October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center Opens

October 25, 2007: The Prudential Center opens, at 165 Mulberry Street in Newark, with a concert by Jon Bon Jovi.

Eventually, the address would be changed to 25 Lafayette Street. It is bounded by Edison Place on the north, Mulberry Street on the east, Lafayette Street on the south, and Broad Street on the west, although there is a row of buildings between Broad Street and the arena.

It replaces the Meadowlands Arena, in East Rutherford, known from 1981 to 1996 as the Brendan Byrne Arena; then until 2007 as the Continental Airlines Arena; and thereafter as the Izod Center. That arena had opened on July 2, 1981, with a concert by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. So it was somewhat appropriate that the replacement was opened with a concert by a later New Jersey rock and roll legend.

It has been home to the NHL's New Jersey Devils and Seton Hall University's basketball team since it opened. It was also a temporary home to the NBA's New Jersey Nets from 2010 to 2012, and the WNBA's New York Liberty in 2011 and 2012.

Its location, in the downtown of New Jersey's largest city, 3 blocks from Newark's version of Pennsylvania Station, makes it considerably more convenient an arena than the Meadowlands, which, until New Jersey Transit built the Meadowlands Rail Spur in 2009, was only accessible by 1 of 2 ways: Driving, or a bus that had to be picked up at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. Since 2007, a person wanting to see a Devils game can take the train, on NJT's Northeast Corridor or North Jersey Coast Lines; or a bus, the Number 67.

The Devils won 3 Stanley Cups, reached 1 other Stanley Cup Finals, and won 7 Division titles at the Meadowlands. Since moving into "The Rock," nicknamed for Prudential Insurance's use of the Rock of Gibraltar as a symbol, they have won 2 Division titles, and reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2012 -- but have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 9 of the last 10 years. And the building has replaced the Meadowlands Arena as New Jersey's leading rock concert venue.

*

October 25, 2007 was a Thursday. The Devils opened the season on the road, because it wasn't clear that the arena would be ready when the 2007-08 NHL season opened -- and, as it turned out, it wasn't. They played the 1st game there 2 days later, losing 4-1 to the Ottawa Senators. Chris Neil scored the 1st goal, while Brian Gionta scored the 1st Devils goal. On Halloween, 4 days later, they got their 1st win in the new building, 6-1 over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

These 9 NHL games were played on October 25:

* The Devils lost to their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 2-0 at Madison Square Garden. Nigel Dawes scored both goals.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-1 at the building now named the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-2 at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. (It's now named the Benchmark International Arena.)

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. (It was then named the Mellon Arena, before reverting to its original name.)

* The Columbus Blue Jackets beat the St. Louis Blues, 3-0 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-0 at the Sommet Center in Nashville. (It's now named the Bridgestone Arena.)

* The Edmonton Oilers beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-4 in a shootout, at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Anaheim Ducks, 1-0 at the Honda Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Anaheim, California.

* And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Dallas Stars, 2-1 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. (It's now named the Crypton.com Arena.)

The 2007-08 NBA season opened 5 days after the Prudential Center did. There was one other sporting event of note on October 25: Game 2 of the World Series. The Boston Red Sox beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at Fenway Park in Boston. The Rockies got to Curt Schilling for a run in the 1st inning, but the Sox tied the game in the 4th, and that ended the only lead Colorado had in the entire Series, which Boston swept.

July 2, 1981: The Meadowlands Arena Opens

July 2, 1981: The arena planned for the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey opens. It is named the Brendan Byrne Arena, for the outgoing Governor who got it built.

It is 7.7 miles west of Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City -- like its football neighbor, Giants Stadium, roughly the same distance as Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, north, and Shea Stadium in Queens, east; but across a State Line, so there is, however subtle, a culture shift.

The Complex is off Exit 16W of the Western Spur of the New Jersey Turnpike, at the intersection of New Jersey Route 3. New Jersey Route 120 -- at the time, Route 20 -- bisects the complex: The Stadium and the Racetrack are to the west, the Arena to the east. For most of the arena's existence, its address has been 50 Route 120.

The 1st event was a concert by Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. Bruce, a native of Freehold, Monmouth County, New Jersey, began a 6-night stand there. Other notable acts to perform there during their heyday include the Rolling Stones in 1981, Queen in 1982, Rush and New Jersey natives Bon Jovi in 1986, Michael Jackson in 1988, and The Dave Matthews Band in 1999.

