How hockey became an indoor sport in Moorhead decades after state's first enclosed games

MOORHEAD Its been 50 years since the Moorhead Sports Center opened its doors.

The building has helped turn young, wobbly skaters into NHL mainstays, including Matt Cullen, a recent inductee into the U.S.

Hockey Hall of Fame.

Indoor hockey was left out in the cold after voters rejected measures in 1969 and 1970.

An arena plan finally got the support it needed in a May 1973 vote when 60.2% of the vote favored the facility.

By November of 1974, the building that had an estimated price tag of about $880,000 was finally the indoor home of the Spuds, youth hockey programs and the Concordia College teams.

Terry Kragero, a 1976 graduate, scored a goal in the Spuds' first high school game there.

A longtime Spuds supporter, Kragero said the building hasn't changed all that much.

"It still has a lot of the same feel as when we first walked in there, Kragero told the Sports Time Machine recently.

Across Minnesota, several cities had been skating and playing indoors for decades.

According to Vintage Minnesota Hockey , St.

Paul and Duluth began playing ice polo (an early form of hockey) indoors in the early 1890s.

Two teams in Hallock played among the state's first hockey games regardless, inside a wooden structure in 1895, and within two years, Stephen, Crookston and Pembina and Drayton in North Dakota had indoor skating sheets.

Hibbing Memorial Arena opened in 1935 and was the first to use refrigeration for artificial ice.

By 1970, there were 60 indoor arenas in Minnesota; by, 1982, there were 130.

In the late '60s and early '70s, Kragero and his teammates grew up playing on the various outdoor rinks in Moorhead.

The Spuds played and practiced at the Coliseum in Fargo, which opened in 1968.

But ice time there was hard to get.

Kragero said he and his teammates were able to skate for the first time indoors at the new Centennial Park Arena in 1972, but practices his sophomore year at the Coliseum called for an early alarm.

We didn't have ice in Moorhead, so we had to go over to the Fargo Coliseum and practice at 6:30 in the morning, he recalled.

Concordia was on board, too, as it also found challenges finding ice time at the Coliseum.

Moorhead has long been in need of an indoor hockey and skating arena, Forum sportswriter Will Gullickson wrote in the May 6, 1973, edition of The Forum.

A steering committee in Moorhead, led by co-chairmen Oscar Bergos, director of Moorhead Area Vocational Technical Institute, and Dave Torson, manager of Western States Life Insurance agency in Fargo, helped push voters to a yes vote.

The proposed plans were to build a 37,000-square-foot building.

During the planning process, the Moorhead Park and Recreation Board named it the Moorhead Sports Center, as to sell the project on not only its hockey rink, but as a year-round facility that could host events, tennis courts and running.

With the vote taking place a day after Memorial Day in 1973, the polls were slow with just 615 voters before noon.

A lot of people are mixed up on the days, one election judge told The Forum.

Because of the three-day weekend, many are thinking of voting tomorrow, some people told the judge.

The turnout increased after 4 p.m.

but it was still less than 25% of the citys eligible voters.

The voters were asked to approve a bond up to $880,000 with $400,000 in federal revenue sharing and school district money and $480,000 in real estate tax-based bonds.

The Moorhead District School Board pledged $100,000 from capital outlay funds.

An additional $150,000 would come from the Moorhead City Council and the same from the Clay County Board of Commissioners.

The vote was 2,032 to 1,341, a 60.2% approval for a measure that needed a simple majority to pass.

On Tuesday, Aug.

14, 1973, the school board approved schematic plans for the Sports Center, which would be built adjacent to the high school.

The high school (which has since been replaced) opened in 1967.

It had a brick facade.

The arena plans called for a pre-cast concrete shell and board member Daryle Olson said the new arena should carry some brickwork of its own to match.

I cant see that concrete blends with it, Olson said in The Forum at the time.

Other board members said adding brick would increase the cost of the building and it might be too late to even consider such an option.

The architects felt this was complementary to the school, said Duane Carlson, the district business administrator.

A month later, Olson withdrew his objections after learning that adding brick facing would cost $15,000 to $18,000 for partial brick facing and $31,553 for all brick.

In the summer of 1974, Archie Vraa was approved to be the Moorhead Sports Center first manager at a salary of $11,500.

The Spuds were able to begin practicing in the Sports Center in November 1974.

For the guys that all played hockey for years growing up outside, we were just beside ourselves, sort of speak, to be in an indoor, controlled environment instead of fighting the cold and the wind and all of that, Kragero said recently.

But early on, the building still had its limitations.

We had to walk from the high school to the Sports Center because we didnt have lockers over there, Kragero recalled.

We had lockers, but they were basically just to put your skates on and go onto the ice.

The Spuds took on Anoka in their first game in the Sports Center on Dec.

6, 1974.

The game had a bit of an inside rivalry as Moorhead head coach Mike Hajostek and Anoka head coach Joe Poole were high school teammates at Thief River Falls, Minnesota.

A crowd of more than 2,000 was on hand, filling all the available seating at the time, The Forum reported.

Senior co-captain Al Lund got the party started for Moorhead with the first-ever goal in the new building at 11:42 of the first period.

Anoka tied it in the second period before Krageros goal early in the third gave Moorhead a 2-1 lead.

I know I was in the slot area in front of the net, Kragero recalled 50 years later, and I cant remember who I got the pass from, but he got it over to me in the slot and I kind of just gave it a one-time shot and it went over the goalies glove.

The assist was credited to Jay Johnson, who along with Kragero led the Spuds in scoring the previous season.

The new building, however, was still in need of its finishing touches.

All told, the building would exceed $1 million.

As for Lund, he went on to play football as a defensive back at North Dakota State.

He was a good athlete.

He played football here, like running back for the Spuds, but his passion really was hockey because he was such a great skater, Kragero recalled.

He had good hands.

Football, he mentioned at the time, he just used to get in shape for hockey.

In 1985, discussions began to add a second ice sheet.

In 1990, voters were asked to approve a $2.9 million bond issue, most of which would go toward that project.

The city also would contribute money from its general fund and park fund reserves to the project.

The vote passed by a 53% approval rate..

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