Post by CampWhippet on May 22, 2006 8:56:39 GMT -5
Days of ‘Sparky’
Greyhound racing aficionados remember good, old days
By JUDY HILDNER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Summer evenings were spent as family time for Puebloans in the 1950s and ’60s.
Youngsters couldn't wait for evening when everyone would pile into the car and head for the kiddie rides at City Park, a drive-in movie or Runyon Field to watch the Pueblo Dodgers.
For Chuck Connell and Ray Mattarocci, magic happened in the warm twilight at Pueblo Greyhound Park. They both grew up around the park and, like thousands of Puebloans, remember that time with fondness.
"It was always kind of a fun place," Connell, now an attorney in Greeley, said. "I really did grow up there. When it first opened, there wasn't a clubhouse. There was just the grandstand and the parking lot went right up to the edge of the track.
"We had our own parking space right near the track and we'd stop the car, sit there and watch the races," Connell said.
"The thing I remember most was that it was wonderful summer entertainment."
Connell's father, Dr. J.E.A. Connell, was a founding co-owner of the track when it opened on July 15, 1949, and he was president of the financial operation until his death in 1971. Chuck Connell began working there when he turned 16 in the mid-1960s and the same was true for Mattarocci, whose connection was through his family's LaTronica's Restaurant.
While they saw the track from the inside, Puebloans have been spectators and patrons from the day the track opened. Live greyhound racing was all but abandoned in 1999, a year after the track had celebrated its 50th anniversary.
"I always hear stories about when the parking lot was completely full," current property manager Chris Warren said about the track's heyday.
Today, Warren oversees an operation that operates simulcast betting six days a week with wagering on greyhound and horse racing in Colorado and throughout the country.
Puebloans still like their greyhound racing. Warren said of all the simulcast sites in Colorado, Pueblo leads in greyhound wagering. There have been a few weeks of local racing in the past six years but it is a formality to satisfy state regulations and follows no regular schedule.
"I've always liked to have the live greyhounds," Warren said. A 20-year employee of the track, he started as a dog walker in 1988. "When we run the live greyhounds, it's good to have dogs from all the kennels."
The 120 or so patrons at the park on a good weekend now are a far cry from the hundreds who filled the grandstand nightly every summer in the early decades.
"At 7:30, they'd ring the bell and the first race would be at 8 o'clock," Mattarocci said. "I was a runner. There'd be a runner on each (betting) line. I wore a white shirt and tie."
Mattarocci carried cash to the money room after each race and moved up through the various jobs at the track through the 1960s. He was mutuel manager in 1973 and a judge for seven or eight more years.
"It was great fun. There were a lot of people on warm nights who would come out for one or two races," Mattarocci said. "I remember my aunt, Rose LaTronica, would come out with Monsignor (Joseph) Warnat and they'd sit in the car to watch the races.
"My uncle Pete (LaTronica) would call in his bets," Mattarocci said.
"It used to be a $2 bet for win-place-show," Mattarocci said. "Usually no one got hurt in the early days."
Both Connell and Mattarocci maintained some involvement in racing, but both chose other career paths. They said racing was never the same as in their youth. Mattarocci is a retired teacher and continues to coach golf, while Connell practices law in Greeley.
Track managers J.E. "Jimmie" Wright and Bob Tryon both were from the Phoenix area and made LaTronica's Restaurant their unofficial headquarters during the 90-day summer season.
Mattarocci said it was common for a group that included Tryon to have dinner at the South Side restaurant before leaving for the track.
"We all played golf together during the day and then spent the night at the track," Mattarocci said.
In August, there would be a staff family picnic at Pueblo Mountain Park in Beulah at the end of the season. The professionals moved on to other tracks and much of the local staff returned to teaching jobs and everyday life.
"It was a really nice place. There were friendly people there. It gave people a place to go," Puebloan Carolyn Deering said in a 1999 article in The Pueblo Chieftain. "It was more entertainment then.
"I started working there as a typist in the racing department in the 1960s, and that's when everybody dressed up to go to the park. The ladies wore dresses and high heels," Deering said.
Connell also remembered spending time with electrician Dewey Wright, brother of the track co-founder and the original general manager. Dewey Wright built and operated the first lure, a mechanical rabbit chased by the racing greyhounds.
In 1950, the track held a "name the rabbit" contest for a $100 prize. The winning name of "Sparky" was submitted by Stanley Sjostrom of Pueblo, who along with many patrons noticed the rabbit caused electric sparks as it clattered around the track.
Greyhound racing thrived until the advent of the Colorado Lottery in 1983 and casino-style gambling in 1991. In 1985, the Pueblo season was moved to the fall and winter, signalling the end to the warm summer nights of entertainment.
Pueblo Greyhound Park remains a South Side landmark, but nothing like it was in the boom days of Pueblo greyhound racing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CARD GAME
Birth of Pueblo Greyhound Park
Al Thomas, the last surviving member of the Pueblo Greyhound Park owners at its 50th anniversary in 1998, said the idea of a Pueblo track was conceived at a card game hosted by the late J.E.A. Connell, a Pueblo surgeon and chief of staff at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital at the time.
