The
Chicago Blackhawks
(spelled as
Black Hawks
before 1986) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago,
Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western
Conference of the
National Hockey League
(NHL). They have won three Stanley
Cup Championships and fourteen division titles since their founding in
1926. The Blackhawks are one of the Original Six
NHL
teams, along with the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadians, Toronto Maple
Leafs, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings. Since 1994, the
Blackhawks
have played their home games at the United Center after having spent
over 60 years playing at
Chicago Stadium.
Founding
The Chicago Blackhawks joined the NHL in 1926 as part of the league's
first wave of expansion into the United States. They were one of three
American teams added that year, along with the Detroit Cougars (now the
Detroit Red Wings) and New York Rangers. Most of the Hawks' original
players came from the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Hockey League
(originally the Regina Capitals of the Western Canada Hockey League),
which had folded the previous season.[1]
The Blackhawks' first owner was coffee tycoon Frederic McLaughlin. He
had been a commander with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion of the 86th
Infantry Division during World War I. [citation needed] This Division
was nicknamed the "Blackhawk Division", after a Native American of the
Sauk nation, Chief Black Hawk, who was a prominent figure in the history
of Illinois. [citation needed] McLaughlin evidently named the hockey
team in honor of the military unit, making it one of many sports team
names using Native Americans as icons. For many years, the name was
spelled "Black Hawks." This
ambiguity was finally settled in the summer of 1986 when the club
officially decided on the one-word version based on the spelling found
in the original franchise documents.
McLaughlin took a very active role in
running the team despite knowing very little about hockey. [citation
needed] For most of his tenure as owner, he served as his own general
manager. He was also very interested in promoting American hockey
players, then very rare in professional hockey. Several of them,
including Doc Romnes, Taffy Abel, Alex Levinsky, Mike Karakas, and Cully
Dahlstrom, become staples with the club, and under McLaughlin, the
Blackhawks were the first NHL team with an all-American-born lineup.
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