Fifty years ago, you wouldn’t have to leave Yarmouth to see concerts by the Beach Boys, J. Geils, Aerosmith, the Grateful Dead, and many others. You’d be able to watch a pre-season NHL hockey game featuring the Boston Bruins, as well as professional wrestling and boxing. Sound incredible? Welcome to the history of the Cape Cod Coliseum, located on White’s Path in South Yarmouth.
The Coliseum was in part an outgrowth of the hockey craze that hit New England in the late 60s and early 70s, when the big, bad Bruins with Bobby Orr won their first Stanley Cup in 26 years in 1970. The Coliseum, with seating for nearly 7200, opened in September 1972 and hosted four different professional hockey teams between 1972 and 1983. None lasted more than two seasons.
The first tenant was the Cape Cod Cubs, an expansion franchise in the Eastern Hockey League and an affiliate of the NHL's Boston Bruins. The players lived at Camp Wingate during the short pre-season, coached by former Bruin Bronco Horvath. The Cubs lost their first game with 1000 attending on October 13, 1972. Attendance rose to nearly 3000 for a game in November. A December 7 Register article said the team was moving toward 4000. Winning the EHL's Central Division championship that year, the Cubs’ first year budget was $300,000. They needed to average 2500 in attendance to break even, but managed only 1900. This team formed the background for the 1977 movie “Slap Shot.” The movie’s Hyannis Presidents team was based on the Cape Cod Cubs, and featured one of its actual players, Mark Bousquet.
The Yarmouth Indians of the Cape Cod Amateur Hockey league, actually played the first game in the Coliseum, October 8. Using free puck nights and double-headers, they did draw some crowds. Public skating also provided funds and interest.
Promoters tried to raise money with other entertainment. The first non-ice event was a roller derby on November 3, 1972. The teams, the Chiefs and Jolters, were co-ed, and they brought their own portable track, not much larger than a basketball court. 2500 people attended. The Icicles, a 250 member Yarmouth Ice Club, put on a show in 1973, as did American Hockey League Boston Braves vs R.I. Reds in a game on Sept 29 1973. A few days later, on October 3, WHA’s NE Whalers played the Quebec Nordiques; tickets were $6.50.
No complete listing of events held at the Coliseum has ever been compiled. The first major non-sporting event at Coliseum was Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops (costing $6000 to convert from hockey, move scoreboard, etc.) Fiedler arrived on a Yarmouth fire engine and played 3 encores to the sell-out crowd. They played multiple times at the Coliseum. The London Symphony Orchestra also played there.
Concerts could hold 7200 people. The list of performers reads like a hall of fame for the 70s and 80s, many playing there several times. The Boston Phoenix’s 40 greatest concerts in Boston history listed the July 15, 1978 - J Geils Band + Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Coliseum at #29. Peter Wolf reminisced in an interview, "Once in the ‘70s, I was doing an interview at WBCN and the band was down at the Coliseum. I went outside the radio station and there was a stretch limousine. I got in it and it was enormously long, it seemed like you could fit a boat-load of people and we started going down the Cape. There were all these people on the side of the road with signs saying “GEILS CAPE COD COLISEUM” so I’d say to the driver, “Pull over” and the door would open and in would jump fans. We’d drive another couple of miles and there’d be a bunch more and by the time we got to the Coliseum we had a full load. And it was great. Some of the fans couldn’t believe it. Plus, a stretch limousine was so unusual at the time, something you rarely saw."
Performers included: Jesse Colin Young (former Youngbloods), Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Wayne Fontana, Mind Benders, Billy J. Kramer, Dakotas, Search, Sly & the Family Stone, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Blood, Sweat, & Tears, Chuck Berry, John Denver, Helen Reddy, Lee Colton & the Pile Drivers, Uriah Heep and ZZ Top, Earth Wind & Fire, Aerosmith, Johnny Winter, Blue Öyster Cult; REO Speedwagon, 3 Dog Night, The Beach Boys, King Crimson, Golden Earring, J. Geils Band, David Bowie, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Journey, Poco, Dave Mason, Todd Rundgren, James Taylor, Starz, KISS, Duke And The Drivers and Nils Lofgren, Peter Frampton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kingfish, The Cars, Cheap Trick, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, Boz Scaggs & Little River Band, Dart Band, Pablo Cruise, Ted Nugent, Foreigner, Styx, Van Halen, Black Sabbath, Outlaws, The Kinks, The Doobie Brothers, Heart, Allman Brothers Band, Rush, Loverboy, Foghat, The Clash, Ozzy Osbourne, Gary “U.S.” Bonds, Alice Cooper (Joan Jett & Black Hearts were opening act), Journey, Carlos Santana, Foreigner, Charlie Daniels Band, Bobby & the Midnites, The Marshall Tucker Band, Huey Lewis and the News, Loverboy, Elvis Costello, Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, Def Leppard, The B-52s, Talking Heads, Iron Maiden – and this list is not complete.
People who attended remarked that heat was a major issue - the term “sweatbox” came up alot. Some called the building a concrete tube with a stage. The A/C couldn’t keep up, and after one concert ended and the A/C cooled things down, some said that it actually rained inside from all of the condensation on the ceiling. Traffic jams, drugs and fighting in the parking lots and other shenanigans caused widespread neighborhood complaints.
Concert at the Coliseum.
Jazz greats performing at the Coliseum included Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Errol Garner, George Shearing, Herbie Mann, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, Carman MacRae, and Benny Goodman with Bobby Hackett on trumpet.
Various attempts to refinance and/or sell eventually ended in 1979 with a no money down mortgage to Vince McMahon, later of WWF fame. McMahon and wife, moving to Yarmouth, brought many different kinds of shows. In early September 1979, he sat at a press conference alongside Bruins Brad Park and Rick Middleton to announce “the event that would put the Coliseum on the map.” The event? - a Buffalo Sabres versus Boston Bruins preseason game to be played in the Coliseum on October 6. The building rocked that night, a sellout 5-4 win for the Bruins, some viewing it as predicted, “the greatest event in the building’s history.”
Under McMahon, the Coliseum hosted many famous wrestlers, including Chief Jay Strongbow and Andre the Giant, both on the same tag team. Other wrestlers appearing there included Haystack Calhoon, Pedro Morales, Gorilla Monsoon, Mr. Fuji, Prof. Taru Tanaka, George the animal Steele, and Tony Garea.
The Coliseum hosted an ESPN boxing show headlined by light middleweight contender Sean Mannion. But, McMahon’s only professional hockey team, the fourth to play at the Coliseum, never got above .500, and folded early in 1982. Sadly the seasonal nature of Cape Cod could not support such a venue, even with sports events and concerts.
Inclement weather forced DY High School to hold a graduation ceremony there, and their graduations continued at the Coliseum through the early 80’s until it closed.
Peter Patton was general manager of Coliseum in 1984 when the building was sold to Christmas Tree Shops for storage. In 1996, they tried to sell to Home Depot. Remembering traffic tie-ups and other less savory thoughts about some of the crowds, the sale was not allowed. Christmas Tree Shops closed it, then reopened it again for storage. In 2003, an addition more than doubled the building’s size. Mid-Cape Homes bought the original building for a distribution facility that year.
And there the building sits today, its name still faintly visible high on the front façade, a reminder of some remarkable events that took place on the now quieter White’s Path.
Written and researched by Duncan Oliver.