On December 7 and 8, 2003, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel played the Arena during their Old Friends Reunion Tour. The opening act was one of their inspirations, without whom they never would have made it: The Everly Brothers.

The intended main tenant for the building was the NBA's New Jersey Nets, who had spent the previous 4 seasons at the 9,000-seat Rutgers Athletic Center after moving from Long Island as the New York Nets. Their 1st game was on October 30, 1981, and they lost to their neighbors (they were rarely "rivals"), the New York Knicks, 103-99.

The Nets made the Playoffs in their 1st 5 seasons in the building, and in 15 of their 29 overall seasons there. They won the NBA Eastern Conference title in 2002 and 2003. They won the Atlantic Division in 2002, '03, '04 and '06. Sounds decent.

But they had as many horrible seasons as good ones. They went 19-63 in 1987-88, 17-65 in 1989-90, 16-34 in 1999, and 26-56 4 times. They were 12-70 in their last season in the building, 2009-10. And when they finally got into the NBA Finals, they were swept by the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002, and lost in 6 games to the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.

Finally, on March 24, 2004, Bruce Ratner bought the team, and announced the intention to move them to a new arena he was planning for Brooklyn. It didn't open until the start of the 2012-13 season, leaving the Nets as a lame duck franchise for a whopping 8 years, the last 2 (2010-11 and 2011-12) at the Prudential Center in Newark.

From 1985 to 2007, Seton Hall University, in nearby South Orange, Essex County, used the Arena for games too big for their 1,655-seat on-campus Walsh Gymnasium. They reached the NCAA Final in 1989, losing to the University of Michigan in overtime. In the 2010-11 season, after every other tenant had left, Fordham University in The Bronx used it as home court for 4 games.

In 1996, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament held its Final Four at the Arena, and this remains the only time it's been held in the New York Tri-State Area since 1951. On March 30, the Semifinals were held: The University of Kentucky beat the University of Massachusetts, 81-74; and Syracuse University beat Mississippi State University, 77-69. In the Final on April 1, Kentucky beat Syracuse, 76-67.

The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which oversees the Meadowlands Complex, also wanted to bring an NHL team to the Arena. On May 27, 1982, they got one: The New Jersey Devils. The franchise had begun play in 1974, as the Kansas City Scouts. After 2 terrible seasons, they were sold to a group that moved them to Denver, Colorado, and renamed them the Colorado Rockies, a name that would later be given to Denver's Major League Baseball team.

The Devils played their 1st regular-season game on October 5, 1982, a 3-3 tie against the Pittsburgh Penguins. For 5 years, they were terrible, enduring such slights as a 13-4 loss away to the Edmonton Oilers in 1983, after which Wayne Gretzky called the Devils "a Mickey Mouse operation"; a snow-ridden game in 1987 that attracted only 334 fans; and games against nearby teams like the New York Rangers, the New York Islanders, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins that seemed like home games for the visitors.

Finally, in the 1987-88 season, the Devils made the Playoffs, and got to within 1 game of the Stanley Cup Finals. They did so again in 1993-94, but lost a Game 7 to the Rangers in double overtime at Madison Square Garden, after blowing Game 6 at home.

They became more successful than the Nets ever have, winning the Stanley Cup at home on June 24, 1995, beating the Detroit Red Wings, 5-2, to complete a 4-game sweep. They won the Cup on the road in Dallas in 2000, and at home again in 2003 against Anaheim. The Devils appeared in 1 other Finals, in 2001, losing at home in Game 6 and in Denver in Game 7.

Scott Stevens lifts the Stanley Cup at the Brendan Byrne Arena,

June 24, 1995. One of the greatest nights of my life.

In the Spring of 2003, the Arena hosted both the NBA and the NHL Finals, something done by only 4 other arenas: The Boston Garden in 1957, '58 and '74; Madison Square Garden in 1972 and '94; The Spectrum in Philadelphia in 1980; and the Chicago Stadium in 1992. (None has ever won both, with some John Starks bricks preventing the closest call in 1994.) The Arena hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1982, and the NHL All-Star Game in 1984.

In 1996, a Republican-controlled State legislature, angry at Byrne for signing the State's income tax into law, vengefully took his name off the building, and put, of course, a corporation's name on it, that of Continental Airlines, based at Newark International Airport. Byrne said, "I was immortal for 15 years." Byrne lived until 2018, outliving the usefulness of the arena named for him, if not the building itself. Byrne also outlived Continental Airlines: They were bought out by United Airlines in 2012.

