4/14/96: The Night The Aud Closed Forever https://t.co/qWuJRVXJZk pic.twitter.com/io0pmJaVRt
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) April 15, 2016
It's hard for me to believe, but it was 20 years today that the Buffalo Sabres played their final home game ever in The Aud. I loved that barn! Love, love, loved that barn!
The Aud opened her doors on October 14, 1940.
The AHL's Buffalo Bisons, the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, the NBA's Buffalo Braves, the MSL's Buffalo Stallions, the MILL's Buffalo Bandits, the second NPSL's Buffalo Blizzard and the RHI's Buffalo Stampede called The Aud home.
The Aud also hosted many NCAA college hoops games.
The Aud was renovated in 1970 and 1990, and it closed in 1996 after the Sabres' Bandits' and Blizzard's seasons ended. It remained vacant until the city demolished it in 2009.
I'll never forget the first time that I watched Gilbert Perreault, Rick Martin, Rene Robert and my Sabres play live in person. I still have the game ticket stub from October 1974.
The first time I ever saw the "Boad Street Bullies" it was at The Aud. Those were some big, ugly, felonious thugs!
Watching Guy Lafleur and Perreault take turns playing "anything you can do, I can do better" was breathtaking. I have a million and one memories of my days at The Aud. The 1976 Canadiens team was a freak show and I got to watch it from the reds at The Aud.
The 1993 Montreal Canadiens were the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup. I watched Roy, Chelios, Courtnall, Richer and the rest of break the hearts of Sabres fans.
My ears are still ringing from the 16,900+ Buffalo Bandits fanatics who cheered raucously during the 1993 World Championship game. I swear, the steel girders that supported The Aud were vibrating that night after Johnny Tavares, Jimmy Veltmen and The Kilgour boys won the championship.
Terry O'Reilly getting punch drunk by Val James. Larry Playfair wrecking Knuckles Nilan. Schoney smoking Cashman through the Zamboni door. Gare standing toe to toe and trading bombs with Howatt. Edwards and Sauve winning the Jennings Trophy. Puppa and Barrasso. Lorenzo "Batman". "May Day". "Wowie". "Sneaky Pete". "Rayzor". "King Kong". "The Dominator". "Rammer". "Tickets". "Spinner".
I once interviewed Cam Neeley and Ray Bourque in the crowded Boston room as they sat in their stalls drinking ice cold Molson Golden. Neeley offered me one. I declined.
Wow. Just wow!
I'm so old that I remember sitting in the Blues and marveling at the enormous cloud of cigar and cigarette smoke that had a permanent home wafting above the glass at every home game. The hallways were long, steep, narrow and dark. Again, chain smokers hacking darts in every direction of the concourse during intermission.
I saw 50+ rock concerts at The Aud. The best of the best and many Hall of Famers rocked the rafters. I can recall seeing RUSH play live there at least 8 times. Van Halen, Neil Young, Ozzy, Triumph, Yes, The Scorpions, Billy Joel, and many more. The blessing and the curse of The Aud that it wasn't air conditioned. Imagine watching a red hot Aerosmith show on a muggy, humid July night. Every beer you'd slam, you'd sweat out 5 minutes later. Ice cold Labatt's on tap was the perfect rehydration therapy at The Aud.
My kids tell me that I'm getting nostalgic and emotional the older I get.
They are correct.
The Aud. She was a beauty.
It was also 20 years ago that the Sabres moth-balled their iconic Blue & Gold crossed swords sweater for the gawd awful goat head logo.
April 14, 1996.
The night that The Aud became the former home of the Buffalo Sabres.
I'll never forget the scene.
The Sabres defeated the Hartford Whalers 4-1.
The postgame "final skate" ceremony memories still give me chills when I think back on them. Then captain Pat Lafontaine stared the skate with a lap of the ice then passed the puck to Sabres alum Rene Robert who flipped the Don Luce who took a lap and passed the puck the late great Richard Martin who passed the puck to Danny Gare who passed the puck to Craig Ramsay who shared it with Larry Playfair who passed it to then Sabres D Mike Wilson who bumped it to Brad May.
Lafontaine took the final victory lap and potted the final goal ever in the Memorial Auditorium.
A fitting end.
**
I'll never forget the new logo and sweater unveiling ceremony that took place at the then Marine Midland Arena. I was working for a Buffalo radio station and we were tasked with partnering with the Sabres to literally fill up the arena with school aged kids who were on Easter break for a week day matinee of an open practice. On that day, the new Black & Red Goat Head branding logo was officially unveiled to the public for the first time.
Today, the Sabres would promote such an historic event via their own in-house jumbotron system, arena signage, radio and TV broadcasts, website and on all of it's social media platforms.
Back in 1996, it was a different game of shinny.
The internet hadn't made it's debut in Buffalo yet. Hockey Twitter wasn't even a thing. Facebook, Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat were not even germs of thoughts yet.
The Sabres had to rely on good old fashioned word of mouth advertising in order to phase out the vintage logo that the team wore proudly from it's inception in 1970 until that memorable night when captain Pat Lafontaine turned out the lights for the final game at Memorial Auditorium.
