WATERVILLE — Dana Sennett and Michael Roy watched Thursday as a giant excavator picked away at the Harold Alfond Athletic Center on the Colby College campus as it was being demolished.

It was a bittersweet moment for the men, both 68, who played hockey on the indoor rink from the time they were boys growing up in Waterville.

“It certainly is a very sad day for many of us to see the rink that we grew up in have to come down,” Roy, who is Waterville city manager, said. “We realize it’s for a better future with the new rink, but there are so many memories for us tied up in this building.”

Sennett, a former city councilor and Waterville mayor, also shared mixed feelings.

“I feel bad about this facility going because, you know, this rink was our home,” he said. “It was my salvation and almost church for me, growing up, because of the opportunities it gave me. The boys of Waterville played ice hockey here as part of the Waterville Youth Hockey program organized by Ray Lemieux. Eight years of my life were spent here, every Saturday, playing ice hockey. It gave opportunities to many families that might not have had activities.”

The massive, 207,000-square-foot athletic center on Campus Drive included the Harold Alfond ice arena and Wadsworth Gymnasium, as well as squash courts, a pool, field house, and fitness and recreational spa. Many area high school graduations and other events were held in the gym over the years.

“The demolition started earlier this month,” Brian Clark, Colby’s vice president of planning, said earlier Thursday. “It’s going to carry through to the winter and be done in March next year.”

Consigli Construction is demolishing the structure — the same company that built the new, $200 million, state-of-the-art, Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center on campus. The new facility has the first Olympic-sized swimming pool in the state.

The 350,000-square-foot center opened to Colby students and staff in August and includes an indoor competition center with a 200-meter track and a multi-level, 13,500-square-foot fitness center. The center will be available for use by the community, region and state as soon as it is deemed safe.

Michael Roy, left, and Dana Sennett were teammates on the Waterville High School hockey team that won the 1968 state championship at the Alfond Athletic Center and Ice Arena at Colby College. The center is now being demolished by Colby College. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo

Clark said Colby was disappointed not to have been able to allow the public into the new athletic center on campus because of the coronavirus pandemic, but as soon as it is possible, that will happen.

“The very minute we are able to resume operations — at that point, we’re in,” he said.

The old athletic center being razed was built over a period of time, with the gymnasium and field house dating back to 1953, according to Clark. The original building was actually an old airplane hangar that was salvaged, he said. An outdoor ice rink also was on the site prior to construction.

In 1955, Harold Alfond, of Waterville, made his first major philanthropic contribution to build the indoor rink, according to Clark.

“He built it to attract Jack Kelley to be the head hockey coach,” he said. “We’re really excited that Jack Kelley’s name is going to be on the rink at the new Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center, in perpetuity.”

Alfond Ice Arena construction. Photo courtesy of Colby College

The field house, lobby and pool were added to the older athletic center around 1967.

“By the mid-60s, the whole facility was complete,” Clark said.

That benchmark set the stage for the then-outstanding athletic facility to recruit top-notch coaches and athletes and become a founding member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, he said. Notably, during the 1974-75 season, the rink hosted the first women’s intercollegiate hockey competitive match in the country, with Colby versus Pembroke which had merged into Brown University, according to Clark.

“The history and significance of the Harold Alfond Athletic Center was profound,” he said. “It’s bittersweet to see it coming down.”

Out of the ruins, however, emerged a welcome gift. Colby donated about $1 million worth of ice hockey equipment from the old facility to the Alfond Youth Center, which plans, with the Central Maine Youth Hockey Program, to build a $4 million-plus indoor community ice rink near the center on North Street.

Meanwhile, when the old facility is completely gone, a partially finished practice field behind it will be completed and recreational and landscaped features developed there, near the complex of athletic fields, according to Clark. The popular Colby mule sculpture to the east of the facility will be moved to another spot in the athletic complex, though a precise site has not yet been chosen, he said. The mule was gifted to Colby in 1993 by the Class of 1943.

Clark said an incredible debt of gratitude is owed to Harold Alfond, the Alfond Foundation and the Alfond family for the continued and sustained contributions to Colby, the City of Waterville, central Maine and beyond, since Harold Alfond’s initial gift of the ice rink in 1955.

