For it was a splendid stadium, elegantly framing unforgettable moments for a generation of sports fans and bolstering a city's image with its ...
Oh, who are we kidding?
As an awkwardly flat and rectangular sports structure that grew obsolete before you could buy a beer, Reunion perishes as a Dallas disappointment. In scratching out an appropriate eulogy for the joint on 777 Sports St., I struggled to produce a list of feel-good memories and resorted to consulting the microfiche for a handful of home-grown defining moments.
And I started going to Reunion Arena on April 28, 1980.
When John McEnroe served his first ace that night as part of the World Championship Tennis Finals, mayor Robert Folsom's $27 million venture seemed like a bargain. At a time when you could smoke anywhere you damn well pleased in Dallas, Reunion was all glassy and classy, destined to attract major sports, house multiple championships and create indelible images. But something happened on the way to Reunion becoming Madison Square Garden South.
