Here Come the Hawks!

The Hawks are back!

I went to my first Hawks game in three years on Sunday. They were a winner, beating the Flames 5-2 after losing two games to the Detroit Redwings.

My impressions? Things have changed a lot since three years ago. John McDonough, the President of the BH, has done a fantastic job to market this club to once again get fans - in this hockey town- excited, especially in four major ways. 1) Blackhawks games are now on TV. 2) Blackhawk Alumni such as Bobby Hull, Stan Makita, etc. are in attendance regularly to get 'old' fans to come to see the 'new generation Blackhawks.' (Even I a mere 20 year old girl, who knows nothing about these alumni and their past, but they have become a household, recognizable name to me, because they are constantly in the media). 3) The Winter Classic has been a success since its initiation in early July. (BH players such as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have sang the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley and the Hawks have been advertised in Wrigley in pretty much every one of the ten games I've went to... such as handing out schedules before the games).4) The BH now have a Fan Fest (like the Cubs Convention, Sox Fest).

...and obviously having a now winning club doesn't hurt.

Chicagoans are once again excited about hockey, because there is a great club on the ice, and you know what... we deserve it. We've had horrible few years of hockey with terrible management. J McD needed to do a lot to get back some of those fans that the past BH management lost. And honestly, I can say I am one of those "fans" that McDonough "brought in" and became interested in hockey.

When I was younger, hockey games were hardly on TV, because of the William Wirtz saga- blacking out the BH home games. Only a few away games were the only games on in my house, and generally I would never sit down and watch them with Ma and Pa, because I was not interested nor understood the game. My uncle would take me to one or two games a year or ever other year, and that was my one-two year fix...didn't watch any more games or wasn't really "begging for more."

Now with the new management, my brother and parents always have on the game, so I sit down and watch it with them as much as I can. I now understand what icing, offsides, slashing, etc. actually means. And as a soccer player for more than 15 years, all I can say is WOW... the formation, play set up, etc. portrays the same game as soccer, especially indoor soccer, except for obviously the ice and sticks. As a soccer player, and watching more of the Blackhawk games on TV, I've come to appreciate hockey a lot more and actually enjoy it more than ever.

Also, seeing the game on Sunday, I've come to appreciate the "sounds of the game." In all of the sporting events I've attended, no sport has cooler sounds than hockey- a skater's quick stop with the skate and seeing all the ice fly in the air, a puck hitting the stick or the board, a check into the board, etc. Even way above in section 309, 14 rows up could you hear those ever cool sounds.


The Winter Classic: For those of you who've read my first post ever on this blog, you can tell I'm a Cubs fan. So for me, watching the Winter Classic was exceptional. Although I know Soldier Field would have been a viable option for hosting the WC, because it sits about double the fans of Wrigley, but I think there is nothing like Wrigley for an event such as this: the rooftops, the neighborhood, the bars, the scoreboard, the bricks, the ivy. The WHOLE neighborhood was transformed into hockey-ville. Maybe its my Cubs bias, but there's nothing like Wrigley Field and it was the absolute best decision to hold the WC and showcase historic Wrigley Field's beauty and majesty with a outdoor hockey game in an icy cold, snowy January. I know many Sox fans didn't agree with the selection of the game at WF for two experiences I've had recently:

1) At my friend's house, her mom heckled me because I'm a Cubs fan (and because I always let it be known) but she screamed "the cubs suck and always will if they play in that hole...look at the BH, they can't even win there either."
2) A man sitting in front of me at the Hawks game was an obvious Sox fan. Between periods when the big screen showed clips/ pictures from the Classic, he would scream, "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET PLAYING AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST GAY BAR!" or "WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR" or "NO ONE CAN WIN IN THAT PLACE," chuckling, then subsequently high fiving his other mid forty-year-old-neck-bearded-fat-beer-belly-busting-friends.

Why can't we be friends? When leaving the United Center, a Sox fan started screaming "LET'S GO WHITE SOX" then a Cubs fan needs to show his place by fighting "LET'S GO CUBBIES." A third man, thank God (because I didn't want to hear this non-sense at a Blackhawks game, screamed "LETS GO BLACKHAWKS."

Man #3 is right. Go Hawks. Its hockey season. Unite Chicagoans. We actually have a winning club, and I'll be the first one to tell you... I'm jumpin' on this bandwagon while I can.

Home; but not Free

There has been Hawks home games on T.V. before to-nite, but the game against the Detroit Red Wings set for six o’clock is in all sense something brand new: it marks the start of the commintment of the black hawks organization to finally televise home games. It is a completely overdue- even embarrassingly overdue - move. A generation of young fans have been deprived of their proper quotient of Black Hawk coverage because of the bungling policies of the organization and have been alienated from the team. However, I believe this nite begins (only begins) the start of a long climb back into the general conciousness of the Chicago sports fan.

