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Originally Posted by monkeyman
I’d be interested in hearing more about this.
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So normally there would not be a requirement to have a guard in the Corral all night, as a normal guard rotation would do a walk through, ensuring doors were locked, no smoke smells or water on the floor. On nights where the building and adjacent buildings had events, a guard would be in the Corral all night. Might be a car show or other event that extended into the Corral.
Anyway, those shifts would start at perhaps ten pm, and would go until the following day. As a year round part time guard with seniority (I forget when guards were employed as both Stampede and Flames guards), I could select events, including flames games, to work at, or longer overnight shifts that gave the most hours. I normally worked the Olympic Lounge for maybe a quarter of home games and an area by the dressing rooms for the rest of the games. I was there for numerous coaches corners, Trevor Kidd's first start (or maybe home start) and lot's of other memories. When I meet Flames alumni now, they often recognize me, but don't remember it was because I was the guard when they were in the NHL. We were mostly around the same age, me a student earning about minimum wage and they were pro athletes. I was lifting weights so we would often chat about strength programs. I don't recall a negative encounter with a single player on any team. I laughed once at some wrestling shenanigans that poured into the backstage area and the wrestlers kind of pretended to still be angry, but only kind of, and Bruno Sammartino (in a suit, must of been WWF management at the time) sort of scolded me.
Anyway, you get to the Corral and it is already night time, most of the lights are off. I would always bring a tennis ball to throw around (think of the Shining) - no cell phones or electronics available to really keep you busy. There were always odd sounds, things echoing from nowhere. I would always hunt down the photo of the dead boxer, it was behind a curtain wall in one of the doorways in one of the east entrances. Once you find it, it is an old black and white photo and article, with the faint image of the boxer in the ring, I believe facing up towards the camera that seems to be taken from somewhere above the ring, perhaps a seat higher up. I don't remember the year, but a very long time ago. Really creepy for the time and place. Walking around, the old black and white photos just stare at you. Once in a while, a door will rattle, someone on the other side trying to get in. By the time I get there, there is no one there, the street is empty. This would happen, never knew if another guard was messing with me or I was hearing things.
Once you settle down, grab your book and start focusing on reading, a sound would grab your attention and you look around, wondering what it was and where it came from. Only your eyes require time to focus, so you start thinking you see something at the farthest end, in the dark. The longer you ignore it, the harder it becomes to read. This would happen over and over, all night, as you struggle to stay awake.
I probably did a few dozen graveyard shifts in the Corral and numerous other shifts overnight in other parts of the Stampede grounds. For a high school and university student, lots of fun. The Stampede brought it's own challenges, from stabbings, 'gang' fights and other nonsense, but I did meet a few bands and got to flirt with who would years later become my dad's long term girlfriend when she was a regular Stampede act (we never once brought it up to him).
The Corral memories really makes me shudder.