FEATURE: The Origins of the Chicago Blackhawks
Taking a look back on how the franchise was built and shaped through the course of a hundred years of hockey
By
Harvey Wittenberg
The Chicago Blackhawks are in full swing of their 100-year Centennial celebration, which is divided into four chapters throughout the 2025-26 season. The first – The Originals – honors the team’s revolutionary contributions that helped transform hockey forever.
It’s a fitting place to begin, as the Blackhawks are, quite literally, one of the NHL’s Original Six franchises.
The Chicago Blackhawks were officially voted in as an NHL franchise on Sept. 25, 1926, after the league selected Chicago for a team in May 1926. The franchise was initially awarded to a syndicate of investors led by former Harvard star Bill “Tack” Hardwick, who soon sold controlling interest to Major Frederic McLaughlin, who owned a coffee company and was a World War I veteran.
To assemble a roster, McLaughlin – credited as the team’s founder – purchased the Portland Rosebuds of the defunct Western Hockey League for $200,000 and brought the players to Chicago. Drawing inspiration from his military service, he named the team after his field battalion: Blackhawk.
McLaughlin never played hockey but was a polo player and known to have a fiery temper and an eccentric personality. This is demonstrated in his 18 years of ownership of the Blackhawks, during which he had head coaches in the double digits.
In their inaugural 1926-27 season, the Blackhawks finished third in the American Division and made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round by Boston. Shortly after, Major McLaughlin fired his first head coach, Pete Muldoon. Legend has it that Muldoon issued a “curse” that the Blackhawks would never finish in first place. For four decades, the prophecy held true: Chicago did not top the NHL standings until the 1966–67 season.
Paul Thompson, who had the longest run of any head coach under McLaughlin at seven seasons, began the 1944-45 campaign but soon stepped away from his duties. He was the final head coach under McLaughlin, who passed away on Dec. 17, 1944..
Moving back to 1935, a Chicago grain company owner, James Norris Sr., who had recently purchased what became the Detroit Red Wings, teamed up with Arthur Wirtz to gain control of the Chicago Stadium. A decade later, in 1946, a syndicate led by longtime team executive Bill Tobin purchased McLaughlin’s controlling interest in the Blackhawks. That ownership group included both the Norris and Wirtz families, paving the way for them to assume full control of the franchise by 1952.
With the new ownership of Norris and Wirtz, they moved as quickly as they could to turn the Blackhawks back to a winning culture. They hired Tommy Ivan away from Detroit in 1954, where he coached the Wings to six straight first-place finishes and two Stanley Cups.
Ivan took over as general manager and in four years got the Blackhawks back in the playoffs, built a farm team system, and made several major trades that obtained eventual Hall of Fame players like Glenn Hall and Ted Lindsay, plus Eric Nesterenko, Ed Litzenberger, Murray Balfour and Ab McDonald.
In addition, farm team stars like Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Pierre Pilote, Ken Wharram and Moose Vasko joined the mix. His special addition was the signing of the first college graduate to play in the NHL, Bill Hay, who wound up winning the Calder Trophy as the league’s top rookie.
The 1960s saw the Blackhawks surging under the leadership of Tommy Ivan and coach Billy Reay.
"When you go over all of this, Jim Norris has to be given a lot of credit," Ivan told Sports Illustrated five years into his tenure. "He's been patient. Jim's a good hockey man. He likes the game, and it was a challenge to him, and I think he had faith that the thing would go."
Co-owner James Norris died in February 1966, with the Wirtz Family – the team’s owners to this day – officially taking full control as Bill Wirtz assumed the role as president and Arthur Wirtz being named chairman.
The NHL announced expansion, adding six new teams for the 1967-68 season, establishing the West Division and the Blackhawks joining the East Division after finishing in first place for the first time in 1967.
The first NHL amateur/entry draft was held in 1963, but the first- ever expansion draft for the new teams in 1967 limited the Original Six franchises in how many players they could protect. It cost the Blackhawks goalie Glenn Hall, who was left unprotected and claimed by the St. Louis Blues.
The 1968-69 season saw the Blackhawks finish out of the playoffs despite a winning record, but GM Ivan and Bill Wirtz came out with one of the greatest deals in Blackhawks history. Chicago claimed rookie goalie Tony Esposito from the Cup champion Canadiens for the $25,000 waiver price since Montreal opted to go with its two veterans.
Not only did Esposito set a modern-day record with 15 shutouts in one season, he was the winner of the Calder Trophy and named first-team All-Star. Also, the Blackhawks were believed to be the first ever to go from last place the season before to first place.
New challenges hit in 1972-73 when a new league (the World Hockey Association) and lured Blackhawks star Bobby Hull away by paying him millions of dollars, making him the highest paid athlete in North America — quite a jump from the NHL’s previous high of $250,000. Following a few years of competition, the two leagues eventually merged of the in 1979-80 with the 1980sand ’90s seeing continued expansion, rule changes and new teams.
With the game’s continued growth, one of the biggest changes for the Blackhawks was leaving Chicago Stadium after 65 years for the United Center in 1994.
The following decade, after Bill Wirtz’s passing in 2007, Rocky Wirtz took over as chairman and quickly began to put his stamp on the franchise.
"We had to start over," Wirtz told The Northwestern. "The easy way out would be to do nothing for a year, sit back and [evaluate] what was going on, bring a consultant or two in to tell you what you probably already know. I realized that we didn't have a lot of time to turn this thing around."
Oh, how quickly things changed in what is widely-considered one of the greatest sports turnarounds in modern history. In 2004, ESPN named the Blackhawks the worst franchise in pro sports. A decade later, they became the gold standard in hockey.
The team drafted Jonathan Toews third overall in 2006 and Patrick Kane first overall in 2007, while in parallel, Rocky poured as many resources as he could into the franchise both on and off the ice, most notably putting the Blackhawks back on local television, which instantly rejuvenated a fan base that went on to pack the United Center night after night. He also reconnected with former alumni and brought back legends like Esposito, Hull, Mikita and Denis Savard to serve as team ambassadors – a program that has now grown to also include Chris Chelios, Troy Murray, Jeremy Roenick and former team broadcaster Pat Foley.
The Blackhawks went on to win three Stanley Cups over a six-year span, snapping a 49-year championship drought in 2010, capturing another in 2013, and clinching on home ice in 2015 for the first time in 77 years.
In July 2023, the Blackhawks' ownership succession plan unfortunately came sooner than anyone hoped after chairman Rocky Wirtz passed away following a brief illness. Danny Wirtz, who had already been serving as CEO, was named the new chairman of the Blackhawks shortly after.
Just months prior, the Blackhawks had won the NHL Draft Lottery for the second time in franchise history and eventually selected 17-year-old phenom Connor Bedard with the No. 1 overall pick.
After Rocky's passing, Danny recalled the moment the Blackhawks won the NHL Draft lottery in 2023.
“First call (was) to Dad and it was very emotional for him,” Danny told the Chicago Tribune. “I think he was just so relieved that we were going to have a chance to have the success that he had.”
“In many ways, he felt he had his time. He said, ‘Let’s get four generations on that Stanley Cup.’ So I said, ‘That’s the mandate.’"
In many ways, the Blackhawks Centennial celebration reflects that very sentiment: a time to honor the franchise’s incredible heritage and the individuals who shaped that story, while also celebrating the team’s is on a new highway to thebright future now and for the next 100 years.
