The Tulsa Coliseum was an indoor arena built in Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

 at the corner of Fifth Street and Elgin Avenue. Walter Whiteside, a Minnesota millionaire, constructed it in 1928. It hosted the Central Hockey League

Central Hockey League

The Central Hockey League is a mid-level professional hockey league, owned by Global Entertainment Corporation. Its current champions are the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, which defeated the Colorado Eagles four games to three in the 2011 playoffs....

's Tulsa Oilers

Tulsa Oilers (hockey team)

The Tulsa Oilers are a professional ice hockey team in the Central Hockey League. The Oilers played their home games at the Maxwell Center until 2008, when they moved into the new BOK Center. For many years, the Tulsa Oilers name was shared with Tulsa's former minor-league baseball team that...

 from 1945 to 1951. The arena held 4,502 people. The arena was the original home of the Tulsa Oilers ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team who played their first game there on January 1, 1929 against the Duluth Hornets. That event not only officially opened the Coliseum, but also served as an introduction to ice hockey for the city of Tulsa. The facility boasted a $25,000 organ. Many other sporting events were held at the facility including rodeo

Rodeo

Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...

s, track meets

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 , professional wrestling

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...

, and boxing matches

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

.

The building was sold to Coliseum Corporation at a sheriff's sale in 1942. It was sold to Sam Avey

Sam Avey

Sam Avey was an American businessman and sports promoter. Best known as the wrestling promoter of little big men, he is also credited for helping to create the Tulsa wrestling territory later used by the National Wrestling Alliance.-Early life:Sam Avey was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma on February...

 in 1944. Wrestling promoter Avey was the owner of the Tulsa Oilers hockey club in the 1940s. At the time, the Oilers were affiliated with the United States Hockey League

United States Hockey League

The United States Hockey League is the top junior ice hockey league in the United States. The USHL has 16 member teams located in the Midwestern United States, consisting of players who are 20 years of age and younger...

. Avey bought the Coliseum for $185,000, and it was also known as Avey's Coliseum.

Avey also owned the radio station KAKC

KAKC

KAKC is a sports talk radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-History:KAKC 970 first signed on the air in 1946 and was founded by Sam Avey....

, and it broadcast from the Coliseum basement. On September 20, 1952, the building was burned when it was struck by lightning. The building’s wooden roof accelerated the fire.