Waterloo's Young Arena Opens: Iowa Time Machine January 14, 1995

Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 14, 1995, the puck dropped for the first Waterloo Black Hawks game at Young Arena in Waterloo. 3,250 fans packed in to celebrate a new chapter in Waterloo hockey as the Black Hawks dropped a 5-3 game to the Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Formed as a semi-professional senior team in the United States Hockey League (USHL) in 1962, the Black Hawks first took the ice at McElroy Auditorium. Dating to 1919, the 5,155-seat multipurpose arena at the National Cattle Congress Complex. Player/Coach Bud McRae’s Black Hawks captured USHL titles every year between 1964 and 1968 before taking a brief one-year hiatus to serve as the top farm team for the Minnesota North Stars (Iowa Stars). 

As hockey changed, so did the Black Hawks. After league titles in 1978 and 1979 in a hybrid junior-senior format, the team transitioned to junior hockey with the rest of the USHL. Despite Jack Barzee moving the team to Dubuque to become the Fighting Saints in following the close of the 1979-1980 season, hockey continued under the Waterloo Black Hawks banner when the Hennepin Nordiques moved into McElroy Auditorium. The team struggled across the 1980s before starting to turn out NHL-level talents like the twins Chris and Peter Ferraro and Jason Blake. The improved team took the ice in the newly constructed Young Arena to represent a new era of Black Hawk hockey.

Change came again in 2003 when Coach P.K. O’Handley arrived to take over the team. Under O’Handley, the Black Hawks rose to the top of the standings and grew into a year-in-year-out challenger for league titles. 22 different NHL players appeared for the team under O’Handley, including Joe Pavelski, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Brock Boeser. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar