{"id":4951,"date":"2026-05-31T12:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=4951"},"modified":"2026-05-31T12:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T12:53:14","slug":"blackhawks-100-years-of-drama-and-dramatics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmupgrades.com\/?p=4951","title":{"rendered":"Blackhawks’ 100 years of drama and dramatics"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Compared to other NHL organizations, the highs and lows of the Blackhawks<\/a>\u2019 100-year history uniquely correlate with the passage of their ownership through different hands.<\/p>\n

Although hockey fans take pride in the intensity of the spotlight on players and the relative lack of a spotlight on owners \u2014 the Stanley Cup is the only of the Big Four trophies handed first to the team captain, not the owner \u2014 it has been a bit different in Chicago.<\/p>\n

There was chaos under Frederic McLaughlin, success under Arthur Wirtz, ineptitude under Bill Wirtz and glory under Rocky Wirtz.<\/p>\n

But it was actually someone else altogether \u2014 Huntington Hardwick \u2014 who received the initial ownership of the NHL\u2019s Chicago franchise 100 years ago on May 15, 1926.<\/p>\n

Hardwick, a Bostonian, owned the team for less than a month before selling it to a group of Chicago businessmen, including McLaughlin. He paid $12,000 for the not-yet-named Hawks and sold them for $120,000, having spent $100,000 in between to buy a full roster of players from a team in Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n

Today, the Hawks are valued at approximately $2.8 billion (according to Forbes), seventh-highest in the NHL. They also have the sixth-most wins all-time (2,943), although looking at that stat from a different angle, they\u2019re the only Original Six team with a losing record all-time.<\/p>\n

As the franchise enters its second century, here\u2019s a look back at its first:<\/p>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s Hawks<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Hawks\u2019 second owner, an army major who had inherited a fortune from his father\u2019s coffee business, soon gave the Hawks their name, inspired by the nickname of his army unit during World War I \u2014 a nickname that came from Sauk general Black Hawk.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s more famous wife, actress and dancer Irene Castle, designed the original \u201cIndian head\u201d logo. It has since managed to outlast most other Native American-inspired sports logos, albeit not without controversy. <\/p>\n

This was a Wild West era for the fledgling NHL, and the Hawks under McLaughlin were equally disorganized, churning through 13 head coaches in 18 years before McLaughlin died in 1944. One coach, Godfrey Matheson, got the job after a chance meeting with McLaughlin on a train, then lasted only two games during the 1932-33 season before getting fired.<\/p>\n

McLaughlin was known for his erratic, hot-headed personality and a micromanaging ownership style that almost certainly wouldn\u2019t have jibed with modern professional sports.<\/p>\n

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Blackhawks owner Frederic McLaughlin (right) sitting with short-lived coach Emil Iverson during the 1932-33 season.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Chicago History Museum\/Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Daily News collection<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

The Hawks had winning records in only six of those 18 seasons, but in a league with so few teams, the margin between subpar and best wasn\u2019t large.<\/p>\n

The team claimed its first Stanley Cup in 1934 after posting a good-but-not-great 20-17-11 record in the regular season, then dispatching the Canadiens, the now-defunct Montreal Maroons and the Red Wings in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Diminutive forward Mush March, one of the most iconic Hawks players of the era, scored the Cup-winning goal in double overtime at Chicago Stadium, igniting a cathartic celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we got out of the Stadium until after 2 a.m.,\u201d March told the Sun-Times later in life.<\/p>\n

The Hawks claimed their second Cup in 1938 in a more bizarre fashion. They went 14-25-9 in the regular season but benefitted from a playoff system that qualified six of eight teams and had an advantageous bracket format.<\/p>\n

Facing a Maple Leafs team in the Cup Final that had a much better record, the Hawks allegedly pulled Leafs reserve goaltender Alfie Moore out of a pub to start Game 1 because their own starting goalie, Mike Karakas, had broken his toe. A drunken Moore led the Hawks to an unlikely victory, and they went on to win the series 3-1 after Karakas returned to the net.<\/p>\n

That made Karakas, a Minnesota native, not only the first American-born and -trained goalie to play in the NHL, but also the first to win the Cup. That was a theme of the early Hawks under McLaughlin, who prioritized American-born players in an era dominated by Canadians.<\/p>\n

The 1938 Hawks featured eight Americans, headlined by Karakas and fellow Minnesota natives Doc Romnes and Cully Dahlstrom \u2014 the most on any Cup-winning team until the 2016 Penguins. And captain Johnny Gottselig was just the second Russian-born player in NHL history (and the first to win a Cup).<\/p>\n

Arthur Wirtz\u2019s Hawks<\/b><\/h3>\n

McLaughlin\u2019s death led to the Hawks being sold to a syndicate group led by James Norris, who also owned the Red Wings and yielded significant financial influence over the Rangers and Bruins.<\/p>\n

Norris\u2019 conflicts of interest \u2014 and reported relative lack of interest in the Hawks \u2014 ushered in a stretch of irrelevance in which the Hawks made the playoffs only twice in 12 years, despite the league\u2019s generous playoff format.<\/p>\n

Attendance fell to just 4,000 per game in 1953, prompting rumors of relocation to St. Louis. But the franchise managed to stay afloat until its fortunes turned in 1959, led by an up-and-coming young core of forwards Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, defenseman Pierre Pilote and goalie Glenn Hall \u2014 all future Hockey Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

By then, former Wings minority owner Arthur Wirtz \u2014 a 6-4, 340-pound behemoth of a man known for his shrewd business acumen and intimidating personality \u2014 had gained control of the team, bringing the Hawks under the Wirtz family umbrella.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Arthur<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Arthur Wirtz had built an empire by gobbling up real estate during the Great Depression, and he viewed sports as a means to an end \u2014 the end being profit \u2014 rather than a passion project.<\/p>\n

For the Hawks, losses to the Canadiens in the 1959 and 1960 semifinals built anticipation for a 1961 breakthrough, when they finally bested the Canadiens and Wings to claim their third Cup. After a snowstorm briefly stranded the team in Detroit, it returned to hear Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley call the Hawks \u201cthe greatest hockey team ever put together any place in this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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