Chicago Blackhawks: A Little Hope For The Long-Suffering

One of the NHL's vanguard Original Six teams, the Chicago Blackhawks, are one of the classiest and most respected franchises in professional sports.  The story of their rich tradition begins rooted, as do all good tales, in mystery involving war, money and spelling.  Starting with the sexiest angle, the spelling, their name for most of their existence was "Black Hawks."

That was until 1986, when someone - most likely an underpaid, underappreciated intern - was rifling through old documents and discovered the team's original NHL contract.  After buying the Portland Rosebuds of the recently defunct Western Hockey League the Harvard educated local coffee baron Major Fredric McLaughlin changed the name for Chicago's new team to the Blackhawks.  Somewhere along the way the compound spelling was lost, but the late Bill Wirtz returned the name to its original nature after discovering the error.    

So who exactly was the Major trying to honor with the name?  Well that's where the plot thickens. 

So far, there are three main hypotheses:

1)  Black Hawk, American Indian Warrior Legend, who is also the only single person to have an American war named after them: the 1832 Black Hawk War; and then don't forget about those helicopters.

2)  Founding Owner, Major Fredric McLaughlin's Army Unit: The 333rd Machine-Gun Battalion of the 85th Division, whose members called themselves Black Hawks, in honor of the fearless Sauk Leader.

3)  A early 20th century Chicago restaurant named "The Blackhawk."

Personally, because I think racism is nothing more than sissy liberal hogwash, I really hope the true answer is the restaurant.

Nevertheless, regardless of the team name itself, there is no doubt the team's logo was penned

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?