Several years ago, local sports historian James Beamish put together an article exploring the history of the arenas that housed hockey in its early years here in Mississauga. Inspired by my attendance at multiple Mississauga Steelheads games at the Paramount Fine Foods Centre this year, and eagerly awaiting their playoff drive, I found myself thinking back on James’ article on our historic places of play. I reached out to James, and he graciously allowed us to share his story – I feel it connects well with our theme for Way Back Wednesday in exploring the stories, and places, from our history here in Mississauga. And please, let's cheer the Steelheads on!
- Matthew Wilkinson

Skating on Forrester's Rink, Cooksville, c1940

The City of Mississauga was once a disparate collection of towns, villages and hamlets in Toronto Township, a mostly rural and agricultural municipality. Communities like Burnhamthorpe, Clarkson, Cooksville, Dixie, Erindale, Lakeview, Lorne Park, Meadowvale, Port Credit, Sheridan, Summerville, and others, had grown, amalgamated, even disappeared, over the years as the population grew and the economic base expanded beyond its agricultural beginnings. Not quite a bedroom community for the neighbouring City of Toronto, Toronto Township post-war was poised for dynamic growth and, ultimately, its dynamic transformation into Canada’s seventh largest municipality.

While there were many economic and political factors which came together to create Mississauga, and its sense of pride and purpose, hockey, its founding patrons, and the buildings and facilities built to support the sport were major building blocks in unifying the communities to create the Mississauga of today.

Hockey is Canada’s game, and it has a long and rich tradition in our City. In the days before artificial ice, the sport was played on the rivers, creeks, ponds and dam pools scattered around the Township. Even with enclosed arenas like Foresters in Cooksville or Lester’s south of Brampton, hockey (and skating) was wholly weather-dependent, the ice was natural, the season short and the games themselves somewhat unorganized.

Organized hockey officially got underway in 1946 with the founding of the TTHL (Toronto Township Hockey League) with teams from places like Burnhamthorpe, Clarkson, Cooksville, Erindale, Lakeview, Lorne Park, Malton and Streetsville. Growth was rapid and the need for more reliable ice surfaces became readily apparent as games were played on outdoor rinks and at Lester’s Arena, all on natural ice.

Dixie Arena – The first indoor artificial ice

Dixie Arena Gardens opened in 1949 and became the home of TTHL hockey, a league at the time with some 500 players, and the Dixie Beehives, a team soon sponsored by Port Credit’s St Lawrence Starch Company who were the producers of Beehive Golden Corn Syrup (hence the team’s name). The Arena, ungraciously aging, carried on as a hockey venue for Junior ‘A’, ‘B’ and the TTHL until May 1986 when it was closed and then sold. Despite its iconic status (at least in Mississauga), Mike Peca of the Buffalo Sabres and New York Islanders was once quoted in a CBC Sports interview saying, “A lot of people from hockey years past refer to rinks as barns, and Dixie Arena truly was a barn."

After a brief checkered career as the Astralite Dance Hall, a suspected arson fire rendered the structure derelict and neglected until its demolition in October 1996. As the TTHL expanded and additional arenas were built over the years, Dixie Arena became the home to the Applewood Hockey Club, Dixie Burnhamthorpe Hockey, Cawthra Hockey, and the Cooksville Sports Club.

Port Credit Memorial Gardens comes on stream

The rapid urbanization of the Township and attendant growth in population created a need for more artificial ice, leading to the 1959 construction of the area’s first municipally owned rink, Port Credit Memorial Arena. Assisted by the Credit Valley Lions Club, the Council of the Town of Port Credit undertook to have the Arena built in the Memorial Park on the east side of the Credit River in Port Credit.

Port Credit Arena - Under Construction - 1958

A unique ‘Quonset Hut’ design, using laminated wood rafters from British Columbia to form the dome roof, the Arena was erected by contractors H. D. Payne for a final cost of $360,000 (approximately $3 million today). With seating capacity for 700 and standing room for nearly 2,000, the Arena was state-of-the-art at the time and nearly NHL regulation sized at 85 feet by 185. Home naturally to the Port Credit hockey teams, the facility also hosted other groups and activities like the Credit Valley Skating Club, a venue for the Mann Cup lacrosse championships, professional wrestling and concerts. The arena was also a movie set in the 1990 movie, The Freshman, starring Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Bruno Kirby and Penelope Ann Miller. In it, Broderick and Miller were seen skating in the Arena in a minor love-interest scene.

At a cost of $85,000 ($620,000 today), the facility was expanded in 1966 to add additional administrative and spectator amenities and is now approaching its 60th anniversary in just another four years. Today, Port Credit Memorial Arena is the current home of the Cooksville and Port Credit Hockey Associations.

Vic Johnston and Streetsville hockey

When municipal amalgamation came to the area in 1968, Streetsville was one of two longstanding municipalities notable by its absence in the new Town of Mississauga. Its refusal to participate in amalgamation was attributed to local opposition to this new political entity and it wasn’t until 1974 that Mississauga finally annexed its neighbour. Like Port Credit, it developed its own separate hockey programme, through the Streetsville and District Minor Hockey Association, playing its games in Brampton with some 16 teams in that first year.

Streetsville’s Town Council quickly realized that a local arena was needed and created a steering committee headed by a local, civic-minded machinist named Vic Johnston to build such a structure. With an estimated cost of $179,500 (approximately $1.5 million today) and local banks hesitant to advance funds without sufficient collateral, Vic and his fellow members of the first board of directors personally guaranteed the mortgage necessary to commence construction. The Arena was opened in 1961 in the Streetsville Memorial Park and by 1963 that mortgage was completely retired. Streetsville residents were justifiably proud that their Arena was one of few independently, not-for-profit arenas in Ontario with no government money used to build or operate the facility initially. And like the Port Credit Memorial Arena, the Vic Johnston had its moment of Hollywood/Bollywood glory in the 2011 film, Breakaway starring Rob Lowe, Vinay Virmani, Russell Peters and Camilla Belle as the home rink of the Speedy Singhs.

Vic served on the Arena Board from 1961 until his death in 1980. As a mark of respect and in honour of his many contributions to Streetsville civic life, the Arena was renamed the Vic Johnston Arena. It is currently the home of the Streetsville and District Minor Hockey Association and was also the home ice of the Streetsville Derbys, local rivals to the Dixie Beehives, both of which ceased operations in 2011 in an Ontario Junior Hockey League franchise contraction. The Association itself left the TTHL in 1967 to join the Ontario Minor Hockey Association before moving to the Greater Toronto Hockey League in 1996.

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