First of two parts:
It was demolished years ago, replaced -- at least for now -- by a parking lot. But the Civic Arena left an indelible mark on the city because of the concerts and ice shows and graduations that took place there. Especially because of the teams that played there. The Pipers. The Condors. Duquesne University. The Triangles. The Spirit. The Phantoms. The Stingers.
And, of course, the Penguins, who were the arena's most celebrated -- and ultimately successful -- tenant. The franchise was based there from 1967 until 2010, and won three Stanley Cups during that span.
And created an awful lot of memories in the process.
What follows is very much a personal list, and far from a comprehensive one. Games that appear on it are those that the writer attended and, in many cases, covered. (With one exception, which will be mentioned at the end of Part 2.) Non-playing people mentioned include some who were met while attending games as a fan and others whose paths were crossed in a professional capacity. Most are identified only by their first name in order to preserve their privacy, or that of their families.
The recollections below appear in no particular order, because simply being chosen for inclusion shows that all made a lasting impression. Here is Part 1 in this look back at the building that used to be across Centre Avenue from PPG Paints Arena:
• An 8-2 victory against Philadelphia on March 8, 1975 might have been highlighted by a woman reaching over the glass near a blue line to swing her purse at Flyers center Bobby Clarke. She missed, making that one of the few shots by the home side that didn't hit its target that night. Philadelphia, by the way, was the defending Stanley Cup champion at the time, and was just a few months shy of winning its second (and still most recent) title.
• The musicianship of organist Vince Lascheid was surpassed only by his creativity. (Deciding to pound out a few bars of "Please Release Me" when a player was assessed a holding penalty was positively inspired, and just one example of how Lascheid had a song for every occasion.)
• Mario Lemieux became the only player in NHL history to get goals five ways in the same game during an 8-6 victory against New Jersey Dec. 31, 1988, as he scored at even-strength, on the power play, shorthanded, on a penalty shot and into an empty net. (Even though the latter appeared to go in just after time expired.)
• Jaromir Jagr's most impressive performance -- and there were plenty from which to choose -- might have come against New Jersey in Game 6 of the opening round of the 1999 playoffs. Playing despite a groin injury that probably should have kept him out of the lineup, Jagr scored a game-tying goal with 2:12 left in regulation, then got the game-winner at 8:59 of overtime. The Penguins completed their upset of the Devils with a 4-2 victory at New Jersey two nights later, possibly staving off a move to Kansas City by reaching Round 2.
• There were few equals for excitement that came with buying GOAL magazine and the latest issue of The Hockey News every week -- at least when the Penguins weren't on a lengthy road trip or when there was a shortage of disposable income -- from a vendor, usually one set up right inside the arena's main gate, near the entrance to section C-16.
• The Penguins set the NHL records for fastest five goals (2:07) and the fastest six goals (5:02) on Nov. 22, 1972 -- one of those night-before-Thanksgiving games that were a franchise staple for so many years -- during a 10-4 victory against St. Louis. Bryan Hextall, Jean Pronovost, Al McDonough, Ken Schinkel and Ron Schock accounted for those five history-making goals against Blues goalie Wayne Stephenson. The five-goals sequence subsequently was memorialized in a radio commercial that got regular airplay on KDKA-AM, then the team's flagship station.
• Ronnie, the guard at the Game 2 security booth, sometimes seemed to know more about what was going on inside the organization than some members of the front office did.
• The Penguins suffered a soul-crushing, 3-2 loss to Buffalo on March 31, 1990, when Sabres defenseman Uwe Krupp beat Tom Barrasso one minute into overtime of the regular-season finale. They lost despite a heroic effort by Lemieux, who had been rehabilitating a back issue in California for several months, but returned for the game and scored one goal and set up another. While the loss cost the Penguins a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a few months later, it positioned them to choose Jagr with the No. 5 pick in the NHL draft. The New York Islanders, who got the playoff berth the Penguins surrendered and ended up with the No. 6 selection in that draft, ended up with the less-than-legendary Scott Scissons.
• Defenseman Dave Burrows, regularly and oh-so-effectively threw his body in front of opponents' shots, despite having no protection above his shoulder pads except a full head of hair.
• Remember Michel Belhumeur? No, probably not. But it's unlikely that he's forgotten the Civic Arena, since the Penguins threw 66 shots at him -- and 12 past him -- during a 12-1 victory against Washington there on March 15, 1975. (I was fortunate enough to have a terrific view of most of those goals, thanks to a friend's parents who gave us their season-tickets seats along the glass, just to the right of the goal judge.)
• Harry the Whale, whose dancing to the "Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine" music from The Gong Show came at no extra cost to ticket-buyers.
• The vehicle that was awarded to the MVP of the 1990 All-Star Game was barely off the assembly line when Lemieux made sure that he'd be getting the keys, scoring the first of his four goals just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff. He delighted the hometown crowd by winning the All-Star Game MVP award for the third time. What might have been forgotten by some is that a day earlier, Wayne Gretzky -- never the most popular guy in this town, at any time -- earned some pretty harsh criticism after not showing up for a public practice at the arena.
• The own-goal that ended Tim Horton's career with the Penguins, as well as their first-round playoff series against Chicago in 1972: Pit Martin was credited with the goal, which came seven seconds into overtime of Game 4 and completed a Blackhawks sweep in a series that was far more competitive than the final result suggested.
• The vast tracts of empty seats for almost every home game during the 1983-84 season, when the Penguins went 16-58-6 -- in retrospect, the amazing part is that that group actually managed to win 16 games -- and reported an average crowd of 6,839. Terry Schiffhauer, then the team's director of media relations, later acknowledged that even that meager figure was inflated.
• Pierre Larouche's "Voulez-vous couchez avec moi?" moment. And all those moments when he showed himself to be a pretty gifted hockey player.
• The last NHL game played in the building -- Game 7 in a second-round playoff series against Montreal in 2010 -- closed the place on a decidedly sour note for the home fans as the Canadiens, who had faced a 3-2 deficit in the series, moved on to the Eastern Conference final by virtue of a 5-2 victory that wasn't nearly as competitive as the score makes it sound. Brian Gionta put Montreal ahead to stay 32 seconds into the game as the Canadiens built a 4-0 lead that doomed the Penguins to an early off-season after they'd reached the Stanley Cup final in each of the previous two springs. The Canadiens' victory might have been a fitting bookend for the Penguins' time at the arena, though, since Montreal had beaten them, 2-1, Oct. 11, 1967 in the first regular-season game played there.
