5-decade journey complete

Any time a Chicago team wins a sports championship, distant memories are as vivid as the current one.

So when the Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1961, the franchise's good, bad and ugly of the past half-century flashed back to mind.

That means everyone from Arthur Wirtz to Rocky Wirtz, from Tommy Ivan to Dale Tallon and Stan Bowman, from Rudy Pilous to Joel Quenneville.

Included are everyone in between from the famous like Tony Esposito, Denis Savard and Chris Chelios to the infamous like Orval Tessier, Sergei Krivokrasov and Ken Yaremchuk.

Also included is everything from the Hawks squandering Game 7 of the 1971 Stanley Cup Final to Montreal -

Yes, right up to Wednesday night's glorious, uproarious 4-3 overtime victory at Philadlephia in Game 6 of the 2010 Final.

Patrick Kane's winning goal completed the bridge and Hawks fans can complete the five-decade journey from Cup to Cup.

The champs all run together now, proud to be side by side in Hawks' lore, Kane with Bobby Hull, Jonathan Toews with Stan Mikita, Duncan Keith with Pierre Pilote, dare we say Antti Niemi with Glenn Hall -

This is no time to debate which player is better than which or which team is better than which, because all their names are worthy of being etched into the Stanley Cup.

All that matters is that the 2010 Hawks have joined the 1961 Hawks - along with the '34 and '38 Hawks - as NHL champions.

There they are in the mind's eye hugging each other like a multi-generational band of brothers: Big Buff Byfuglien and Moose Vasko, Dave Bolland and Bill Hay, Patrick Sharp and Elbows Nesterenko -

From that era to this era, they're all major figures in Hawks' history because they all committed to the Indian.

Every player from that Stanley Cup champion was good enough to represent the feathers in the logo and every player from this Stanley Cup champion is, too.

They might as well be skating around the rink together now: Brent Seabrook and Tex Evans, Tomas Kopecky and Eddie Litzenberger, Andrew Ladd and Murray Balfour -

The question could be asked, what took so long? Why did the Hawks have to have the NHL's longest championship drought before winning again?

But let's not quibble. This is a time for Hawks players to drink champagne from the Cup and for the franchise's alumni to toast their success.

There they are in spirit hoisting the Cup over their heads together: Brian Campbell and Dolly St. Laurent, Kris Versteeg and Kenny Wharram, Troy Brouwer and Ab McDonald -

Oh, and don't forget Marian Hossa. He lost in the Final the last two years with two different teams and won it this year with a third, so in a way he did it for all the Hawks who couldn't the past 49 years.

Anyway, I have a vision now of the 1961 and 2010 players partying on the ice together: Niklas Njalmarsson and Al Arbour, Brent Sopel and Earl Balfour, Ben Eager and the late, great Reggie Fleming -

All of them from the two title teams are equals now, Blackhawk winners and Stanley Cup champions forever.

mimrem@dailyherald.com