Free Skate, Naming Of Hoboken Hockey Rink After Coach 'Diddle' Today

HOBOKEN, NJ — The city of Hoboken will officially rename the city's multiservice center hockey rink after a beloved coach and former Recreation Department worker who passed away last year.

On Saturday, May 6, there will be a youth skate at 11, free skate at noon, naming at 1 and pickup game at 2. The rink is at the Multi-Service Center.

Scroll down here for more details of Saturday.

Johnny Ray "Diddle" McDonald Jr. died at 58. He founded and coached several youth and adult sports programs, the city said.

He "worked for the city of Hoboken’s Recreation Department for nearly 20 years, [and] devoted much of his adult life to coaching and mentoring Hoboken’s youth," noted the city.

Hoboken business owner and resident Roger Muller, a friend and hockey teammate of McDonald, advocated for the renaming.

"It was a pleasure to be friends with Diddles," Muller said, "and have him play on my Hoboken Rockets and Muller Insurance Ice Hockey teams at the Ice House in Hackensack." Muller noted that McDonald scored the game-winning goal in a championship in 2010.

“Coach Diddle’s commitment to Hoboken’s children will forever be memorialized at the Multi-Service Center where he dedicated so much of his time to instilling our youth with drive, confidence, patience, teamwork, and a love of the game,” said Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

He added, “His dedication to the city and passion for instructing will always be remembered, not only by us at City Hall, but in the hearts of the generations of children he mentored on a daily basis. I am honored to rename the rink in his name.”

McDonald founded the city’s first children’s instructional hockey program, supervised the City’s minor league baseball and instructional baseball programs, and coached, and mentored
children in the youth basketball program. He also founded an adult roller hockey league and was among the founders of the Church Square Men’s Basketball League.

Later this year, the City will host a dedication ceremony in which a plaque memorializing the rink as the “Johnny Ray McDonald Jr. ‘Diddle’ Hockey Rink” will be installed.

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