With the backdrop of the Alfond Athletic Center and Ice Arena, Dana Sennett holds a collection of photos of championship hockey teams that played at the arena. The photos show hockey players from peewee teams and men who competed on the Waterville Bruins semi pro team. Sennett, a member of the 1968 Waterville High School state championship hockey team, brought the photos to the Alfond Athletic Center and Ice Arena at Colby College in Waterville where he and former teammate Michael Roy observed the demolition Thursday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel Buy this Photo

MANY  MEMORIES

Roy began skating at the old Alfond Arena in 1959 or 1960 when he was 7 or 8. Except for a few years in the late ’70s, he skated every winter there for about 60 years.

“It was such a fantastic thing for us because none of us had ever been in an indoor ice arena up to that time,” he said. “The Waterville Youth Hockey program started at that time, which coincided with the beginning of the baby boomer wave coming through. With a new rink, plenty of kids and excellent coaching — some of it from Colby — Waterville Youth Hockey became a hockey powerhouse in Maine and New England including making two or three trips to national tournaments in Michigan in the mid to late 60s.”

Roy takes a short time out of the day to stop at the old facility to watch the demolition and remember.

Harold Alfond at a hockey game in the ’50s. Photo courtesy of Colby College

“Seeing the old rink come down is a difficult thing because of all the memories that were created there,” he said. “For many of us, the rink served as a refuge — a place to go where one could just play.”

More than any other Colby venue, the rink helped to integrate the college into the community, according to Roy.

“Over 65 years, so many local people became acquainted with the college through Alfond Arena,” he said. “It helped to strengthen the bond between the school and the community.”

He and Sennett, born within two days of each other, played on championship peewee, bantam and other teams when they were young. They played together with Sennett’s twin brother, Dean, right into their varsity years. Many Waterville hockey players had been born in the winter, giving them an advantage over those who were born later in the year because they were physically bigger and had more strength, according to Roy and Sennett.

“Seven of us were born within three weeks of each other,” Roy said.

When they were boys, their teams were sponsored by and named for organizations such as the Kiwanis, Elks and Rotary clubs, the Alfonds and the Laverdieres.

“We would skate on outside rinks during the week and on Saturday come up here and play a game and remain in our game uniforms for the rest of the day and play outside,” Sennett recalled. “On Sunday, they had public skating and the rink was always open. For a small fee, you could get in.”

The boys played hockey together for years at the rink. Besides Roy and the Sennetts, there was Mark Bolduc, brothers Paul and Mark Boudreau, Mark and Rusty Winters, and others.

Colby plays Pembroke College in 1974-75. Pembroke merged with Brown University in Rhode Island in 1971. Photo courtesy of Colby College

“One year, we had three sets of brothers — the Boudreaus, the Sennetts and the Winters,” Sennett said. “The Waterville High School team played here. It was our home rink. We played over half of our games here and our playoffs. I won three New Englands and three state championships in my career.”

Roy said the “dynasty” started in 1968 when Waterville won the New England championships, going on to win a total of three championships in three years.

Sennett recalled 1,500 to 2,000 people packed the facility to watch the games.

“The whole town celebrated when we won,” he said. “We’d get double spreads in the local newspaper, the Morning Sentinel.”

Roy, who graduated from Waterville High School in 1970, would go on to play hockey after enrolling at Colby that year. Sennett, who graduated in 1971, was recruited by Kelley to Boston University. Sennett received a full hockey scholarship and enrolled in the fall.

“It was the same year that BU won the national championship,” he said.

He noted that the Waterville Bruins team, a semi-pro men’s hockey team, also played on the rink every Sunday and competed with teams all over New England. Colby had a strong program itself, he said. The ice was always hard which enabled players to skate fast.

Later, Roy continued to play hockey and for 25 years played with the Noontime Hockey League, dubbed the NHL, at the rink, up until the building closed in the spring of this year.

“We had Colby staff and students join, so that was really a great thing for the community to have that connection with students, staff and administrative people,” Roy said.

Sennett didn’t play with that league, but used the fitness club there for 25 years. He stopped playing hockey 15 years ago.

“I have two new hips and a new knee,” he said. “I’m done playing, but I dream about it. You always dream about it.”

Roy described Sennett as “absolutely one of the best players to come out of here.”

Sennett called Roy a “solid defenseman.”

“You could always depend on Mike to make his shift,” he said.

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