Your Little Hockey Fans can Celebrate '50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers' with the St. Louis Blues

For the past 50 years, the St. Louis Blues have thrilled families throughout the region – and across the country – with heart-racing plays, pulse-pounding action and adrenaline-pumping heroics.

With the new exhibition, “50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers – A Tribute to the St. Louis Blues and Their Fans”, the St. Louis Public Library is bringing the excitement off the ice and into the halls of downtown’s Central Library, located at 1301 Olive St., to honor not only the generations of skilled athletes who have called St. Louis home, but the dedicated fans who bleed blue year after year.

Remarked Cathy Heimberger, the Library’s director of marketing, “The partnership between the St. Louis Public Library and the St. Louis Blues is an amazing opportunity, a chance for two great St. Louis institutions with amazing history to come together and showcase to the public that history and to celebrate the franchise’s 50^th anniversary.”

50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers was curated in part by Blues die-hards themselves. Over the past few months, fans generously loaned their cherished jerseys, sticks and other hockey tchotchkes to the Library, filling cases with memories made on the rink. By seeing the team through the fans’ eyes, guests get a greater sense of the impact the Blues have made on the city and those who live here.

The exhibit begins in the Great Hall on Central’s second floor, where your family will step back in time by walking into a reproduction of the old Arena, complete with an ice floor rink, goalie net, original dasher boards, Glenn Hall statue replica, and wall murals of past and present players. From there, you’ll head to the Blues Locker Room, featuring 30 player jerseys, including the original prototype, 60 game-used hockey sticks, and the collection of fan memorabilia, which fills eight display cases.

While 50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers runs now through March 4, 2017, it’s only the beginning to a long-lasting relationship between these two beloved St. Louis organizations.

“The mission of the St. Louis Public Library is to provide the public with learning resources and information that support and improve individual, family and community life,” said Heimberger. “By sharing this exhibit with the region, we’re furthering our mission. But even more exciting is that once the exhibit ends, the partnership will continue. The Library will become the official archival site for the Blues, preserving the team’s history for years to come and making it available to the public.”

Long after the exhibit is over, fans will still be able to observe the photos, programs, rosters, and promotional items donated by the team and the fans to celebrate the legacies of our kings on ice.

Throw on your jersey, paint your face blue and head downtown for an event 50 years in the making! The exhibit is completely free to visit and is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Library also invites you to share your Blues memories by using the hashtag #SLPLBlues50. For more information on 50 Years of Blood, Sweat and Cheers, visit the St. Louis Public Library website at www.slpl.org.

_{Photo: St. Louis Public Library}