Ice World, often referred to as Ice World Arena or Totowa Ice World, was an American sporting venue located in Totowa,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. The arena was located on

New Jersey Route 62 Route 62 is a state highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It begins at the centerline of U.S. Route 46 (US 46) along Union Boulevard (Passaic County Route 646) in the community of Totowa and continues northward to the merge of the Inte ...

at an interchange with U.S. Route 46.

Function

As its name implied, Ice World was an ice skating rink that was also used for other functions.

Training facility

When the

New Jersey Devils The New Jersey Devils are a professional sports, professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

came over from Colorado in 1982, they chose Ice World as their practice facility. They stayed there until 1986, when the team signed a contract to utilize

South Mountain Arena The Richard J. Codey Arena at South Mountain (formerly the South Mountain Skating Arena) is an ice hockey and ice skating arena in West Orange, New Jersey as part of the South Mountain Recreation Complex. The arena is named for former Governor o ...

in West Orange for that purpose.

Boxing

Ice World also saw heavy use as a facility for professional

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

. At the time, trainer

Lou Duva Louis Duva (May 28, 1922 – March 8, 2017) was a boxing trainer, manager and boxing promoter who handled nineteen world champions. The Duva family promoted boxing events in over twenty countries on six continents. Lou Duva was inducted into the ...

's son Dan was operating Main Events, a promotional company, out of Totowa and since Ice World had a seating capacity of 3,000 people, he began promoting shows there in 1978. Over thirty cards promoted by Dan Duva took place inside Ice World, with more than a few of them taking place before a nationwide television audience on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Professional wrestling

Another major New York area promoter,

Vincent J. McMahon Vincent James McMahon (July 6, 1914 – May 24, 1984), sometimes referred to as Vince McMahon Sr., was an American professional wrestling promoter. He is best known for running the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, which was later renamed WWWF (World ...

, also utilized Ice World to bring his World Wide Wrestling Federation wrestlers to the local fans. The first such show happened in 1978, with

Bob Backlund Robert Louis Backlund (born August 14, 1949) is an American retired amateur and professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances in the World Wide Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Federation from 1976 to 1984 and in the 1990s, wher ...

facing Spiros Arion in the main event. The company, which eventually became known as the World Wrestling Federation, would promote shows at Ice World until 1981.

Demise

Eventually Main Events stopped promoting boxing events at Ice World, and the loss of the Devils to South Mountain Arena also hurt the revenue stream. The arena would close before the decade was out. Shortly after Ice World closed its doors for good, the building was leased by Supermarkets General Corporation, which decided to convert the facility into retail space and reopened it as a Rickel Home Center. The store remained open through 1997, when it and the rest of the Rickel chain was liquidated after a bankruptcy filing. After Rickel closed, the former Ice World became home to two clothing stores. The first was a concept store devised by off-price retailer Filene's Basement called Aisle 3, which opened in 1999 and was notable for only doing business on weekends while the rest of the week was spent stocking the store with merchandise. The idea failed and within a year, Filene's Basement ended the experiment and liquidated all of the stores. Today the former Ice World is occupied by another off-price retailer, the discount fashion warehouse chain Forman Mills.

References

{{coord, 40.893, -74.226, type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NJ, display=title Boxing venues in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Passaic County, New Jersey Ice rinks Wrestling venues in the United States Defunct indoor arenas in the United States New Jersey Devils Totowa, New Jersey