“Welcome to the Jungle” – The Amherst Stadium has Truly Seen it All
By Craig Eagles
Every rink across the Maritimes has its own unique story.
Maritime hockey history as we know it continues to be written in large city centres, small towns and in every community rink across our region. The dream to play at hockey’s highest level is rooted in every aspect of the game across the country, but those dreams all have a starting point, the local rink.
Unfortunately, several arenas across the Maritimes are gone. All we have left are the memories, but there’s a handful of old barns, rich in history as any, that still stand. One of them lies in the heart of Cumberland County, where the storied hockey history of Amherst, Nova Scotia and its neighbouring communities continue to live on in the hollowed walls of the old Stadium at 185 Church Street.
The drive to the Amherst Stadium literally takes you down memory lane. In so many ways the cozy picturesque town of Amherst, is frozen in time with its amazing architecture and turn of century homes.
The Amherst Stadium has been a staple in that community ever since its inception in 1959.
The building on the top of Church Street almost seems cathedral like in its appearance and raised parking lot. The fa?ade of the old stadium may have been renovated countless times over the years, but you can’t change the character of the structure or the hockey history that has taken place on its ice. The Amherst Stadium has played host to some amazing individual performances, intense interprovincial rivalries and some epic junior and senior hockey league battles. It has literally seen it all over the past six decades.
Few know the old Stadium better than newly elected Amherst Town Councillor, hockey historian and long-time hockey scout Hal Davidson and former NHLer and beloved coach Bill Riley.
“The only building that was any louder than the Amherst Stadium was the old Chicago Stadium,” said Riley a veteran of 139 NHL games. “When I was coaching the Ramblers, it just went bonkers when our guys scored a goal,”
Riley loves the old barn, but definitely sees a need to add one more ice surface for the town. The longtime pro and coach wants to see kids from Amherst and surroundings areas have the opportunity to experience as much of the sport as they can.
“The Stadium has been there a long time, but the thing that disappoints me that our different Mayors and Town Councils haven’t added a second ice surface. It bothers me to no end.”
Despite those strong feelings, the memories made within the one rink the people of Amherst have flocked to for generations remain clear for the man whose #8 now hangs in its rafters.
“As a kid growing up there I was the number one fan of the Amherst Senior Ramblers,” Riley said proudly. “They had some great teams back then. They had a couple of guys that went on to play in the National Hockey League as soon as they left Amherst. There were other players on those teams that became legends in Nova Scotia hockey.”
Riley a team first guy through and through fondly remembers all of his teammates and all the people he met and played with in his early days in the game.
“I guess the memories that I have personally are of my teammates and guys I grew up playing with,” he explains. “We had guys from every community, from Sackville to Oxford. Back then everything was pretty much local and it was a pleasure to play with those guys.”
The Stadium meant so much to so many people, but the one commonality amongst them all were the shared hockey dreams. For instance, some of Riley’s fondest memories of the Stadium were the unorganized games that occurred on snow days.
“We could always could go to the rink on snow days,” he explains. “We were allowed to use the Stadium in those days. If there was a snow day we made up our own teams. All the kids would be there playing shinny hockey.”
What does the Amherst Stadium mean to the community?
“We had two venues that meant a lot to the people that grew up there,” Riley is quick to point out. One was the Amherst Stadium and the other was the park (Catholic Field) which is no longer there.”
Riley is quick to reminisce about his hometown, but it pains him to see so many fond memories of those parks and outdoor facilities disappear over time.
“It just seems like they haven’t added anything, they have just taken things away, and that’s very disconcerting for a guy like me,” Riley said. “I benefited from playing in the Stadium all those days and I benefited from playing ball in those parks. The kids these days should have more than what we had when we were kids. We had outdoor rinks, but both of them are gone now to,” Riley added.
There’s no question the old Amherst Stadium was a “Field of Dreams” for Riley and so many other kids from the region. It was a second home for many youth in the region.
“The Stadium was a place for all of us to go and it gave us something to do,” Riley recalls. “We were always at the Stadium, there’s no question I was probably there seven days a week. My mother would have to send for me to get me out of there,” admitted Riley.
What does it mean to Riley personally to reach hockey’s highest level and to have had all the support from his hometown and neighboring communities?
“I consider myself very lucky because I got to live my dream and play in the National Hockey League, the best league in the world,” he confesses. “Without question if it wasn’t for the founder of the local Amherst junior team that would have never happened. I was also able to come back and coach the Ramblers to their first and only championship, which is a big thing.”
A fiercely proud fanbase, the Rams faithful were sent into a fever pitch in 1990 when Riley guided him hometown team from behind the bench to what was them known as the Callaghan Cup.
“During those days when I was coaching in Amherst people had to go at twelve or one o’clock in the afternoon to buy tickets for that night’s game just to make sure they got into the building,” he said.
The always fiery and passionate Riley wants to see his hometown flourish in every facet including the game he still loves.
