Moment of Indiana History

Moment of Indiana History: Scripts

Coliseum Explosion of 1963
MP3 Audio

From a “ Holiday ” to a tragedy… the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum explosion of 1963…on this Moment of Indiana History.

Fans know that before Conseco Fieldhouse, the Indiana Pacers called Market Square Arena home. The Indianapolis basketball team played in that downtown location from 1974 to 1999, shortly before the arena was demolished. Before the Pacers joined the NBA, however, their home court was an old coliseum on the Indiana State Fairgrounds. When the newly formed team started playing there in 1967, it was the first significant booking the venue had seen in four years.

The Fairgrounds Coliseum had been the site of one of the state's deadliest disasters. On Halloween night 1963, more than 4,000 spectators were packed into the building for a Holiday on Ice performance when, during the finale, there was a massive explosion. A leak in a valve supplying propane to the popcorn warmer was responsible for a blast that sent bodies flying 60 feet, killing 74 and injuring more than 400 people. Although more than the usual number of police officers did happen to be on duty—anticipating vandalism that night, along with other Halloween pranks—and the city's emergency preparedness system mobilized quickly, it was fairly overwhelmed by the catastrophe. The coliseum was set up as a makeshift morgue, the bodies of the victims laid out across the ice and covered in blankets. As the victims' families came to identify the corpses the following day, a field team from the Ohio State University Disaster Research Center conducted interviews with members of the twelve organizations involved in the response. The team ultimately published its findings in Disaster in Aisle 13, its first case study. Having examined the chain of events following the 1963 explosion, the team formulated conclusions about notification, mobilization, authority, communication, and coordination in the wake of an emergency that continue to be relevant. In the year following the tragedy, Indianapolis' inter-hospital communication system was significantly upgraded.

Although a Marion County grand jury indicted fire officials, coliseum managers, and gas company personnel on various charges, a single conviction was handed down, only to be, ultimately, overturned. Victims and survivors were awarded about 4.6 million dollars in settlements. Later in the decade, the Pacers breathed new life into the building, which went on to be restored and renamed the Pepsi Coliseum in 1991.

This Moment of Indiana History is a production of the Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations in association with the Indiana Historical Society. More information is available at “Moment of Indiana history dot org."

Writer: Yael Ksander

For more information: