A Night at the Old Barn

While the team was playing in Syracuse, I had the pleasure of attending the dinner called “A Night at the Old Barn” which was hosted by the Hershey – Derry Township Historical Society. The night was the historical society’s major fund raiser for the year and in this case the third time was the charm. After a delay for flooding in September and then an October snowstorm, December 2nd proved to be the lucky night.

As you entered the arena at box office 4 you were greeted with a mix of familiarity and strangeness. Going through those doors so many times for games there was lots of nostalgia. But today instead of getting tickets at the box office, we got seat assignments. The stairway to the upper level had been converted into a coat check area. As you entered the arena you immediately saw that the ice surface was covered and prepared like a banquet hall with 56 tables awaiting their guests. Descending the steep steps to the arena floor you had a chance to take it all in. The score boards were lit up and displayed events and standings from many years ago.

The tables covered a large part of the floor. Directly in front of the penalty boxes was a stage and podium. On either side of that were two large video screens. Boarding the outside of the arena floor were tables with silent auction items and historical items on display. Attendees had the opportunity to big on gift certificates to local restaurants, gift baskets, post cards, posters and various hockey memorabilia. In the opposite end there were many historical items on display. Highlights from those were a boxed piece of Milton Hershey’s 81st birthday cake, a blueprint of the arena, various pieces of hockey equipment from former Bears and items from the arena. Before the dinner started while everyone was browsing the displays we were entertained by live organ music which added to the ambiance of the evening.

Dinner followed and then it was time for awards and speeches. Paul Thompson (president of the society) and Sally McKinney (preservation committee chair) presented the residential award to the Battistas. Next up was the award for a public building which went to Hershey Entertainment and Resorts for the Hershey Sports Arena. If you didn’t see the article that we featured on the history of the arena, you can find it here. Videos of many people sharing their memories of the building followed the awards which featured former players, staff, community members and more. After the videos came the part that many of us were waiting to hear. Mike “Doc” Emrick took the podium as the keynote speaker.

Emrick is the national play-by-play announcer for NBC’s hockey coverage. He was also a resident of Hershey in the early part of his career. Doc reminisced about his memories of the area and Hershey. Of his best memories of the arena was the night they retired Frank Mathers number 3. That, of course, garnered a big round of applause. “Another was the last regular season game here.” Emrick recalled. Another “lifetime memory” was of the 1980 Calder Cup Championship. It was the last time that the Bears won a cup on home ice in the arena. Doc also shared stories he collected from Frank Mathers and Brent Hancock (Bears Public Relations). In fact, Emrick wore a chocolate brown jacket in tribute to Hancock. Emrick sounded a little emotional as he recalled “…[Hancock] was always up on press row in a brown jacket.”

On of the more poignant moments was when Emrick shared “On the opening night of this season I walked past Boston Garden to TD Garden. Boston Garden is a parking lot. Monday I will go to United Center in Chicago. Chicago Stadium  is a parking lot. On January second I will be broadcasting a game from a baseball park in Philadelphia. To get there I will walk past the Spectrum which is now rubble.” Emick went on to call the Old Barn a “…place of vibrancy. It is alive. There is an ice surface here and that will delight the hearts of anyone who has every walked in here and been taken by this place. Myself included.”

Emrick wrapped up his speech with a barrage of memories of all the small things that he and others remembered from coming to games here. He closed by saying “I don’t know how much time I was allotted. I hope I haven’t gone over. I hope you’ve had a great time, because it means everything to me that I was chosen out of all the people they could have brought back to spend 15 or 20 minutes with you. And I thank you.”

I would like to wrap this up by thanking the members of the society for all they did to pull this night off. It took a lot of work on their part. If you were fortunate to be one of the attendees, it will be something that you will remember for a long, long time. I would also like to thank the society for allowing me access to take the pictures that you see below as well as time to talk to Mike Emrick one on one. Look for that one on one video interview tomorrow.

All Photos by Brian Mills.

Dinner is about to be served.

 

Many items were up for auction.

 

A piece of Milton Hershey’s 81st birthday cake.

 

Blueprints for the arena.

 

Mike Emrick takes the podium.

 

Mike Emrick with Bears legend Willie Marshall

 

Mike Emrick with Bears GM Doug Yingst