Hawks to honor 1961 champions
When the 1960-61 Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, many of them figured it would be the first of many to come.
After all, the '61 Hawks had two of the NHL's brightest young stars in Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, a premier defenseman in Pierre Pilote and one of the greatest goaltenders of his time in Glenn Hall — all future Hall of Famers.
But it would be the only Cup that group won.
In fact, Mikita went on to play 22 seasons with the Hawks and Hull 15, but they never again brought home a championship. The Hawks did make it back to the Finals in 1962 only to lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs in their bid to repeat.
Those '61 Hawks will be remembered Sunday night at the United Center prior to the game against the New York Islanders, 50 years after their Stanley Cup victory.
Several of the ‘61 Hawks were at practice Saturday reminding the players of today how difficult it is to repeat, as if captain Jonathan Toews and his teammates needed any reminders after a most difficult first half of the season.
“I guess you could probably take some advice from those guys to enjoy every opportunity you get and take advantage of it,” Toews said. “No matter how good a team you have you never know when you're going to get back there.
“Obviously we're learning that it is pretty tough. Last year we worked very hard, but now you see the adversity and how difficult it is to get back to where you want to be. But we're not going to let all that shake us, that's for sure.”
Even though it was only a six-team NHL back in the day, many of the '61 Hawks believe it was just as difficult to win the Stanley Cup then as it is today.
“After you win it you're king of the hill and everyone else wants to be king of the hill and kick your butt,” said 75-year-old former left wing Ab McDonald.
“I think the good teams that you beat the year before play better against you,” said 75-year-old Bill “Red” Hay, a center on the '61 Hawks. “Our teams got better after '61, I thought, and so did the others. We weren't far away from winning, but for some reason we just didn't get there, and I thought we should of.
“We should have beat Toronto in '67, but Toronto beat us and that's the last time they won. And I hope they go 100 years.”
The 79-year-old Hall remains disappointed that he could only win one Stanley Cup in Chicago.
“We ourselves thought we were going to win the next year and we didn't,” Hall said. “It was tough to win. There were some good teams. Montreal was an excellent team, both good offensively and defensively. Toronto was absolutely great defensively, and we were more offense than defense.
“You try to remember the good things and try to forget the bad things. We didn't get paid a bunch of money or anything, but the effort was there. You can sleep nights if you know you gave everything.”
While Chicago was considered a big hockey town back in 1961, the celebration for that Stanley Cup win was nothing like the one last summer when an estimated two million people jammed the Loop for the Hawks' victory parade.
“We won it in Detroit, came back the next day, we had a little parade here and then we went home,” Hay said. “We all had summer jobs, you know?”
The ceremony tonight will be made even more special because of the presence of Hall, who has had to miss most of the nights when Hawks greats such as Hull, Mikita, Pilote, Tony Esposito and Denis Savard have been saluted because of health issues with himself and his wife.
It would only be right for the unassuming Hall to stand front and center tonight among the eight '61 Hawks who will be at the UC, even if that's a place he says is for others.
“I'm more comfortable in the back row, or in the front row at the bar,” Hall joked.
Six of the 22 players on the '61 Stanley Cup roster are deceased: Murray Balfour, Jack Evans, Reggie Fleming, Wayne Hillman, Eddie Litzenberger and Moose Vasko.