The Coliseum

The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum opened in 1972 in Uniondale, Long Island, built in part to attract an NHL expansion franchise and prevent the rival World Hockey Association from establishing a presence in the newly constructed arena. The New York Islanders became its primary tenant, and for the next decade, the building and the team would grow up together.

By 1980, the relationship between arena and team had become something special. The Islanders won their first Stanley Cup that spring, and Nassau Coliseum became a place of pilgrimage for Long Island hockey fans. The nickname "Fort Neverlose" wasn't invented by a marketing department — it grew organically from the fear that visiting teams felt when they skated onto that ice for a playoff game.

The building was Spartan by later standards. The locker rooms were functional rather than luxurious. The sightlines were close, which made the crowd noise overwhelming. Players on opposing teams described the experience of playing there in the playoffs as one of the most hostile environments in professional hockey — a raucous, passionate Long Island crowd that knew its team and believed absolutely in its destiny.

Between 1980 and 1984, the Islanders did not lose a single playoff series at Nassau Coliseum. The building became the spiritual home of a dynasty, a place where champions were made and legends were born. Bob Nystrom's overtime goal in 1980. Mike Bossy's brilliance year after year. Billy Smith's ferocious goaltending. All of it happened here, on this ice, in front of these fans.

The Islanders eventually left for Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2015, and Nassau Coliseum has undergone renovations since. The building itself still stands. But the Fort Neverlose that exists in the memory of Islander fans — that perfect, ferocious, dynasty-era arena — belongs now to history, to those who were there, and to anyone willing to look back and understand what was accomplished on Long Island in those four extraordinary years.