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The Tulsa Coliseum was an
indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
built in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...
at the corner of Fifth Street and Elgin Avenue. It hosted the
Tulsa Oilers The Tulsa Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and play in the ECHL. The Oilers played their home games at the Tulsa Convention Center until 2008 when they moved into the new BOK Center. For many years, the Tulsa ...
ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
team from 1929 to 1951. Many other sporting events were held at the facility including
rodeo Rodeo () is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqu ...
s, track meets,
professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...
, and
boxing matches Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing punches at each other for a pred ...
. The building was destroyed by fire in 1952. Walter Whiteside, a wealthy native of Duluth, Minnesota who was attracted to Tulsa by the oil boom during the 1920s, partnered with W. S. Stryker to form the Magic City Amusement Company. The partnership commissioned noted Tulsa architect Leon Senter to design an indoor arena for the city in 1928. Whiteside, evidently the driving force of the partnership envisioned using the arena to present a variety of public entertainments, including such wintertime sports as ice hockey and ice shows, for which there were no suitable venues south of the Mason-Dixon Line. He even organized the Tulsa Oilers, the first Tulsa Hockey team.


History


Walter Whiteside, first owner

Walter Whiteside, a millionaire lumberman from
Duluth, Minnesota Duluth ( ) is a Port, port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. The population ...
, had it constructed in 1928 at a cost of . Whiteside's family was successful in oil, mining and lumber. Whiteside himself was the owner of Douglas Oil Company. Joining forces with W. S. Stryker, he formed Magic City Amusement Co. to have an indoor arena built on Elgin Avenue and extending the entire block between Fifth and Sixth Streets on the east side of downtown Tulsa. Whiteside also intended to have the arena introduce winter entertainments such as ice hockey and ice shows. So, when he hired architect Leon B. Senter to design the facility, he specified that it must have the ability to cover the floor with ice within an 8-hour period. The skating oval measured long by wide. The building became the first indoor skating rink in this part of the United States.Gerkin, Steve. "The Ringleader." ''This Land Press''. 2011.
Accessed May 14, 2020.
The building opened on January 1, 1929, with skating displays by the Magic City Amusement Co. (also owned by Whiteside) and the first game of the new
Tulsa Oilers The Tulsa Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and play in the ECHL. The Oilers played their home games at the Tulsa Convention Center until 2008 when they moved into the new BOK Center. For many years, the Tulsa ...
, versus the Duluth Hornets. The facility had a seating capacity of 7,500, and boasted a $25,000 organ. The building was sold to Coliseum Corporation at a sheriff's sale in 1942 and later was sold to wrestling promoter Sam Avey in 1944 for $185,000, and it was also known as Avey's Coliseum.


Sam Avey, second owner

Sam Avey, a native of
Kingfisher, Oklahoma Kingfisher is a city in and the county seat of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, Kingfisher County, Oklahoma,. The population was 4,903 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the former home and namesake of Kingfisher College ...
was promoter of vaudeville shows. He had spent six years with vaudeville companies during the 1910 decade learning the trade. Shortly after the end of WWI, he went on a tour with noted promoter
Billy Sandow Wilhelm Baumann (September 4, 1884 – September 15, 1972), better known as Billy Sandow, was an American professional wrestler and promoter. Biography Sandow is best remembered as the manager of professional wrestler Ed "Strangler" Lewis an ...
and his professional wrestling show. In 1924, Avey moved his family to Tulsa, intending to start a new venture for Sandow. Avey was well aware that the athletic program at Oklahoma A.& M. (now
Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...
) had become notable for training prospective young professional wrestlers, but there was no venue in Oklahoma to stage public matches, which were becoming wildly popular elsewhere in the country. He met up with Whiteside and concluded that Tulsa was ripe and ready for such a venue. Pro wrestling shows bore little resemblance to Olympic wrestling, the (Greco-Roman) type that A&M students learned. The emphasis was definitely put on showmanship. Its practitioners had outlandish personalities and questionable ethics. Avey first recruited a former A&M star named Leroy McGuirk, who had become the U.S. Junior Heavyweight wrestling champ. Out of town pros jumped at a chance to take down the local favorite, who was a credible opponent. Unfortunately, McGuirk was blinded in an auto accident en route to a match in Little Rock. Avey took him out of the ring, put him to work setting up matches, and gave him a stake in Avey's company. Other notable performers who graced the Coliseum ring included "Killer" Kowalski, "Strangler" Lewis, "Farmer" Jones and Al "Spider" Galento. "Spider was especially popular because he would offer money to any man in the audience who could stay in the ring with him for more than a minute. The cash reward was one dollar a minute and $100 to any volunteer who won. The Oilers played in the American Hockey Association (AHA) from 1929 (1928–29 season) - 1942, and the
United States Hockey League The United States Hockey League (USHL) is the top junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. The league consists of 16 active teams located in the Midwestern United States and Great Plains, for players between the ages of 16 and 21. Th ...
(USHL) from 1945 to 1951. The Oilers first disbanded in 1942, and were revived under the ownership of Avey in 1945. The Oilers disbanded when the USHL disbanded in 1951.


Destruction

Avey also owned the radio station
KAKC KAKC (1300 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station airs a conservative talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The radio studio, studios are on South Yale Avenu ...
, and it broadcast from the Coliseum basement. On September 20, 1952, the building caught fire when it was struck by lightning. A later report said that the KAKC antenna, which was located atop the building had attracted the bolt. The building's dry wooden roof accelerated the fire. There were no events scheduled that night, so only two people were in the building, both KAKC employees. One happened to be outside on break, when the bolt hit. He went back to the basement office, where his co-worker was monitoring a network feed, unaware of what had just happened to their own building. After switching to look at images from the roof top camera, they exited quickly and safely. The first fire alarm was received at 9:31 PM. Two more alarms were turned in later. Within minutes, Tulsa Fire Department responded to the scene with ten fire trucks and 150 fire fighters. A significant number of responders had come from nearby cities, but all efforts subsequently proved futile. Before midnight, the entire roof collapsed into the building, pulling down much of the exterior walls as it fell. It seemed obvious then that the facility was a total loss. Avey and his wife had gone out that night to a house-warming party for his daughter and son-in-law, so it took a while before one of his employees located him and gave him the bad news over the telephone. He drove to the site and arrived just after the west section of the roof collapsed. He then went home to watch reports on TV, after telling a reporter, "... I've had too many happy memories in that old barn to watch it die." Police estimated that the raging fire attracted approximately 12,000 spectators as it occurred, and that another 125,000 drove by the next day to view the wreckage. When another reporter asked Avey about the damage estimate, the owner offhandedly said that it would be about one million dollars. Later, a professional estimate showed that replacement of the facility would cost around $2.5 million. Avey could not raise the additional funding, and had to file for bankruptcy. The debris was removed and the property was cleared for conversion into parking lots. The Coliseum was never repaired or replaced.


See also

* Leroy McGuirk


Notes


References

* *


Citations

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url = http://digitalcollections.tulsalibrary.org/digital/collection/p16063coll1/id/373 , title = Hail The Coliseum, Tulsa's New Palace of Wonders And Its Men! , publisher = Tulsa City-County Library , access-date = 2022-02-23 , work = Tulsa Tribune , date = 1928-12-30 Buildings and structures in Tulsa, Oklahoma Indoor arenas in Oklahoma Defunct indoor arenas in the United States Ice hockey venues in the United States Sports venues in Tulsa, Oklahoma Sports venues completed in 1928 Burned buildings and structures in the United States Defunct sports venues in Oklahoma 1928 establishments in Oklahoma 1952 disestablishments in Oklahoma Sports venues demolished in 1952