THE IGLOO IS MELTING (revised 4/13/10)

The Igloo is melting - and with it - many great memories are being revived. They are not just of the Igloo located at the foot of the Hill District. Thoughts of all of the Uptown section of Pittsburgh revived some good childhood vibes for me.

The Igloo, once called the Civic Arena, and most recently the Mellon Arena - home of the Pittsburgh Penguins - has gone out of style and is being replaced. A new arena is under construction nearby. The current sentiment is to allow for a full fledge Igloo meltdown.

The Arena was not just a sports stadium. It also changed the face of Pittsburgh. Finished in 1961 it was originally built to house the Civic Light Opera. It was better known as the world's first major indoor sports stadium with a retractable roof and , later, home of The Penguins.

I have many fond memories of the Hill and once walked all the way up there to a Fire station around 1960 in order to ask the Captain, and later the grandfather of my children, for his daughter's hand in marriage.

It was at a Catholic Church across from the Arena that I , "a proud prod" once sang Christmas Midnight Mass with my little Irish Catholic mom in attendance .

Friends had asked me to join a pick-up choir consisting of about a dozen people ranging in talent from me, the tenor at the bottom, to the Soprano at the top who later sang the female lead in the San Francisco production of "The Phantom Of The Opera". Mom absolutely loved that mass.

Once a place for the genteel and wealthy, many of the dwellings in the Hill District in Uptown were a victim of age and became compartmentalized . This allowed many immigrant families to occupy the previously upper crust homes from the early 1900's.

I most often frequented the Hill in the 50's and 60's . The whole uptown section was "the deal' for us white kids from the burbs. It was just below the Hill where brother Jim and I bought our Chuck Taylor hightops at wholesaler Yanks Sporting Goods on Forbes Avenue. I also bought a then rare white basketball there. It was a gift for Jim who agreed to be my best man at my wedding to the Fire Captain's daughter.

The Hill population was then about 90% black and loaded with great jazz memories. Bar/restaurants such as the Crawford Grille & Birdies Hurricane featured good jazz on a regular basis for an enthusiastic mixed racial audience. Thus, the Hill provided me with a live introduction to jazz that I might never have experienced at such a young age.

I passed on that experience to my youngest brother Tom who I took with me to the Crawford to see the Ramsey Lewis Trio when Tom was still in his teens. I then abandoned him in a booth sipping his Coke so I could hunt up a Ramsey album on nearby 5th or Forbes Ave which the trio agreed to autograph for him during a break.

The Arena was located at the foot of the Hill and guarded the entrance to downtown Pittsburgh.The building hosted several different interests: Hockey, Opera, Tennis, College and Professional basketball, the Ice Capades, the Circus, Soccer, Boxing, Wrestling, Truck pulls, Roller Derby, and a number of truly incredible concerts.

The last left a particularly warm spot in my heart because my oldest son Bruce managed to "glom" two front row arena seats to see Sinatra and Steve & Eydie in the early 80's. I have never again experienced such an ideal "catbird seat".

The Igloo was the source of so many varied memories. I recall attending a basketball game on April 4, 1968, the year the Pittsburgh Pipers won the ABA chanpionship. Suddenly, like a modern day "wave,"there were shouts of "No!- No! No! as the news of Martin Luther King's death in Atlanta tumbled down to all of us seated in the arena. The riots soon followed.

A more pleasant memory is that of buying a ticket for my Dad so he could meet me and my buds at a uptown bar before we headed for the arena to watch the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, the site of America's first high school All-Star basketball game. Dad showed up walking with a cane and mentioned he had turned his ankle earlier in the day.

At the end of the first quarter Dad lifted his cane - removed a plastic tip at the end - and distributed to all of us several narrow plastic tubes filled with a variety of spirits - including moonshine. Dad's ankle was miraculously healed.

It was in the Arena during the 60's that I also had the pleasure of exploring the "Walter Mitty" in all of us. This was due to the prodigious marketing skills of a guy named Joe Gordon, just recently retired from the Steelers. He was previously a promotional guy for the Pipers, Condors, and maybe even the Rens professional basketball teams in Pittsburgh..

Joe approached several local banks about the possibility of forming a league and fielding basketball teams to play "prelim" games before his Pro teams took the floor. I was a member of Pittsburgh National Bank's squad. The team and the Arena management agreed to let us have our "fifteen minutes of fame".

We "bankers" hustled everybody we knew, cajoling them to buy tickets for the pro games - and of course as a bonus - get an opportunity to see their sons, nephews, grandchildren etc compete on the huge floor.

One year PNB played PNB - Pittsburgh National vs Philadelphia National - for the mythical "State Bank Championship". This game was scheduled after the Pro game and was to consist of four 8 minute quarters .

That turned into 2 six minute quarters after the half when the Arena managment realized if the game ran past midnight they'd have to pay the maintenance people overtime. It may have been the first BB game played there where the clock kept running during foul shots and time outs.

We won, but, I now realize we were all winners back then.