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From Gliding on Ice to Bobbing and Weaving
St. Nicholas Rink was an indoor ice-rink that was of the first to use mechanically frozen ice in North America. However, seasonal affairs like skating and hockey proved to be less popular than sports like boxing and wrestling. By the 1920s, St. Nicholas was exclusively a venue for fighting.
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While this indoor rink was built in 1896 to provide the St. Nicholas Skating Club a regular place to practice, by 1906 a different sport was taking place under its roof: boxing. Come the 20's, the ice rink was removed - prize fights won out.
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Nor did the fights stick to boxing! The Johnston brothers, who had organized the first boxing matches at St. Nicholas also hosted wrestling matches. These continued from the '30s until the venue closed in the '60s.
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Nor did you have to be there live, From 1946 to 1956, NBC's "Boxing from St. Nicholas Area" aired twice a week. Another network, the now-defunct Dumont hosted another show based at St. Nicholas. For fans of pugilism, it was a signature venue.
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The ring was whee many fighters began their careers. Actor and professional wrestler Mike Mazurki started his 30-year wrestling career at St. Nicholas in 1932. To sum up his career, he claimed "The more I wrestled, the more beat up I got. The more beat up I got, the more parts I got in pictures with Gary Cooper."
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The ice-rink-turned-boxing-venue closed its doors in 1962. By then, it had seen over 15,000 boxing and wrestling matches - including a fight between Cassius Clay (later Muhammed Ali) and Billy Daniels.
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St. Nicholas was torn down in the 1980s.
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