One day, the ice making machine at Wesbanco Arena refused.
Denny Magruder turned it on, and nothing, so he turned it off. Then on again. Off again. On. Off. On. Off. Over and over again.
“I would have tried kicking it if there was anything to kick,” the retiring general manager said with a laugh. “But that was it. One day, it just stopped working.”
That was three seasons ago, but now the time has finally arrived for the City of Wheeling to finance the installation of a new, $1.67 million ice-making system beneath the floor of Wesbanco Arena. Magruder, who announced his retirement as general manager of the facility after 36.5 years, will remain on the job until October 1 so he can oversee the four-step installation and testing processes. The installation begins today.
“The original floor of the arena is one foot below the surface everyone sees because of the addition of the ice in 1992,” Magruder explained. “Now, the cement is different than the rest of the building because it is plastersized cement so it has minor expansion and contraction abilities. That way it doesn’t crack when the ice has gone in and out. If it was regular concrete, it would be all cracked and useless by now.
“What we are saying is that the system that produced the original ice just wore out,” he said. “We might be able to tell what went wrong exactly when we dig it up, but we don’t expect that to be the case. But something went wrong with the mechanics that’s underneath the arena and it took nearly 30 years to get to that point. That’s a hell of a run.”
Step By Step
The same company that supplied and maintained the temporary system the past three years, Everything Ice out of Johnston, Pa., is the vendor that won the bid for the new system and the installation. Their representatives will get to work in the near future, but first, demolition.
“The guys from Colaianni Construction will come in here (today) and they are going to saw this floor into blocks with a diamond cutter,” Magruder explained. “Once they get the first one out, they’ll be able to come in with a lift and that’s when that process will start moving along pretty quickly.
“The second step takes place when the Everything Ice people come in and start from scratch after everything involved with the old system has been cleared away,” he said. “Now, I have a feeling that this floor is not going to come out easily because of how durable it has been for 30 years. That’s why I think it may take them a little longer, but once it is out and the debris has been cleared, the folks with Everything Ice will get started.”
That is when the puzzle builders get to assemble.
“They will install between 10 and 11 miles of piping before they finish with this system,” the general manager explained. “Now, what is under this concrete right now is stainless steel, but over the past three decades they learned they now can use PVC materials now and that is less expensive.
“They will work on putting all the pieces of the new system in the right places for more than a few days,” Magruder added. “Then the time will arrive for the final step as far as the installation is concerned.”
The Final Step
No, not the last stage of making the arena’s ice maker
The completion of a career.
“When all of the prep work is completed, the crews will orchestrate a continuous pour, and that process likely will take two or three days where they are constantly pouring the concrete on top of the new system,” Magruder explained. “Once that is all dry, then our people will work to get everything else put back together so we can make ice with our new system.
“Getting the new ice is very exciting to me because it’s going to be better than the ice we had here on Day 1 of the hockey team being here in Wheeling,” he continued. “All of the technology has been improved over the past three decades and it will be better than the original because the choices are so much better than they were back then.”
It was 1986 and Magruder was 38 years old. The Wheeling Civic Center had been constructed for $7 million and was a successful concert venue once opening in 1977. The biggest bands were coming to downtown Wheeling and the civic center could fit more than 7,000 fans with floor seating available.
But it was five years after Magruder accepted the position when he suggested and pushed for professional hockey to become the biggest tenant of the Wheeling Civic Center. The Thunderbirds then landed in Wheeling from Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1991, and the team was an instant hit.
Today, the franchise now known as the Nailers is the longest tenured in the ECHL, and the team has been affiliated with the Pittsburgh Penguins since 1998. The Red Economic Development Partnership, or RED, owns the franchise
“Through the years, the Nailers have received awesome support from the City, RED, the Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority, and from the people of Wheeling,” Magruder said. “And I know there are a lot of people who are excited about the new ice because of hockey and because of how it helps us market the arena for other events.
“Once the installation is finished, I am sure we’re going to test the system a number of times when our event schedule has the spaces in it, and then when it is time for the ice to be up full-time because the time for the 31st season of professional hockey has arrived, I will clean out my office and hand over the keys to a new general manager,” he said with a wobbly voice. “I need to see this installation take place, and then it will be time for me to go be a better husband, father, and grandfather, and I can’t wait.”
There isn’t a nicer guy or one who loves Wheeling anymore than Denny Magruder. We have been blessed to have him in our wonderful community. Thank you, Denny.