come from California to see it one last time. “It’s on my bucket list,” the ex-player told the arena manager. In his more than 40 years working here, Tony Rebelo says he’s seen Galt Arena ticked off more than a few must-see lists. One man came all the way from Germany. While much has changed since the rink opened in 1922, the bones remain—the original steel doors, the striking art deco brickwork exterior and that arched B.C. red fir roof, once painted white but now stripped down. Eyes are drawn to that roof. It makes you wonder what possessed anyone to paint the beams in the first place.

There are two facts locals will hurry to tell you about their hockey haven: first, Gordie Howe played here, a full-sized mural of the Hall of Famer hanging above the front doors as a reminder. Second, no indoor rink has been in continuous operation longer. Built in 1921 and opened the next January, its 91-year history doesn’t eclipse Boston’s 1910-built Matthews Arena. But fires and renovations claimed entire seasons at Matthews. Galt takes the ironman title; it’s a point of pride that they managed big renovations without interrupting the hockey season. The biggest change came in 1997. It was the hardest, but they’d waited as long as they could before time demanded an update. “I remember sweeping one end and my foot went through the floorboard,” Rebelo says. “[The arena] had such character to it, and it’s been hard moving forward because you’re trying to tie in new and old.” The new concrete floor shows no sign of age. The wooden baby blue benches that once lined the stands have been replaced by spacious maroon plastic seats that meet fire code standards. Capacity was once more than 2,000, but now caps at 1,100, the aisles roomier, the tiny dressing rooms twice their original size.

Many players who laced up at Galt Arena fondly lament the old dressing rooms. Red Kelly, Howie Meeker, Terry Sawchuk, Bobby Hull, Kirk Maltby, Marty Turco, Todd Harvey and scores of other NHLers—most recently Bryan Little and Ryan Ellis—had to watch their heads under doorways only about five feet high. These days, the Cambridge Winter Hawks Jr. B team has plenty of head room. And when Mr. Hockey returned to the revamped arena, he said it was the first time he exited the dressing room without ducking. Howe spent a season at Galt when he was 15, though according to most accounts, he never played a game, dressing for only one and spending it on the bench, since the Red Wings had used up their import quota. “I wasn’t allowed to play in games due to the rules, so I just learned how to fight well, and worked on my skills,” Howe recalls. “They gave me my first pair of decent skates.” Howe remembers the ice was small. He remembers being in awe when Bruins legend ‘Sudden Death’ Mel Hill showed up to practise with the team.

Turco, a member of the 1993–94 Cambridge Winter Hawks, was first scouted by the Dallas Stars at Galt Arena. It’s where he got in his first goalie fight (he won) and where he opened the season by getting suspended (his family made the eight-hour drive from Sault Ste. Marie, only to see him booted). The long-time Stars netminder remembers walking up to the rink for the first time. “I didn’t know of its historical place in this country,” Turco says, “but I was like, man, this rink has so much character.” The last game there was tough, he says, “leaving that team and that storied arena behind.”

Rebelo has seen many of these moments first-hand in the place he calls his second home, where he jokes he’s a part of the woodwork. “The building’s alive,” he says, digging through his office for old files to shed light on the past. The Galt Skating Races, he says, are a prime example of its living history. Like their parents and grandparents before them, area grade-school kids gather here every year to contend for the title of fastest skater. It’s been going on for 81 of the arena’s 91 years. “We’ve had to replace a lot of things; we were forced to,” says Rebelo. “But there are some things we’ll never lose.”