Building a sports complex in East Rutherford, just off the New Jersey Turnpike, close to the Lincoln Tunnel and to New York City, seemed like a great idea in the 1970s. But after Giants Stadium and the Meadowlands Racetrack opened in 1976, the drawbacks kicked in.

There was plenty of parking, but it was poorly managed. Getting in and out took forever. Taking public transportation was no good: You couldn't do it from most of New Jersey, as the Meadowlands Rail Line didn't open until 2009 (in time for the football teams to move next-door to what's now MetLife Stadium), and the buses from New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal got stuck in traffic on Routes 495 and 3.

And the smell wasn't too good, even before all that exhaust settled over the area, and combined with the natural swamp air to form what Jerry Seinfeld might have called "some sort of mutant funk."

The arena that opened in 1981, known as the Izod Center from 2007 until the building's official closing in 2015 -- didn't improve things. One level of concourse for two levels of seats simply doesn't work if there's more than 12,000 people in the building. Then again, until the Nets got good in the 2001-02 season, that was rarely a problem for them. It wasn't a problem all that often after that, either. And it wasn't often a problem for the Devils, either.

The arena was drafty, especially in the upper deck. The sight lines weren't great: The older Madison Square Garden and Nassau Coliseum both had better ones. The sound didn't carry well, even though the sound system was always too loud -- perhaps to cover up for the fact that crowds generally weren't big, unless championship teams with marquee players were in.

The Nets and the Devils both had to get out of that arena. Both did. After considering building next-door, and next-door to the Hoboken Terminal, the Devils opened the Prudential Center in downtown Newark in 2007. The Nets moved there in 2010, and finally the Barclays Center in Brooklyn opened in 2012, and the Nets moved there.

Surrounded by the American Dream Meadowlands retail complex

The Meadowlands Arena, all naming rights having lapsed, was closed in 2015, and was targeted for demolition. But not so fast: It has found a second life, converted into a TV and film studio, for productions such as the new version of The Equalizer, starring Queen Latifah, who, under her original name of Dana Owens, was an All-State basketball player at nearby Irvington High School in Essex County.

Not what we expected the Arena to be on its 40th Anniversary -- but at least it got to have one. Some stadiums and arenas with better histories don't last that long.

*

July 2, 1981 was a Thursday. The NFL, the NBA and the NHL were all out of season. And the Major League Baseball Players' Association was on strike.

But there was one score on this historic day. It was in the Canadian Football League. The Saskatchewan Roughriders beat the Toronto Argonauts, 19-18 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

April 3, 1989: Steve Fisher, "A Michigan Man"

April 3, 1989: The University of Michigan, led by Glen Rice and Rumeal Robinson, and with head coach Steve Fisher still officially interim (or "caretaker" as they'd say in soccer), beats Seton Hall 80-79 in overtime, to win the NCAA Tournament at the Kingdome in Seattle.

Bill Frieder had graduated from Michigan in 1964, and was a teammate of the man who, to that point, was their best player ever, Cazzie Russell, who would lead them to the NCAA Tournament Final the next season. Frieder became an assistant coach at Michigan in 1973, and head coach in 1981. He led them to Big Ten Conference titles in 1985 and 1986, and a 24-7 record going into the "Big Dance." He seemed to be, to borrow one of the favorite phrases of head football coach and athletic director Glenn "Bo" Schembechler, "A Michigan Man," through and through.

But just before the NCAA Tournament, Frieder got an offer from Arizona State University. It was for considerably more money. And, given that basketball is a Winter sport, the Phoenix metropolitan area would have considerably better weather than the Detroit metropolitan area. He accepted the job, then told the media he would be leaving Michigan after the Tournament.

No, he wouldn't, Schembechler decided: He would be leaving immediately. Schembechler fired him, promoted assistant coach Steve Fisher to be head coach, and said, "A Michigan Man will be coaching Michigan, not an Arizona State man."

For the record, Schembechler himself was a native of Barberton, Ohio, part of the Cleveland metropolitan area, and a graduate of Miami University of Ohio. He did not become head football coach at Michigan until 1969, when he was 40 years old, and had never previously held a job at that University, or anywhere else in the State of Michigan. Regardless of how many football games he had won, and regardless of Michigan's status as a football State first, Bill Frieder was more of a Michigan Man than Bo Schembechler was.

Bo was a hypocrite. But he was also the man with the power, and, rightly or wrongly, it was his call.

