Phil Welch Stadium, Bode Ice Arena, and the REC Center

Together, Phil Welch Stadium, Bode Ice Arena, and the REC Center make up the core of Saint Joseph’s public fitness and sporting facilities. The many league and winter sports provided among them ensure that all community residents, young and old, may enjoy the benefits of an active and engaging lifestyle. Phil Welch stadium is the home of the St. Joseph Mustangs, a minor league baseball team.

The roots of Phil Welch Stadium extend much deeper into our local history than its 1939 opening would initially suggest. Two semi-professional teams, John Albus’s Red Stockings and Nin Alexander’s Maroons were contending for a spot in the Western League as far back as 1886. With the Red Stocking’s massive defeat, the two teams were combined. Professional baseball games then called various fields home in Saint Joseph until it fizzled out completely in 1926.

The year 1930 saw the construction of a modern ballpark, located on Messanie Street, for use by the St. Louis Cardinal farm team and a resurging interest in baseball. This renewed interest in baseball was particularly noteworthy as the park facility burned only a year later. Baseball persevered, however, as fans purchased tickets to watch games held within the burned-out ruins from an overlooking hill.

This spirit held until 1935, when a court order forced the closure of the ballpark ruins as a public nuisance. Baseball again went dormant until the arrival of two smaller parks with the 1939 season. The professional quality City Stadium, located along the Southwest Parkway system, was opened later in the same season. In the years since, Phil Welch Stadium has hosted at least six Hall of Famers, and it was here that a young Saint Louis-native, Yogi Berra, became the first high school player to send a ball rocketing over Phil Welch’s fence during the 1943 American Legion Tournament, a distance of 420 feet. Later, in 1980, the City Stadium was renamed the Phil Welch Stadium in honor of mayor Phil J. Welch (1936-1946).

Although Saint Joseph’s interest in semi-professional baseball has continued to wax and wane in the years since, our stadium has survived, and continues to host a multitude of activities in addition to baseball, from boxing and music festivals to weddings.

           Located next to Phil Welch Stadium along the parkway is yet another of Saint Joseph’s important sporting treasures—the George J. Bode Ice Arena. The Bode Ice Arena was a multiyear project. Construction by the Brooner-Thomas Construction Company began in 1973. This indoor winter sports facility was named in honor of banker and noted Saint Joseph philanthropist, George Bode Jr. (1868-1955), whose charitable trust had then provided for the $1 million facility (roughly $5.7 to 6.9 million in 2023 dollars).

           After extended planning, inspection, and approval by the City Council, the arena first opened its doors to the public on October 3, 1975. The continued funding of the Bode Arena remained a point of contention among city officials for many years afterward. However, just as with the Phil Welch Stadium, the Bode arena’s public popularity has proven to be a community staple and a capable launchpad for stardom.

The Saint Joseph Figure Skating Club was chartered by the United States Figure Skating Association in 1977. In March of that year it achieved noteworthy regional marks, with members placing between 2nd and 7th place throughout various events at the annual Creve Coeur Ice Skating Competition in Saint Louis, MO. Hockey also gained traction among youth, with 2 youth divisions by 1978. They hosted their first tournament in February of that year—with teams from Columbia, Wichita, Kansas City, and Saint Joseph competing.

Ice sports, and most notably figure skating, have continued to thrive in Saint Joseph into the current era. The talent that would be produced in Bode Arena continued to grow. In 1996, a 16-year-old, Bode arena-raised Ryan Bradley would leave Saint Joseph for Colorado Springs. When a seasoned Bradley returned in 2011 to hold an ice show, Live, with Ryan Bradley, and in 2017, to host skate sessions in conjunction with the Pony Express Championships, he would be a Skate Canada International silver medalist and the US national champion.

Bode Ice Arena continues to host champion talent. In 2019, Gracie Gold, originally of Springfield, MO, a 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic bronze medalist and two-time US national champion hosted a coaching event as part of her Road to Gold Skating Camp. Both skaters have communicated the strength of community-based skating centers in fulfilling their dreams.

Indeed, as the years have passed, the Bode Ice Arena has continued to grow in exciting ways. The Saint Joseph Curling Club was founded in 2012. This club continues to draw in would-be athletes, young and old, to try their hand (or broom, perhaps) at the fun and curious sport. And for those who, equipped with mittens, would rather enjoy the fun from the stands, the mayor’s annual Christmas party continues to be a popular event, featuring a free skate, a visit from Santa Claus, and performances from local, competition, and collegiate skaters.

The latest addition to the growing collection of the community’s multi-sport complexes is the Saint Joseph Recreation, Exercise, and Community (REC) Center. This 33,000 square-foot facility was opened in July of 2012. It served as a replacement for the Muchenberger Center, then a recreation facility housed within an aging paint and wallpaper plant, operating since 1936. The modern REC Center, although it does not bear the name of its replacement, nevertheless carries his legacy of bringing a love of activity and exercise to Saint Joseph. In doing so, the REC Center brings the trio of complexes full circle. Long before Ryan Bradley, and even before Yogi Berra was trying his best to ruin windshields outside of the City Stadium— a certain 24-year-old Leo J. Muchenberger was, in 1891, playing baseball with the very same crowd that started it all.

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