Coliseum memories: Deadheads, elephants and lots of traffic
by Sue Serdinak
October 26 will mark the 50th anniversary of Nick Mileti opening the Richfield Coliseum, most notable as the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a 1970 expansion team. The Coliseum would also be home base for the Cleveland Barons hockey team, Cleveland Force indoor soccer team and virtually forgotten Cleveland Nets indoor tennis team.
The 20,300-seat building opened to great fanfare with a Frank Sinatra concert and hosted performances by the country’s biggest pop stars, including Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, the Grateful Dead and Journey, in addition to the Muhammad Ali-Chuck Wepner heavyweight fight, which served as part of the inspiration for the film “Rocky.’’
Cavalier fans cannot forget the ”Miracle of Richfield’’ season of 1975-76 or “The Shot” by Michael Jordan that eliminated the Cavaliers from the 1989 playoffs.
The circus entertained families for several years. People flocked to the train tracks in Peninsula to watch the animals parade up the Rte. 303 hill to the Coliseum.
Mel Rose’s Taverne of Richfield, Whitey’s Booze and Burgers and the Richfield Holiday Inn all thrived during the years the Coliseum was open.
Eventually, banks that loaned Mileti $36 million to build the Coliseum gave up trying to get their money back and virtually gave the building to George and Gordon Gund, former Clevelanders whose family founded the Cleveland Trust bank. It cost the Gunds slightly more than $300,000.
The Coliseum closed in 1994. All sorts of suggestions were offered to save the building – a shopping mall, a prison – before the Western Reserve Land Conservancy acquired the property for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The structure was razed in 1999, and the land became a bird sanctuary.
Local residents remembered the days of the Coliseum
Dave Wyatt
Former Richfield Township trustee:
“Frank Sinatra came when the Coliseum opened and the traffic was all over Hell’s half-acre.’’
The Deadhead scene:
“People were camping out all over the place. Usually, most of them were just a little smoked up. That was probably their biggest problem.’’
A taxing issue:
“The [property] taxes were always a problem, because they were able to get around taxes they should have paid. The valuation of the building, all that stuff. They always managed to get off pretty cheaply.
“After they closed it, people thought of all kinds of crazy things to have something new there, all kinds of oddball things [including a prison].”
Linda Bowmer
Former Richfield Township administrator, who was living in the Briarwood development, just west of the Coliseum.
“There were so many of them [Deadheads}. They would come and picnic at the end of our cul-de-sac in their tie-dyed shirts. They didn’t stay overnight, and they took all their stuff. They were respectful. There was never any trouble with them.
“I remember – it was the Country Counter at the time [now, Giant Eagle] – they would shop there. A lot of them were vegetarians. They were all over Richfield.’’
Traffic always an issue:
“You planned your social life around the events at the Coliseum, because you’d have difficulty getting home otherwise. The other thing is that you left work a little early to get home before the traffic started.
“I was glad to see the Coliseum close. It was just sort of a nuisance.’’
Jim Voltz
Former Richfield Village board member
“I remember the Frank Sinatra concert on the first night. People parked their cars on I-77 and walked to the Coliseum. It was unbelievable how crowded it was. I lived on Wheatley Road at the time, and I remember it being quite a spectacle.’’
Here comes the circus:
“My daughters went to preschool in Peninsula and we would go down to the railroad and watch them unload the elephants and hook up the cages of the other animals and parade them up 303 to the Coliseum.’’
The Grateful Dead in action:
“Our seats were about halfway up and the cloud of marijuana was about halfway down, so we got a good dose of that.’’
A teaching moment:
“When I was teaching my daughters to drive, the biggest parking lot was at the Coliseum. I would take them there to practice. The first snowfall of the year, we went to the Coliseum parking lot, and I’d make them do donuts in the snow.’’
John Constantine
Business owner
“Mel Turpin was a big guy for the Cavaliers, maybe close to 7-feet. I heard he would go to the Richfield Inn [now the DougOut} and get two, 2-liter bottles of Pepsi and a large pizza after games. I knew guys who worked there, so I believe it was true.
“Of all the sports teams at the Coliseum, I enjoyed indoor soccer the most. It was such a fast game, really a blast.’’
John Dukes
Resident
“I took a friend to see ice dancers Torvill and Dean years ago. It was thrilling; they were marvelous. Afterward, my friend said, “This may be the nicest thing anyone ever did for me!’’
Deborah Derbin
Resident
“My husband and I worked at the Coliseum. I started in 1989, so 1994 was my five-year anniversary. We have lot of fond memories: the circus walking its animals up [Route 303] from Peninsula, the Grateful Dead – like a mini-Woodstock in the parking lot – concerts, basketball games, etc.
“It was a very sad day when the Coliseum closed its doors. We both went downtown [Cleveland, Rocket Mortgage Arena] when the teams moved, but it was never the same so we also moved on.”
Brian Burch
Branch manager Richfield Branch Library
“We actually have a program scheduled for Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Richfield Coliseum. The date is only two days removed from the date [Oct. 26] of the Coliseum’s opening event, a Frank Sinatra concert. Gerry Nemeth will be the presenter.”
On our cover (photos): The Richfield Coliseum opened 50 years ago with Frank Sinatra as the headliner. The Cavaliers, Grateful Dead and circus elephants were among later guests before it closed after just 20 years. Photos courtesy of Deborah Derbin.
In May 1999, the Richfield Coliseum was razed and the land turned over to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Photo from Scriptype archives.
Dave Wyatt was a Richfield Township
trustee during some of the period that
the Richfield Coliseum was open. Photos
by S. Serdinak.
Deborah and Dale Derbin have wonderful memories of working at the Coliseum.
They said it was like a family.
Jim Voltz can now be found near the counter of Richfield Auto Parts, but has many memories of the Richfield Coliseum.