It was 2015, and the Boston University men’s hockey team had just defeated North Dakota 5-3 at TD Garden to punch its ticket to the National Championship being hosted in their home city.
Before meeting their Hockey East rivals, Providence, in the National Championship, the Terriers first had one stop: the highly anticipated Hobey Baker Award Ceremony.
Jack Eichel, then a freshman forward, was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award — an honor he would ultimately win. Presented annually, the Hobey Baker Award recognizes the most outstanding player in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey, celebrating exceptional skill, sportsmanship and character.
Each year, the Hobey Baker Award Ceremony is held in a location tied to the Frozen Four host city. In 2015, it was staged at Matthews Arena in Boston.
Bernie Corbett, BU’s play-by-play announcer for the past 40 years, served as master of ceremonies at the 2015 Hobey Baker Ceremony, held under the very roof that spearheaded his lifelong passion for hockey.
“I got up there and I said, ‘What an honor it is to be in a building where my father played goalie for Stoneham High in 1949, where my mother, as a BU student, attended the first Beanpot in 1952, and where I saw my first BU hockey game on November 25, 1967,’” Corbett recalled.
Matthews Arena — originally known as the Boston Arena — was built in 1910. Recognized as the world’s oldest multi-purpose athletic facility still in use, it has hosted countless sports teams, concerts and political gatherings.
Over the years, United States presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt, addressed crowds there. Legendary artists such as The Doors, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes and Bob Dylan filled the venue with music.
Yet Matthews Arena’s legacy is most deeply rooted in Boston sports. As the city’s inaugural sports venue, it hosted the first games played by both the Boston Celtics and Bruins.
Long before professional sports took center stage, however, colleges and high schools across Boston and its surrounding towns laid claim to the rink, making it a cornerstone of the region’s athletic community.
“Everybody played there,” Corbett explained.
The Greater Boston Interscholastic was the first high school hockey league in America. They played at Matthews Arena according to Corbett.
BU played its inaugural game there in 1917 against Boston College. The Terriers remained at Matthews Arena until 1971, when Walter Brown Arena opened.
BC began its hockey history there too, playing at Matthews until 1965. That year, the Eagles moved into McHugh Forum, located on the same site where Conte Forum now stands.
Harvard skated at Matthews until 1956, when the university opened the old Watson Rink. Today, Harvard’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center sits on the same ground.
Northeastern’s hockey program has been tied to Matthews from the beginning. Since 1930, every home game in the history of Northeastern hockey has been played there, making Matthews Arena inseparable from the Huskies’ identity.
“You had a lot of local guys on all those teams, and routinely you had teammates who would end up playing against each other,” Corbett said.
The four Boston schools regularly played doubleheaders at Matthews, and from that tradition came the idea to turn those matchups into a tournament — the Beanpot.
The Beanpot has since evolved into one of the biggest tournaments in college hockey. Annually, it brings national recognition to the Boston schools’ hockey teams and is a hallmark of Boston sports culture.
That sense of community around the arena extended beyond the games themselves, shaping the childhoods of countless local kids who grew up in its shadow.
“It was like daycare,” Corbett recalled. “Kids would be over there hanging out at the rink. A lot of kids tell the same stories, growing up around the arena.”
On Saturday, BU and Northeastern will fittingly face off in the final game ever played on Matthews Arena’s ice. Both programs hold the distinction of having the longest tenure of any sports team under its historic roof.
Corbett routinely starts his broadcasts that take place at Matthews with “welcome back to Matthews Arena, the ancestral home of BU hockey,” so both teams stake claim to the rink.
Corbett described the closing chapter of the arena as “pretty overwhelming.” For more than a century, Boston’s hockey community has gathered there — at what he calls “the Mecca,” “the absolute epicenter” and “the focal point” of Boston hockey.
Northeastern, BU and Hockey East alumni will join a sold-out crowd on Saturday to honor the closing of the oldest ice rink still in use.
“People have taken notice of it,” Corbett said. “This is the end, and everybody wants to be there.”
For many, the building represents far more than just a rink — it is a place where rivalries were born, championships were won and century-long memories were made.
Matthew’s closing marks the end of an era in Boston hockey history, but also serves as a reminder of the arena’s enduring legacy as the foundation of the city’s sporting culture.
“We talk about it all the time, but we should talk about it all. I can give you so many examples. The hockey community is different — it’s special,” Corbett said.
Matthews has been a constant thread for a century, connecting personal memories with the broader history of Boston hockey and its community.
“My story is a similar story to literally generations,” Corbett said. “That’s why this is gonna resonate, and is resonating so much to such a degree to generations of hockey people.”