The Coliseum Arena or Coliseum Auditorium was an arena at 401 North Roman Street in the Tulane/Gravier neighborhood of

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. It was located at the corner of N. Roman St. and Conti St.

Venue

In early 1921, John Dillon, Frankie Edwards and Al Buja formed a boxing syndicate, Coliseum Incorporated, to develop an arena. On July 21, 1922, the 8,000-seat arena with capacity for 8,500 opened. The arena was modeled after the Milwaukee Auditorium and

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

with unobstructed views. The total costs of the four-story steel-trussed white brick-sheathed building exceeded $100,000.

Events

Boxing

The first event at the arena was a boxing match between local fighter Martin Burke and Charlie Weinert. The arena held many boxing matches including fights featuring

Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926. One of the most iconic athl ...

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1923 ...

, Joe Brown,

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed "the Brown Bomber", Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He r ...

Sugar Ray Robinson Walker Smith Jr. (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989), better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regarde ...

Willie Pastrano Wilfred Raleigh Pastrano (November 27, 1935 – December 6, 1997) was an American former professional boxer who competed from 1951 to 1965. He held the undisputed WBA, WBC, and ''The Ring'' light heavyweight titles between 1963 and 1965. Ear ...

and

Ralph Dupas Ralph Dupas (October 14, 1935 – January 25, 2008) was an American boxer from New Orleans who reigned as the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council world junior middleweight champion in 1963. Early boxing career Dupas was the second ...

. The final boxing match at the arena was held on December 14, 1959.

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling matches were held at the arena. Professional wrestler

Gorgeous George George Raymond Wagner (March 24, 1915 – December 26, 1963) was an American professional wrestler known by his ring name Gorgeous George. In the United States, during the First Golden Age of Professional Wrestling in the 1940s–1950s, Gorgeou ...

appeared at the arena almost a dozen times in the early 1950s.

Other events

The Coliseum also hosted college and high school sports events, music performances and public lectures. Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

spoke at the arena in 1957.

Arena closing

The Coliseum Arena closed in 1960.

References

{{Commonscat, Coliseum Arena, New Orleans Boxing venues in New Orleans Defunct boxing venues in the United States Defunct sports venues in New Orleans Sports venues completed in 1922 1922 establishments in Louisiana 1960 disestablishments in Louisiana