Many other sporting events were held at the facility including rodeos, track meets, professional wrestling, and boxing matches.
Walter Whiteside, a wealthy native of Duluth, Minnesota who was attracted to Tulsa by the oil boom during the 1920s, partnered with W. S. Stryker to form the Magic City Amusement Company.
The partnership commissioned noted Tulsa architect Leon Senter to design an indoor arena for the city in 1928.
Whiteside, evidently the driving force of the partnership envisioned using the arena to present a variety of public entertainments, including such wintertime sports as ice hockey and ice shows, for which there were no suitable venues south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
[2] Joining forces with W. S. Stryker, he formed Magic City Amusement Co. to have an indoor arena built on Elgin Avenue and extending the entire block between Fifth and Sixth Streets on the east side of downtown Tulsa.
So, when he hired architect Leon B. Senter to design the facility, he specified that it must have the ability to cover the floor with ice within an 8-hour period.
[4] The building opened on January 1, 1929, with skating displays by the Magic City Amusement Co. (also owned by Whiteside)[2] and the first game of the new Tulsa Oilers, versus the Duluth Hornets.
Shortly after the end of WWI, he went on a tour with noted promoter Billy Sandow and his professional wrestling show.
Other notable performers who graced the Coliseum ring included "Killer" Kowalski, "Strangler" Lewis, "Farmer" Jones and Al "Spider" Galento.
He went back to the basement office, where his co-worker was monitoring a network feed, unaware of what had just happened to their own building.
Avey and his wife had gone out that night to a house-warming party for his daughter and son-in-law, so it took a while before one of his employees located him and gave him the bad news over the telephone.
"[5] Police estimated that the raging fire attracted approximately 12,000 spectators as it occurred, and that another 125,000 drove by the next day to view the wreckage.