According to Thomas, Pueblo funeral home director George McCarthy said at the 1948 card game that it appeared greyhound racing would be legalized in Colorado.
"I'm going to try to open a track in Denver. Why don't you fellows open one in Pueblo?" McCarthy reportedly said.
Colorado voters did legalize pari-mutuel racing in November 1948. McCarthy and his associates built the lavish Mile High track in Denver and the Pueblo track was built in association with J.E. (Jimmie) Wright of Arizona, Connell and other local investors.
GREYHOUNDS & PRETTY GIRLS Manny Diel got word out
Manny Diel, who worked as wire editor for The Pueblo Star-Journal for more than four decades, also had a long association with Pueblo Greyhound Park.
Diel, a quiet man with a dry wit and wonderful smile, wrote hundreds - maybe thousands - of stories about the track for the newspaper. He interviewed owners and trainers, wrote about their greyhounds and the people themselves.
Diel's favorite thing was to pose a "pretty girl" with a winning greyhound for a newspaper photograph at least once a year. A savvy newsman, Diel knew the girl would pique the reader's interest and maybe the greyhound's accomplishments would make the story worthwhile.
Since he worked early in the day at the newspaper, Diel's evenings were free and he never missed a night of racing during the greyhound season. He also prepared entries for publication in The Pueblo Chieftain and Star-Journal and published a tip sheet at the track.
Diel died on March 13, 1997. He didn't live to see the end of live racing in Pueblo.
HERE COMES SPARKY
Naming a Hall of Fame manager
Sparky Anderson was just plain George Anderson when he labored as an average baseball player in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system.
Apparently, Anderson enjoyed spending time at Pueblo Greyhound Park nearly as much as he did playing baseball as a second baseman for the Pueblo Dodgers in 1954.
According to Pueblo lore, Anderson was late for a game at Runyon Field one night and the ballpark announcer said over the PA system, "Here comes Sparky."
That was the call for the start of each race at the track, when the mechanical rabbit "Sparky" made its move.
The name stuck. Anderson spent six years in the Dodgers organization and never gained success as a player. But "Sparky" was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager, winning World Series titles with both the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The subjects of our weekly Classic Pueblo stories are as varied as our city: longtime businesses and restaurants and interesting people and places that long have been a part of the Pueblo scene.
Greyhound racing aficionados remember good, old days
By JUDY HILDNER
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Summer evenings were spent as family time for Puebloans in the 1950s and ’60s.
Youngsters couldn't wait for evening when everyone would pile into the car and head for the kiddie rides at City Park, a drive-in movie or Runyon Field to watch the Pueblo Dodgers.
For Chuck Connell and Ray Mattarocci, magic happened in the warm twilight at Pueblo Greyhound Park. They both grew up around the park and, like thousands of Puebloans, remember that time with fondness.
"It was always kind of a fun place," Connell, now an attorney in Greeley, said. "I really did grow up there. When it first opened, there wasn't a clubhouse. There was just the grandstand and the parking lot went right up to the edge of the track.
"We had our own parking space right near the track and we'd stop the car, sit there and watch the races," Connell said.
"The thing I remember most was that it was wonderful summer entertainment."
Connell's father, Dr. J.E.A. Connell, was a founding co-owner of the track when it opened on July 15, 1949, and he was president of the financial operation until his death in 1971. Chuck Connell began working there when he turned 16 in the mid-1960s and the same was true for Mattarocci, whose connection was through his family's LaTronica's Restaurant.
While they saw the track from the inside, Puebloans have been spectators and patrons from the day the track opened. Live greyhound racing was all but abandoned in 1999, a year after the track had celebrated its 50th anniversary.
"I always hear stories about when the parking lot was completely full," current property manager Chris Warren said about the track's heyday.
Today, Warren oversees an operation that operates simulcast betting six days a week with wagering on greyhound and horse racing in Colorado and throughout the country.
Puebloans still like their greyhound racing. Warren said of all the simulcast sites in Colorado, Pueblo leads in greyhound wagering. There have been a few weeks of local racing in the past six years but it is a formality to satisfy state regulations and follows no regular schedule.
"I've always liked to have the live greyhounds," Warren said. A 20-year employee of the track, he started as a dog walker in 1988. "When we run the live greyhounds, it's good to have dogs from all the kennels."
The 120 or so patrons at the park on a good weekend now are a far cry from the hundreds who filled the grandstand nightly every summer in the early decades.
"At 7:30, they'd ring the bell and the first race would be at 8 o'clock," Mattarocci said. "I was a runner. There'd be a runner on each (betting) line. I wore a white shirt and tie."
Mattarocci carried cash to the money room after each race and moved up through the various jobs at the track through the 1960s. He was mutuel manager in 1973 and a judge for seven or eight more years.
