The Beginning of the End of The Aud

((HT: WIVB-TV/McClintick-Lenahan))

A bitter sweet day in Buffalo, as the final pieces of Memorial Auditorium came crashing down.
The die hards were there early, and they waited for the last roof truss of the old Memorial Auditorium to come down.

"Bring the family down and the dog and we're gonna watch it," said Joe Coleman.

His kids were born after the Aud closed, but for Joe Coleman, he has plenty of memories of this old building.

Coleman said, "My first concert in 1978 seeing STYX, I saw the Dead in here, Triumph, the bands unbelievable, hockey games, Buffalo Braves games, the circuses, everything, lot of memories in that building, if those walls could talk."

The McGraths missed the first roof trusses coming down, and wanted to come down and marvel at the engineering of the building, which was finished being built in 1940.

"You see how that was built it was like a fortress, and they really could have re-functioned it somehow I think," said Ann Marie McGrath.

But, she understands it's all in the name of progress.

And like the other parts of the roof, the last truss came crumbling down, as close to one hundred on-lookers stood on the sidewalks, taking pictures and reliving the old glory days.

Mike Morin knows it'll be years before his kids appreciate being here.
"Probably something they'll remember forever, it's pretty neat," said Mike Morin.

And what did they think today?
"It was really cool," said Patrick Morin.

Ashley had a different opinion, she called it "Pretty scary!"

The final south wall of the old Aud will be coming down sometime next week, you'll be able to watch it live here on WIVB.com.

Here's the story from Saturday, thanks to our friends at Channel 4...

And all this does is give us an excuse to show the last game ever played at the Aud:

April 14, 1996 with the Sabres and the Hartford Whalers- Rick Jeannerette has the call...

As he should...

((HT: Empire Sports Network/NHL))