Moss was hired by the Sabres in December 1994 after a stint as president of the Madison Square Garden Network in New York. Under his leadership, the Sabres introduced the new logo and also transitioned into the Marine Midland Arena. Moss was a big proponent of enhancing the entertainment quotient for his fans and season ticket holders.
Moss was one of the most polarizing figure in Sabres history. Moss wasn't it Buffalo for a long time but he sure did raise the blood pressure among the fan base in the brief time that he was in charge of the Sabres.
Those who loved him, admired his vision to create new traditions.
Those that hated him, despised his lack of respect for the history, heritage, and brand equity of the vintage Sabres Blue & Gold sweater and the crossed swords logo.
So, where was the goat head logo born?
(P.S.: Thank God that the go athead is dead! Thank you Terry and Kim Pegula!)
How did it come to be the replacement for the iconic crossed swords logo?
A video recently surfaced today online with footage of some of the proposed and rejected designs for the Buffalo Sabres logo that would replace the vintage crossed swords.
Thanks to /r/hockey for the video.
The above artwork video was taken from Kevin Beam's video that he shot on VHS format at the Buffalo Sabres Season Ticket Holder Open House that was held at Memorial Auditorium on October 7, 1994.
The lockout came after NHL players played without a collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was a subject of dispute as the players sought collective bargaining and owners sought to help franchises that had a weaker market as well as make sure they could cap the rising salaries of players. The lockout caused the 1994–95 season to be shortened to 48 games instead of 84, the shortest season in 53 years.
The Sabres focus grouped their loyal season ticket holders on the new logo designs during the lockout.
I like taking trips down memory lane.
What are your favorite Memorial Auditorium memories?
As I recall it, the team unveiled the new sweater just weeks before the final home game ever at The Aud. The idea behind it was a two-prong concept:
To generate buzz for the new brand new, state-of-the-art Marine Midland Arena which the team would move into and start playing at in October 2006.
To get the buying public acquainted with the new Black & Red threads.
So, on that afternoon in April '96, fans and media assembled at The Aud to unveil the new logo.
My team and I worked under guidance of then Sabres President Doug Moss and his management team.
Moss wanted this matinee to be big, bold, loud and over the top. He wanted to make a loud, proud statement.
Boy, did he ever.
Clad head to toe in Black & Red to
The din of Bush's "Machine Head" blaring through the PA, the Sabres players stormed the ice at The Aud.
It was a rock concert on ice.
"What we're trying to do is revive interest in Sabres hockey," Doug Moss, team president and chief executive officer told the Associated Press."I said we were in the entertainment business." Moss came to the organization in December 1994 with a plan to ditch the blue and gold threads worn since the team was founded in 1970 and adopt something cooler. The old crest with a stampeding buffalo above crossed sabres has been abandoned for the head of a red-eyed buffalo casting an angry, sidelong glance. On each shoulder, a scarlet "B" is impaled by a sword. Sabres players wearing the new uniforms entered the rink to blaring rock music and a laser light show. The team opened The Aud to the public for a midday unveiling ceremony and got a standing-room-only crowd, including many families with children on spring break
Moss was fired in November 1996, weeks after the new logo debuted at the new building. Weird chain of events. Larry Quinn, who was responsible for guiding the "Crossroads" project from it's inception to the Marine Midland Arena was installed as president of the Sabres.
April 14, 1996.
The night that The Aud became the former home of the Buffalo Sabres.
I'll never forget the scene. The Sabres defeated the Hartford Whalers 4-1. The postgame "final skate" ceremony memories still give me chills when I think back on them. Then captain Pat Lafontaine stared the skate with a lap of the ice then passed the puck to Sabres alum Rene Robert who flipped the Don Luce who took a lap and passed the puck the late great Richard Martin who passed the puck to Danny Gare who passed the puck to Craig Ramsay who shared it with Larry Playfair who passed it to then Sabres D Mike Wilson who bumped it to Brad May. Lafontaine took the final victory lap and potted the final goal ever in the Memorial Auditorium.
Moss was one of the most polarizing figure in Sabres history. Moss wasn't it Buffalo for a long time but he sure did raise the blood pressure among the fan base in the brief time that he was in charge of the Sabres.
Those who loved him, admired his vision to create new traditions.
Those that hated him, despised his lack of respect for the history, heritage, and brand equity of the vintage Sabres Blue & Gold sweater and the crossed swords logo.
So, where was the goat head logo born?
(P.S.: Thank God that the go athead is dead! Thank you Terry and Kim Pegula!)
How did it come to be the replacement for the iconic crossed swords logo?
A video recently surfaced today online with footage of some of the proposed and rejected designs for the Buffalo Sabres logo that would replace the vintage crossed swords.
Thanks to /r/hockey for the video.
The above artwork video was taken from Kevin Beam's video that he shot on VHS format at the Buffalo Sabres Season Ticket Holder Open House that was held at Memorial Auditorium on October 7, 1994.
The lockout came after NHL players played without a collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was a subject of dispute as the players sought collective bargaining and owners sought to help franchises that had a weaker market as well as make sure they could cap the rising salaries of players. The lockout caused the 1994–95 season to be shortened to 48 games instead of 84, the shortest season in 53 years.
The Sabres focus grouped their loyal season ticket holders on the new logo designs during the lockout.
I like taking trips down memory lane.
What are your favorite Memorial Auditorium memories?
**