Midwest

Edgewater Park was a 20-acre amusement park at Grand River and Seven Mile Rd on Detroit's West Side that opened in 1927. For over 50 years its visitors enjoyed such attractions as the Wild Beast roller coaster, the 110-foot Ferris wheel, the Hall of...

Municipal Stadium in Kansas City opened in 1923 as??Muehlebach Field. In 1937 it became??Ruppert Stadium, before changing its name again in 1943 to Blues stadium in honor of the AAA Blues that played there. However, another, better known team played there starting in 1937:...

Before the Cincinnati??Swords,??Stingers, Cyclones, and??Mighty Ducks, Cincinnati had the Mohawks. They were a member of the American Hockey League (AHL) from 1949 to 1952, before moving to the International Hockey League (IHL), where they won 5 straight championships. Their home ice was the??Cincinnati Gardens.

The International Record Syndicate, or I.R.S. Records, was a label founded by Miles Copeland (brother of The Police's Stewart Copeland) and Jay Boberg. A division of A&M Records, its roster included some of the most important new wave acts of the '80s including R.E.M.,...

From 1987 to 1997, Aquilon, known as The Lift on Sunday nights, was the trendiest club in Cleveland's dance scene. It was located on Merwin Avenue in the Flats, right beneath the Detroit-Superior Bridge, later becoming The Smart Bar.

The St. Louis Bombers were charter members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946. In 1949 they joined the National Basketball Association when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League. The Bombers left the new league after one season.

It was the biggest event of the year, after the Christmas holiday of course, at this Cincinnati-based department store chain. Each spring, shoppers would descend on McAlpin's to pick up the craziest bargains in town. Although the store would have deals throughout the day, during...

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and played12 seasons starting in 1943 and ending in 1954. The Grand Rapids Chicks played from 1945 until the league folded, winning titles in 1947 and 1953. The AAAGPBL was founded by MLB executives Phillip Wigley, Branch...

Taking to the airwaves on 1380 AM in 1925, KFVE became KWK in 1927. From 1978 to 1984 it broadcast a rock & roll format with the slogan "the rockin' best." In 1979 it started simulcasting on 106.5 FM.

The Cleveland Stokers played in the United Soccer Association (USA) in 1967 and the North American Soccer League (formed when the USA merged with the National Professional Soccer League) in 1968. They played their home games at Cleveland Stadium. The biggest highlight of their...

The Indianapolis Chiefs hockey team played in the IHL from 1955 to 1962 at the Indiana State Fair Coliseum. They won the Turner Cup in 1958, despite having a losing record.

Though he's most famous for coaching UCLA to 10 Divisions I men's basketball championships, John Wooden??was an Indiana native who played his collegiate ball at Purdue. He coached at Indiana State before heading west.

The Captain's Steak Joynt was a chain of restaurants in Greater Milwaukee from the late '60s through the early '90s. The first location opened as Marc's Steakhouse, and the name changed several times, from Marc's to the Captain's Steak Joynt to simply The Captain's.

The Detroit Express played in the old North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Its home field was the Pontiac Silverdome. They also participated in the NASL indoor league during the 1979/80 and 1980/81 seasons.

The Marcos were a Negro league baseball team from Dayton that played mostly as an independent team from around 1910 until the start of World War II. In 1920 and 1926 they played in the Negro National League. *Design is officially licensed from the...

??The Cleveland Crusaders were charter members of the??World Hockey Association??in 1972. The team played first at the old Cleveland Arena before moving to the??Coliseum??in 1974. In 1976, the team moved to Minnesota to become the second incarnation of the Fighting Saints.??

The Cleveland Buckeyes were a Negro league baseball team and were the Negro Leagues Champions of 1945. *Design is officially licensed from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The Indianapolis Clowns a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. They came to Indianapolis in 1946 after stints in Cincinnati, Miami, and as a barnstorming team. They left the Negro American League in 1954 but continued to play exhibition games into the...

Surf Cincinnati was a water park located in Forest Park, Ohio, just off of I-275 in suburban Cincinnati. It opened in 1990 and competed with the famous Sunlite Pool, The Beach, and Kings Island's new water park. In 2000, a nightclub called??Caddy's??was added after...

KXOK St. Louis went on the air on September 19, 1938 at 1250 on the AM dial. It moved to 630 two years later. One of the members of the air staff was Paul Aurandt, who would later become newscaster Paul Harvey. In its...

As the cold wind rolls through the Bistate, St. Louis baseball fans' thoughts turn to Florida and spring training.??

Established in Buffalo in 1999, the Destroyers were an Arena League Football team that moved to Columbus in 2004. In 2008, the team ceased operations but was revived in the winter of 2019. However, six months later, the entire league went out of business.

Lincoln Mall opened in 1973 at the corner of U.S. Route 30 and Cicero Avenue in Matteson, Illinois. For the next 42 years shoppers to roamed its two levels, four anchor stores, and 250,000 square feet of retail space. In 2015, the inside of...

Rolling Acres Mall in Akron opened its doors for the first time on August 6, 1975 with 21 stores and Sears as its first anchor.?? Over the years it expanded to 140 stores and five anchors, becoming the top shopping destination in the Akron...

The Detroit Lightning was an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) for the 1979-80 season. Their home arena was Cobo Hall. In the spring of 1980, they moved to San Francisco to become the Fog. After a year in Northern California,...

The Bat opened in 1981 as the world's first suspended roller coaster. However, frequent mechanical problems forced it to close after the 1983 season. Learning from The Bat's shortcomings, the ride's manufacturer, Arrow Dynamics, was able to develop a much more successful second generation...

King Cobra was the first coaster to be designed and built specifically as a stand-up coaster. The ride opened in 1984. The original manufacturer, TOGO, went out of business in 2001 making parts difficult to find causing the ride to close after the 2002...

Gray Drug was founded in 1912. In the 1960s it bought Cincinnati-based Rink's discount department store, later merging it with Cleveland's Bargain City. The drug store chain to over 100 stores by the 1970s. In 1987, Gray Drug was acquired by Rite Aid.

The Detroit Printing Co-Op was founded by Freddy Perlman, a prolific and widely respected political writer and thinker. Perlman and his wife Lorraine printed all the books published by their press, Black & Red, at the co-op from 1970-1980. Other groups made use of...

The Big 8 Conference was a college athletic conference formed in 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association and included the University of Kansas, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska, Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, and University of Iowa. Membership grew to 10, but in 1928, it...