ON THE SCENE: Roamers remembered at new ORDA bistro

by Naj Wikoff

An excerpt from The Lake Placid News, November 24, 2022:

Black and white image of three Lake Placid Roamers hockey players Larry Straight, Phil Lalande and Ken Lebel skidding to a stop together in the 1932 rink.
Lake Placid Roamers hockey players Larry Straight, Phil Lalande, and Ken Lebel skidding to a stop together in the rink now known as 1932 Jack Shea Arena (photo provided by the Lake Placid Olympic Museum).

The state Olympic Regional Development Authority has named its new bar and bistro in the Miracle Building after a hockey team, but not the one you’d might think. It’s called Roamers Lake Placid.

For anyone who lived in Lake Placid from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s, the Roamers were a beloved semi-pro hockey team based in the 1932 Olympic Arena. They didn’t just play in the arena; they filled it with screaming fans. As Fats Waller would have said, had he attended a game, “The Joint is Jumpin’.”

“Naming the cafeteria after the Roamers makes sense; they were a great part of our heritage,” said Martin [former Roamers hockey player Butch Martin and current manager of the Town of North Elba Park District]. “And their locker room is still there. If you enter the rink from the Hall of Fame hallway, the room on the left was always called the Roamer Room. It was Percy Drouin’s pride and joy. He kept track of it all week for the players, and he was the only one with the key to getting in there. He’s another great story; he came down to play and ended up staying here, working for Bart Patnode, and becoming a coach and local legend.”

Click here to read the full article with photos.