Steve Fisher? He was a native of Herrin, Illinois, in the southern "Little Egypt" part of that State. He had graduated from Western Illinois, and became Frieder's assistant in 1982 -- meaning that he got his 1st job at the University of Michigan at age 37, also younger than Bo.

Given that UM is a football school first, and a basketball school second at most, the switcheroo wouldn't have been a disaster, but could have been embarrassing. Instead, Fisher guided the Wolverines to wins over Xavier and South Alabama, then to upsets over North Carolina and Virginia to get into the Final Four, which would be held at the Kingdome in Seattle. In the Semifinal on April 1, against fellow Big Ten team Illinois, Michigan won, 83-81. They were in the Final.

For Michigan, Glen Rice scored 31 points, and Rumeal Robinson scored 21. For The Hall, John Morton scored 35 to lead all scorers on the night. Watching the game on CBS at the time, I thought Michigan were dirty, and the refs let them get away with it. Looking it up, over 30 years later, I see that the Wolverines were only called for 16 fouls, the Pirates for 23.

The game went to overtime. Seton Hall led, 79–76, with less than a minute remaining, when Terry Mills hit a turnaround 11-footer to cut the Seton Hall lead to 1. After a defensive stop, the Pirates' Gerald Greene was controversially called for a foul on Robinson with 3 seconds left. Robinson made both free throws, and, after Seton Hall's last-second shot came up short, Michigan had its 1st National Championship.

To this day, it's the Wolverines' only title. They've also lost title games in 1965, '76, '92, '93, 2013 and '18. It's the closest any New Jersey team has come to winning the National Championship, and Hall fans still think the refs gave Michigan the game.

Seton Hall coach P.J. (Peter John) Carlesimo -- part of the Big East Conference's Italian wing with Lou Carnesecca of St. John's, Rollie Massimino of Villanova and Rick Pitino of Providence -- got the Pirates to the Big East Tournament title and the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight in 1991, the Big East regular-season title and the NCAA Sweet 16 in 1992, and both the Big East regular-season and Tournament titles in 1993.

In 1994, he left to take the head coaching job with the Portland Trail Blazers, losing in the 1st Round of the NBA Playoffs 3 straight seasons. He then moved to the Golden State Warriors, where he never made the Playoffs, and became best known for getting choked in practice by All-Star Latrell Sprewell. He was the coach of the Seattle SuperSonics in 2008, when they moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. He last coached in 2013, in the Nets' 1st season in Brooklyn.

Fisher remained in charge in Ann Arbor through the 1997 season. He guided the Wolverines into their "Fab Five" era of 1991-93, reaching the Final under dubious circumstances, to the Elite Eight in 1994, and the NIT title in 1997. Although Michigan's 1991-92 and 1992-93 achievements were later vacated by the NCAA, Fisher himself was cleared of any wrongdoing. Nevertheless, the University chose to distance itself from the scandal, and fired him.

The "Michigan Man" then coached at San Diego State from 1999-2017, getting them from 5023 in his 1st season to 21-12 in his 3rd. He won the Mountain West Conference title in 2006, '11, '12 and '15, and got them to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 n 2011 and 2014.

Bill Frieder, the not-a-Michigan Man, coached at Arizona State through the 1997 season, never winning a Conference Championship, regular-season or Tournament, and only once getting to the Sweet 16, in 1995, and no further.

As of April 3, 2022, Frieder, Fisher and Carlesimo are all still alive.

*

April 3, 1989 was a Monday. To avoid TV competition, the NBA scheduled no games for this day. The NHL was between the end of the regular season and the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Football was out of season. For Major League Baseball, it was Opening Day, and these 7 games were played:

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-4 at Shea Stadium. Dwight Gooden went 7 innings for the win, while the Cards' Joe Magrane didn't get out of the 4th inning. Howard Johnson, Darryl Strawberry and Kevin Elster each had 3 hits, 1 of Johnson's being a home run. All of the Cards' runs were driven in by Pedro Guerrero, including on a home run.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Boston Red Sox, 5-4 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Craig Worthington singled Mickey Tettleton home with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning. Roger Clemens had started for the Sox, getting a home run from Mike Greenwell and 2-for-4 with a walk from Wade Boggs. Cal Ripken hit a home run for the O's.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Robin Yount went 0-for-4. Paul Molitor was injured, and did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-3 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 5-3 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Tony Gwynn went 2-for-4.

* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Seattle Mariners, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Mark McGwire went 2-for-3 with a home run and 3 RBIs.