You’d Never Know What Was There!
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s in Northeast Ohio, the big-ticket entertainment was often in the middle of nowhere between Cleveland and Akron. Amidst rolling farmland and woods, concrete jutted into the air and formed the Richfield Coliseum.
Michael Jordan once said he liked the long bus ride there from the airport because it relaxed him.
I can still hear the roar of the crowd when I sat slack-jawed with my sister and parents watching the Wringley Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Ice Capades. Then there were the Cleveland Force championships, and “The Miracle of Richfield!” As a teenager, I went to concerts ranging from Led Zeppelin to Prince. I remember parking at an ice cream store down the road in the country darkness of Route 303. We put a note on our windshield pleading not to tow our car. We were mildly surprised that our junker of a car was still there afterward.
I was in Germany serving in the U.S. Army when “The Shot” was heard around the world, and Michael Jordan put a dagger in my heart and Craig Ehlo’s. When I began my career, my commute went from the southern Cleveland suburbs to the northern Akron suburbs across rural Route 303. During that time, the building that witnessed so much historical entertainment returned to the earth. It was such a strange feeling looking at a field that showed absolutely no sign of what once was. I used to make a game of trying to think of one legendary act that thrilled the sellout crowds in the Coliseum’s heyday as I trekked that lonely commute once it was all gone.
Why was the “Palace on the Prairie” built in no-man’s land?
Well, Cavaliers owner Nick Meleti envisioned drawing folks from both the Cleveland and Akron metropolitan areas. When it opened in 1974, crooner Frank Sinatra christened it to a sellout crowd.
Muhammad Ali fought there in March 1975. In fact, it was the bloodbath bludgeoning of Chuck Wepner, who was miraculously still standing when it was done. Sylvester Stallone later revealed that watching that fight inspired him to create the movie Rocky. He feverishly wrote the first draft of the script in just three and a half days, and 20 months later it was a smash at the box office.
My middle name is Rocco. Everyone called me Rocky. It was just another name until I started hearing Da-da-da-DAAA… da-da-DAAA!… Duh-duh-duh-DAAAH! Duh-duh-DAAAH!” everywhere I went, and usually mixed with a few, “Yo, Rocky, where’s Adrian?” As the smallest kid in the class, my childhood was never the same.
The Coliseum closed in 1994. Five years later, they demolished it. Watching it disappear in slow motion on my daily commute was bizarre.
Explore more Vacationland: Echoes of Ohio’s Nostalgic Destinations
By Frank Rocco Satullo, The OhioTraveler, Your Tour Guide to Fun
