McNabb, who now lives in the state of Washington, first moved to East Lansing in 1968 when his father took a job as a professor at MSU. McNabb honed his hockey skills on the rinks of East Lansing, oftentimes spending significant hours a week on the ponds.

“On a nice, cold winter night these places were packed with everything from figure skaters to older people to kids enjoying the opportunity to get outside in the winter and get some exercise,” McNabb said.

Outdoor ice skating rinks are a staple in northern states, with cities and citizens creating rinks that dot all across the state.

“We grew up in St. Johns, Michigan and spent hours with our friends skating on outdoor ice rinks,” East Lansing resident Dorothy Spousta said. “There wasn't any hot cocoa sold or skates rented or a warming hut, but what it provided the local kids of all ages (for free) was healthy exercise and creative ways to "play" outside in the cold winter months.”

Spousta said she would love to share the experience of the outdoor rinks with her granddaughters when the rink opens in East Lansing.

East Lansing’s rinks were a mainstay in the city, bringing the community together in a unique way.

“We used to get all the kids from the neighborhood, you’d get your skates and just carry them over your shoulder and walk over to the rink,” former East Lansing resident John Stoll said. “I just remember that the rink, it was always very busy.”

Stoll, who grew up in the Glencairn Elementary School area of East Lansing, said the rink often brought kids from different schools together in one spot, something that rarely happened.

“It was almost like they were from a different country because they were from a different elementary school,” Stoll said. “But they would come and we would meet up with them at the ice rink and get know some of them.”

While the rink today will be supervised and maintained, Stoll expressed how the rough ice and lack of parents was what it made part of the experience.

“The edges of the rink, every time you tried to get off it were always really bumpy because of the grass underneath it,” Stoll said. “You’d always fall down. I think I did more crashing than skating.”

MSU has its own history knotted together with the ice rinks of East Lansing.

“As I got to college, the rink at Valley Court was a very popular place for pick-up hockey games — the fraternities around the area often had groups or teams that would take on all comers,” McNabb said. “As the drinking age was 18 then there was generally a 12-pack in the snowbank for when the game was over, but they would go on for hours.”

MSU’s hockey team inadvertently helped create the hockey culture in the area.

“We used to go over to Dem Hall and watch the hockey game before Munn was built and we used to get broken sticks,” Stoll said. “The hockey team used to pass out broken sticks and we would take them home and wrap them up and take them over to the rink.”

Even a couple MSU hockey stars found time to sharpen their skills on the rink. They left many a competitor dumbfounded at their already glaring skill set.

“I remember when I was about 17-18 (years old) myself, and two of the Miller kids that were probably half my age could take on the whole crowd, many another 10-20 people,” McNabb said. “Those two kids would be pretty much unstoppable — I just had to play defense and feed them, probably why they made it to the NHL and I didn’t, ha.”

Somewhere along the line the rinks stopped becoming a popular spot and perhaps became a liability to the city. It’s back now and is open free to the public, but there won’t be any hockey.

“I have always wondered why that stopped, guessing money and liability, and it would be cool to see it back again,” McNabb said.