Excitement! Fistfighting! You’re Missing The Show

Tue., Feb. 17, 1998

By Paul Turner srpaulturner@gmail.com

If you’ve never been to a Spokane Braves hockey game at Eagles Ice-A-Rena, you’ve missed a couple of this area’s weirder juxtapositions.

At least that’s the way it seemed Sunday afternoon.

First there was this. Before the start of the game, the teenage boys who make up the Braves glided onto the ice as the public address system blared throbbing music and the recorded voice of college basketball analyst/nutcake Dick Vitale. He was screaming “Oh! America, are you SERIOUS? It’s SHOWTIME bay-bee.”

Now hype is nothing unusual these days. But there were only about 30 fans scattered in the chilly, dank rink. Many were standing beneath skinny space heaters on bench seats covered with some green stuff that looked like it had been a miniature-golf putting surface in a previous life. And, well, Vitale’s excitement level seemed at odds with the reality of this late-season Kootenay International Junior Hockey League matchup with the Beaver Valley Nighthawks.

OK, no big deal.

But then, in the third period, spectators seated near the rubber-mat walkway to the facility’s other rink got to witness an odd sight. When the hockey game would be interrupted for on-ice fights or sort-of fights, people on their way to a public skating session stopped to watch the tussles.

“What’s happening, Gramma,” asked a little girl wearing white skates as one of the Braves tried to perform reconstructive surgery on an opponent.

I couldn’t hear Gramma’s answer. Maybe she said, “It’s SHOWTIME, bay-bee.”

The person running the sound system serenaded the moment with the Pat Benatar oldie, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

But Braves games are just a part of the Eagles scene. In a way, it is its own little skating-related North Side subculture, right across Addison from the Fred Meyer.

There are notices on the bulletin board about goalie pads for sale. Schedules for figure-skating lessons and rec-league hockey are posted here and there. And there are trophies on display that say things like “North Delta Minor Hockey Association 1995 Midget Spring Tournament Most Sportsmanlike Team.”

Kids waiting to go skating crowded around the little snack bar while others played electronic games.

For anyone who grew up around working-class rinks, it’s a scene that can’t be viewed without a certain amount of affection.

Even if it’s a stretch to call it showtime.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits Inland Northwest gatherings.

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