GLACE BAY, N.S. — There was more than one former miner pleased to learn that Glace Bay’s largest sporting venue would once again salute the town’s most famous workers.
Rudy Plichie was among them and not just because the name pays tribute to the miner, but because it means a better chance some of the legendary boxing bouts in the old arena will be remembered.
“Everything happened there. That was one of the biggest venues going,” Plichie said from his Sydney home recently.
“It would be nothing to have a small crowd of 3,500. They went right up on the ice surface. They were there and on the rafters and everywhere.”
The original Miners Forum opened Jan. 2, 1939 and would host countless sports, entertainment and community events until it was replaced in 1996 by the Bayplex, which closed in July 2017 due to deteriorating conditions.
The facility reopened as the Glace Bay Miners Forum on Oct. 1, following more than $9 million worth of upgrades and expansions.
Upon news of the rebranding of the refurbished Bayplex to the Glace Bay Miners Forum, Cape Breton’s famous boxing "cut man" reached out to the Post for a refresher on some of the more famous bouts at the old arena.
Plichie talked at length about Blair Richardson, the South Bar native, who won some of the biggest fights the world of boxing had to offer throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
One of Richardson’s most famous fight was March 26, 1966, when he claimed a 12-round win over Gomeo Brennan to win the British Empire middleweight title in front of a packed house at the Glace Bay Miners Forum.
The fight was a rematch of Richardson’s 11-round loss to the Bahamian six months earlier. Before that March 26 rematch fight, Plichie pointed out that the British Empire title fights were 15-round affairs.
He recalled how Cape Breton promotor Gussie MacLennan worked through much red tape to have the rematch at the Miners Forum and how it became a 12-round fight, a historic first for Empire title fights, now known as Commonwealth.
“That was their plan, get it established,” Plichie said about the 12-round fight in Glace Bay.
“To drift in the 12 rounds with the world title fights, that was their plan, get it established, and then after that, commissions and big-time fights, define what we have now as 12-round fights.”
Word of that Richardson title fight at the forum and the changes it brought about obviously made its way around the boxing world. The countless other fights at the forum were known far and wide, as well.
Plichie, himself, would often send newspaper clippings and posters stateside.
As a result, people everywhere knew about the forum and wanted to fight there. Even after the forum closed and boxing there was just a memory, Plichie would still get requests from visitors who knew their boxing history to just see the building.
“The name of the Glace Bay Miners Forum meant something,” he said.
“I was in a lot of boxing venues and there was nobody like Glace Bay fans. All the different fights from outside, they always got a good ovation equally as good as the hometown guy. That’s why everybody liked coming here. There was no flare. You go in, it was genuine stuff. Everything was genuine.”
GLACE BAY MINERS FORUM
• Original Miners Forum opened Jan. 2, 1939.
• New Miners Forum opened October 2020.
• Tyrone Gardiner, lightweight champion of Canada, defended his title twice to sell-out crowds.
• Blair Richards claimed British Empire middleweight title, March 26, 1966 with 12-round victory over Gomeo Brennan.
Another notable fight Plichie recalled was one that saw New Waterford’s Les Gillis win the North American championship. In the 1960s, Canadian lightweight champion Tyrone Gardiner also fought two of the most exciting bouts Plichie had ever seen at the Glace Bay rink.
While fighting at the forum was a big deal for boxers from around the world, it also meant much to local boxers, including those who also worked in the coal mines.
Archie Bear Hannigan, Tommy Gunn Spencer, Joe Pyle, George Rockabye Ross and the Nemis brothers, were some of the skilled boxers who were also coal miners.
Kid Adshade, Ronnie MacNeil, Bert Boone and Micky MacMullin were among the other "main event" boxers fondly recalled.
Plichie, now 87, stays in touch with the local boxing scene and is especially impressed by Canadian cruiserweight champion Ryan Rozicki, whom he called the best Maritimes prospect to come along in decades.