There was a time when the Hawks were easily the most popular winter sports team. They were the only team in town until the Bulls were founded in the mid Sixties. The Sixties teams, featuring Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, were consistently outstanding and entertaining. The Eighties teams, the ones I more properly grew up with, were also outstanding units. Featuring Al Secord, Dennis Savard, and Steve Larmer, the Eighties teams (and their close relatives, the Nineties teams, with Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, and Eddie Belfour) were always in the midst of excitement. The atmosphere @ the Stadium was always electric- packed Stadium, everyone hunched over, intent on the game, the organ, the “OOOOOOOO !!!” on an almost goal, the slice on the ice of the skates, the “BKKKK!!!” of the puck slapped off the boards- game after game after game. Its strange to think back now, but the year before Mike Jordan arrived to play for the Bulls, the basketball team averaged something like 4,700 a game. The old soccer team the Sting also played indoors @ the Stadium that same year and averaged 11,700. But the Hawks consistently had a hard ticket to get and always had standing room crowd of 18-19,000+. And now look= although the Bulls are not the Bulls of the 90’s, they are still far more popular than the Hawks. There is a good argument to be made that the Wolves are the most popular hockey team in town.

I got to go to a couple a year. Lazers and Moho had season tickets of almost unimaginable goodness= second balcony, second row rite above one of the blue lines. I got tickets once in awhile when one of them missed a game, and they got tickets here and there. All told, I got to about 2-3 games a year when lucky. I can remember making sure I saw Wayne Gretzky play. One of the two frenz above mentioned missed the game on #99’s first season in L.A.’s trips to the Stadium that fall, and then I somehow got a ticket to the next game. There was always a ‘real treat’ air around a live Hawks game in the loud smoky atmosphere of the Stadium.

Wirtz policies fostering an exclusivity about the team worked up to a certain point for televised games- to me, cable road games were another ‘deep treat’. I have many fond memories of watching regular season or playoff games @ this or that person who was a friend or a friend of my friend or a friend of my sisters - and I missed most televised games. There was the game in ’83 or so when we watched the Islanders game @ Big Man’s - we were all huge Mike Bossy fans. Then there was a playoff loss to Minnesota. And there was the ‘92 Stanley Cup game -v- Pittsburgh where the Hawks lost an early lead on the way to being swept. And although I do have hazy memories of Hawks games on free T.V. in the seventies, rarely was I ever able to enjoy the Hawks on T.V. in my formative years.

However, despite almost never seeing the team on T.V. and going to the games infrequently, I grew up a die hard fan. I knew every player, every line, who was in the minors, the other teams (especially division foes) strengths and weaknesses, etc… How did this happen? In a way that doesn’t probably doesn’t resonate with many of today’s young fans= the majority of my connexion with the Hawk games live was over the radio. I was of a high school set that thought nothing could be better than catching Pat Foley’s call of that nites game. We still joke about a game we listened to in Moho’s basement in what- ‘82. The Hawks were down a goal with less than a minute left and they had pulled the goalie. Daryl Sutter’s line was on the ice and someone made the crack that the only reason he was one the ice was because he was the captain- and of course he scored and tied the game.

Good memories, but they are of an older generation of fans, who grew up depending on the radio for sports in ways different to todays fans. We grew up without the vast expanses of sports available on T.V. these days- who knew in the Seventies I would not only be able to watch every single game of the Chicago Fire (to-days Sting), not to mention every Manchester United and every America game- if I could awake for all of them. I believe it is very important for the Hawks to put their product out readily available for every fan. Again, the elder Wirtz made the Hawks an exclusive deal, but I feel it was a case of “The forest for the tree’s”. He refused to change with the times. Non televised home games were famously great for his beer sales, but he lost fans growing up who never were able to become Hawks fans. In this world, being available on T.V. is all important. The business of marketing his team to the most impressionable part of our society- children- was lost. Wirtz blew it .

And now, to-nite, this long term mistake is finally being rectified. Good start. However, televised home games are only a start. For me, a far more important move by the Hawks would be to PUT GAMES ON FREE T.V. For me, this is of paramount importance. I understand that many houses (as well as most bars) have cable, but there is a significant percentage that only have the free stations. I believe that this is an important market.

An example is the sports loving kid who grows up in a non cable household. Since he only has free T.V., he basically never has a chance to see the Hawks on his T.V. Now= presto/chango, the Hawks put 12-15 games on Channel 9 and 26, just like the Sox, Cubs, and Bulls. Such a kid (with the limited viewing options on a given nite that is endemic to free T.V.) looking and not finding a baseball, basketball, football, or soccer game to watch; mite stop and watch the Hawks for awhile if it‘s the only thing on and he or she is flicking channels. To quote The Champ upon coming across a game back in the old days: “We got a game!!“ If they catch the game again and again, extended exposure to a non fan mite eventually lead to and enjoy and learn and become a fan if he or she stumbles across the Hawks.

It’s such a rite time for the change. God Bless the elder Wirtz, but his son Rocky is the needed fresh air. It was smart- and no disrespect to his father- to immediately get the seven home games on air. The change @ the top, the fresh 9-7 start with exciting new players such as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and two wins over to-nites opponent has created something that doesn’t often happen: a buzz about the Hawks. I welcome it, and hope it continues. The exciting team and the commitment to a realistic T.V. policy are significant advances for the team. However, a commitment to FREE T.V. games also should be pursued to further market the team to the kids growing up to-day. It should be an exciting time ahead for the team.