“I’m seventy old years now so I’m going to say what’s on my mind, I’m not going to keep it in anymore,” he declares. “I want all the young Amherst kids to be able to use that arena like I was able to use it. That’s the one and only reason that I was able to make it to the National Hockey League. Without question, it’s all about opportunity. There’s such a fine line between making it and not making it. There are so many people and players that will never know how close they were to making it. I played with certain guys and think to myself when I got there, that those guys could have played pro, but never got the opportunity.”
The game, just like so many of our cities and towns across the Maritimes, has certainly changed over the passage of time.
“Thankfully the way things are today, if you can play, they will find you,” Riley said.
Nevertheless, all hockey dreams start with an opportunity and a place to play. For Bill Riley that rink was the old Amherst Stadium.
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The Stadium was my home away from home throughout my youth,” said Hal Davidson. “The Stadium was built in 1959 as a replacement for the famous Bailey Arena which burnt to the ground a couple of years earlier. Ironicaly my grandmother sold the Town of Amherst a portion of the land to accommodate the new building,”
As a result, the Stadium was built directly in front of Davidson’s childhood homestead.
“My first memories, above and beyond the actual building of the structure, are of the Senior Amherst Ramblers team with the likes of Shermie White, Dick Vansnick, Doug Polley Sr., Dave and Lou Kiley and a multitude of Quebec senior hockey players who were recruited to the area,” the current Town Counsellor recalls. “They were my official providers of hockey sticks with them passing out sticks after games or me collecting broken sticks and repairing them.”
Davidson would become an “official rink rat” when a group of kids with similar interests helped clean the Stadium, scraped the ice, and flooded with 45 gallon barrels on wheels.
“In return we would receive free ice time for shinny and actually had a room at the Stadium allocated for us to hang out,” Davidson proudly. “There certainly was no summer ice during those years and the excitement to be amongst the first on the new sheet of ice was an emotion which fueled my love of the game,” he said.
Davidson, every bit as talented as a local historian as he is a scout or town official, has fond memories of the Jr Ramblers.
“The Amherst Junior Ramblers were created in 1967 and they participated in a New Brunswick league with Shediac, Memramcook, and Moncton,” he recalls. “That team was led by Bill Riley and Terry White, son of Shermie. My brother Marty was highly regarded as a tough defenceman who had a feared slapshot. Everyone in the rink would go for cover when he shot.”
“I went to the final game of the playoffs that year at the J. Louis Leveque Arena, a game which was never completed as a result of a donnybrook which included fans,” Davidson recalled.
From rumbles on the ice to the ring the Stadium played host to them all.
“During the summers, we would assist the promoters of the Grand Prix Wrestling, setting up the ring and chairs in order to get free entry to watch the likes of Rocky Johnson, Emile Dupres, The Beast, Rudy Kay, The Stomper, Andre the Giant, and several other locally or internationally renowned wrestlers,” Davidson said.
Davidson had a solid career in his own right and is still involved in the game as a scout with the Halifax Mooseheads.
“After having played provincial hockey, I played three years with the Ramblers, making the league all-star team twice. My centre was (future NHLer) Mac Davis who along with our goalie, Ralph Chambers played on the 1975 Silver Medal winning Canada Games team. I recall scoring six goals against PEI in a pre-Canada games exhibition game in front of a packed house,” Davidson said.
Davidson’s memories fondest memories of the Stadium are as vivid as ever.
“Amherst Stadium Saturday nights were our time to shine as the crowds would average over 1000 spectators,” he remembers. “Players from opposing teams either feared or loved to play in a charged atmosphere. Danny Flynn (Dartmouth) and Jim Bottomley (Halifax) were huge stars the fans loved to watch play there. Jimbo once told me when we were teammates at Dalhousie University how he loved every minute of it – except the corner where Bill Riley’s mother Gladys would be swinging her cowbell urging Jim to come say hello.”
Like Riley, Davidson eventually found his way behind the home team bench at the rink with perhaps the most infamous moniker in the Maritimes after his playing days were over.
“I briefly coached the Ramblers in the mid-80s which was the beginning of the Jim Bottomley and Danny Berry days, a legacy of WWF type hockey fueled by hiring Bill Riley as the Ramblers coach and the Kennedys from PEI,” Davison knowingly recalls. “The Stadium was known as “The Jungle” during those years. Bill asked me to fill in for a few games during one of his suspensions. Let’s just say the players all knew their specific roles.”
Davidson is eager to start his new role as Town Councillor and continue to help his community and hometown in anyway.
“After being elected as a first time Town Councillor, and taking with you that history, the emotions and memories are definitely stirred up,” he admits. “Those memories provide me with a great deal of pride and motivation to promote and support a new events centre whereby generations to come can have the benefit of a modern infrastructure consistent with current day needs.”
Could a pair of former Rams legends conspire to bring more ice to this hockey mad locale? If they do, it will be the stories that originated from within the walls of Amherst Stadium that will provide a driving force behind the idea.