The Elysium Arena was an indoor

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

at the corner of E. 107th St. and Euclid in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. It hosted the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

Cleveland Falcons The Cleveland Falcons were a professional ice hockey team in Cleveland, Ohio, that played home games in the Elysium Arena. The team was founded in 1929, as the Cleveland Indians as a member of the International Hockey League, where they played fo ...

from 1936 to 1937. The arena held 3,500 people and opened in 1907.''Ice and Refrigeration''
August 1917. Retrieved 2021-12-24. It was superseded in 1938 by the

Cleveland Arena Cleveland Arena was an arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was built and privately financed by local businessman Albert C. Sutphin during the height of the Great Depression in 1937 as a playing site for Sutphin's AHL team, the Cleveland Barons. The aren ...

, and in 1951 was demolished by the city of Cleveland. Cleveland Hockey Club, champions of the 1920–21

United States Amateur Hockey Association The United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) was an ice hockey governing body in the United States from 1920 to 1925, which operated at an amateur level. The league was filled with predominantly Canadian-born players, but struggled to ach ...

, played at the Elysium Arena.

History

The arena was launched and operated by Dudley S. Humphrey III of the Humphrey Co., who also operated the

Euclid Beach Park Euclid Beach Park was an amusement park located on the southern shore of Lake Erie in the Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, which operated from 1895 to 1969. Originally incorporated by investors from Cleveland and patterned after New ...

amusement park in Cleveland.

1915 Elysium Arena riot

On January 2, 1915 a full-scale riot broke out at the Elysium Arena at the conclusion of an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

game between the

Cleveland Athletic Club The Cleveland Athletic Club (CAC) was a historic organization founded in 1908. Founding members included Mayor Charles A. Otis, Walter Baker, and Elbert Baker; banker William Parmalee Murray was its first president. In 1911 the organization com ...

and the visiting Ottawa College team, where the spectators eventually joined in and the police had to be called upon to quell the disturbance. According to the Canadians the trouble had started when Cleveland player Frank "Coddy" Winters first threatened to "get" every one of the visiting players, and then also verbally abused their coach Father William Stanton with "the coarsest language", and that it later escalated into a full-scale riot when Cleveland player Elmer Irving threatened both the referee and the Ottawa players after having been penalized."Abuse to priest starts riot in Cleveland"
''Montreal Daily Star''. January 4, 1915 (pg. 6). Retrieved 2022-05-10. The Cleveland version on the other hand laid the blame on Ottawa player Jim Burnett, claiming the riot had started when Burnett slashed Coddy Winters across the nose with his stick. In the following melee Ottawa's goaltender Vincent Doran hit Elmer Irving over the head with his stick, after Irving had held down

Ed Nagle Edmund Burke "Doc" Nagle (August 10, 1893 – June 24, 1966) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player, born in Ottawa. He played with the Saskatoon Sheiks of the Western Canada Hockey League. Biography Nagle was a dentist, hence his nickna ...

, which left Irving with a fractured skull. Cleveland's trainer then took part in the melee and hit Ottawa player Redmond Quain over the head with a bottle. The spectators (a 2,000 crowd) then jumped onto the ice to join in, and the police had to be called upon to quell the disturbance, with a number of people getting hurt in the ensuing panic. Vincent Doran was arrested on a charge of assault to kill, for his attack on Irving, and his teammate Redmond Quain also appeared in a Cleveland police court as a witness against the Cleveland team's trainer. Doran was later dismissed by the police court when Irving refused to prosecute him."Doran is dismissed"
''Indianapolis Star'' (Indianapolis, Indiana). January 5, 1915 (pg. 8). Retrieved 2022-05-10.

References

Notes

{{Coord, 41, 30, 15, N, 81, 36, 46, W, type:landmark_region:US-OH, display=title Sports venues completed in 1907 Buildings and structures demolished in 1951 Indoor ice hockey venues in Ohio Defunct indoor arenas in Ohio Sports venues in Cleveland University Circle 1907 establishments in Ohio