"It was great fun. There were a lot of people on warm nights who would come out for one or two races," Mattarocci said. "I remember my aunt, Rose LaTronica, would come out with Monsignor (Joseph) Warnat and they'd sit in the car to watch the races.
"My uncle Pete (LaTronica) would call in his bets," Mattarocci said.
"It used to be a $2 bet for win-place-show," Mattarocci said. "Usually no one got hurt in the early days."
Both Connell and Mattarocci maintained some involvement in racing, but both chose other career paths. They said racing was never the same as in their youth. Mattarocci is a retired teacher and continues to coach golf, while Connell practices law in Greeley.
Track managers J.E. "Jimmie" Wright and Bob Tryon both were from the Phoenix area and made LaTronica's Restaurant their unofficial headquarters during the 90-day summer season.
Mattarocci said it was common for a group that included Tryon to have dinner at the South Side restaurant before leaving for the track.
"We all played golf together during the day and then spent the night at the track," Mattarocci said.
In August, there would be a staff family picnic at Pueblo Mountain Park in Beulah at the end of the season. The professionals moved on to other tracks and much of the local staff returned to teaching jobs and everyday life.
"It was a really nice place. There were friendly people there. It gave people a place to go," Puebloan Carolyn Deering said in a 1999 article in The Pueblo Chieftain. "It was more entertainment then.
"I started working there as a typist in the racing department in the 1960s, and that's when everybody dressed up to go to the park. The ladies wore dresses and high heels," Deering said.
Connell also remembered spending time with electrician Dewey Wright, brother of the track co-founder and the original general manager. Dewey Wright built and operated the first lure, a mechanical rabbit chased by the racing greyhounds.
In 1950, the track held a "name the rabbit" contest for a $100 prize. The winning name of "Sparky" was submitted by Stanley Sjostrom of Pueblo, who along with many patrons noticed the rabbit caused electric sparks as it clattered around the track.
Greyhound racing thrived until the advent of the Colorado Lottery in 1983 and casino-style gambling in 1991. In 1985, the Pueblo season was moved to the fall and winter, signalling the end to the warm summer nights of entertainment.
Pueblo Greyhound Park remains a South Side landmark, but nothing like it was in the boom days of Pueblo greyhound racing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CARD GAME
Birth of Pueblo Greyhound Park
Al Thomas, the last surviving member of the Pueblo Greyhound Park owners at its 50th anniversary in 1998, said the idea of a Pueblo track was conceived at a card game hosted by the late J.E.A. Connell, a Pueblo surgeon and chief of staff at St. Mary-Corwin Hospital at the time.
According to Thomas, Pueblo funeral home director George McCarthy said at the 1948 card game that it appeared greyhound racing would be legalized in Colorado.
"I'm going to try to open a track in Denver. Why don't you fellows open one in Pueblo?" McCarthy reportedly said.
Colorado voters did legalize pari-mutuel racing in November 1948. McCarthy and his associates built the lavish Mile High track in Denver and the Pueblo track was built in association with J.E. (Jimmie) Wright of Arizona, Connell and other local investors.
GREYHOUNDS & PRETTY GIRLS Manny Diel got word out
Manny Diel, who worked as wire editor for The Pueblo Star-Journal for more than four decades, also had a long association with Pueblo Greyhound Park.
Diel, a quiet man with a dry wit and wonderful smile, wrote hundreds - maybe thousands - of stories about the track for the newspaper. He interviewed owners and trainers, wrote about their greyhounds and the people themselves.
Diel's favorite thing was to pose a "pretty girl" with a winning greyhound for a newspaper photograph at least once a year. A savvy newsman, Diel knew the girl would pique the reader's interest and maybe the greyhound's accomplishments would make the story worthwhile.
Since he worked early in the day at the newspaper, Diel's evenings were free and he never missed a night of racing during the greyhound season. He also prepared entries for publication in The Pueblo Chieftain and Star-Journal and published a tip sheet at the track.
Diel died on March 13, 1997. He didn't live to see the end of live racing in Pueblo.
HERE COMES SPARKY
Naming a Hall of Fame manager
Sparky Anderson was just plain George Anderson when he labored as an average baseball player in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system.
Apparently, Anderson enjoyed spending time at Pueblo Greyhound Park nearly as much as he did playing baseball as a second baseman for the Pueblo Dodgers in 1954.
According to Pueblo lore, Anderson was late for a game at Runyon Field one night and the ballpark announcer said over the PA system, "Here comes Sparky."
That was the call for the start of each race at the track, when the mechanical rabbit "Sparky" made its move.
The name stuck. Anderson spent six years in the Dodgers organization and never gained success as a player. But "Sparky" was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager, winning World Series titles with both the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The subjects of our weekly Classic Pueblo stories are as varied as our city: longtime businesses and restaurants and interesting people and places that long have been a part of the Pueblo scene.
