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Miners Memorial Building

The Miners Memorial Recreation Building was formerly located in Virginia Minnesota on 9th Ave. South 55792.  The barrel shaped building was built by the city of Virginia Minnesota in 1957 for the Virginia Blue Devils high school hockey team - and served as the blue Devils home ice for 62 years until the newly developed Miners Entertainment and Convention Center (MECC - later renamed the Iron Trail Motors Event Center) that opened in October of 2021 .  The Miners was the 2nd indoor arena in Virginia behind that of old 1923 built Virginia Recreation building that housed hockey and curling.  The Arena itself was named after Virginia native Randolph Bruno Bree Cuppoletti (born June 19, 1910 - September 22, 1960) whom ironically wasn't a professional hockey player, but rather a professional football player that played guard for six seasons with the Chicago Cardinals and the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Miners Memorial Building/Bree Cupoletti Arena housed 2 sheets of ice, and was a multi-use facility known for hosting a wide array of events, and various recreational shows in the summer months.  The lobby area of the building featured some nice native Virginia hockey photos of players that went on to play Collegiate, professional and Olympic hockey.  Additionally a nice Carlson Brothers mural display adorned a wall within the lobby - dedicated in memory to their father Jack Carlson - whom additionally all call Virginia home, and once donned a Blue Devils uniform.  The last high school game played was between former rivals [Virginia Blue Devils and Eveleth Golden Bears] - future co-op teams held on March 20, 2021

The arena was centrally located in Virginia and less than five minutes from the historic downtown district. 

Following the development of the Iron Trail Motors Event Center (located at 919 6th St. South in Virginia, MN) the historic Miners Memorial building was demolished in the summer of 2021.