Ice Bowl

The Ice Bowl is a former indoor arena located in Cranston, Rhode Island and Providence, Rhode Island along the Providence River in the Providence Shipyard, on the Cranston side of the line it straddled with the capital city. It was converted from what had been the shipyard’s machine shop and, for a time, a seaplane hangar.. The arena opened in 1958 with two sheets of ice, the larger one was 180'x55' and was used for games; while the smaller one was used for practices. The arena was a converted shipyard construction building previously used by the Walsh-Kaiser Company to build Liberty Ships during World War II and was used as a machine shop for the duration of the Korean War. Jack Ferreira, who was an All-American playing for the Boston University Terriers as well as a long time NHL executive, had his father as the shipyard manager for four decades, which included running the arena in later years. The arena was more oval than the standard ice hockey rink of the time and used fish netting as a protective barrier as opposed to the more common chicken wire or fencing. The arena became the first indoor rink available for use in the state besides the Rhode Island Auditorium. It would fill an important role in the growth of the game in the state as there was just not enough ice time available at the Auditorium and many teams were still forced to build outside facilities to practice and play games when the Auditorium wasn't available. By the late 1960's issues with the arena became more apparent. The lease for the arena would be cancelled by the city of Cranston in 1969. The rink would be shuttered for three years as the Cranston Veterans Memorial Rink opened and a boom in hockey in the area caused by Bobby Orr and the rest of the Big Bad Bruins allowed for the arena to reopen in 1972. By 1977 the costs of running the rink became prohibitive and it was shut down by the city.
==Source/Links==
RIHHOF website
Category:Indoor ice hockey venues in Rhode Island