Jay Miles remembers Section 14 & The Coliseum
By Jay Miles / courtesy of The New Haven Advocate
August 1-7, 2002 edition
My Top 11 Memories
11) Section 14, Body Bags and Nick on a Stick.
10) Rich Neagle no longer having anywhere to protest the annual arrival of the circus.
9) The raising of the Section 14/ Nighthawks banner at the start of the New Haven Knights season.
8) Peter Worrell of the Beast of New Haven beating the living snot out of ... everyone.
7) ESPN's Chris Berman introducing the Beast line up at the start of their second--and last--season.
6) Meeting and talking with Willie O'Ree, a former Nighthawk, and the first African-American to play in the NHL.
5) Section 14 showing up in bootleg footage on a hockey fight tape I ordered from one of those cheesey late-night commercials.
4) Worst sound system. Ever. Anywhere. Period. Not to be outdone by the nights when the Knights introductions went on forever--because they couldn't get the lights to come back on.
3) Meeting people who thought scenes in the film Slap Shot were based on games played in the Coliseum. Hell, that would have been a big help. (The scenes were based on the old New Haven Blades, but from infamous games the team played on the road.)
2) Chuck-a-puck. Only in the Coliseum could hundreds of soft, orange promotional pucks become dangerous weapons.
1) The late Dee Dee revealing in his book Lobotomy: Surviving the Ramones his fears on the way to an early '80s Coliseum gig that he would die onstage in New Haven singing "Wart Hog."
- Jay Miles, former New Haven Advocate sportswriter
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