Always an Original: Episode 1 | The Originals

Always an Original: Episode 1 | The Originals

Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Applause] Chicago. It’s a city of dreamers, builders, champions. Home to the Chicago Blackhawks. A franchise built on perseverance. Sweet taste of their first victory celebration in 23 years. Driven by innovation like Stan Makita’s radically curved stick and Glenn Hall’s butterfly saves for 100 years. That’s right, 100 years. The Blackhawks haven’t just played the game. Paddle toward the shoot. They’ve revolutionized it. Johnny snuck Daryl Solder over the night. Shoot. He scor. [Applause] Welcome to center ice. That’s right. Right here is where the Chicago Blackhawks dropped the puck for the first time at the old Chicago coliseum. And since then, the team has been leaving a legacy in in town that’s already giving you the skyscraper, spray paint, cracker jack, roller derby, zippers, the electric blues, and even blood banks. That just goes to show you a city like Chicago can’t just give you any old kind of hockey team. But it’s like I always say, everything dope about America, whether it comes from the hardest working city on Earth, Chicago. I remember coming in here for my first prospect camp at 18 years old. I never been to a city this big uh before in my life and just kind of amazed. I thought at the time I was a little intimidated. Chicago’s loops is at the center of the local sports landscape. The north side you got the Cubs. On the south side you got the Socks. On the lake you have the Bears and out west the Bulls and our beloved Blackhawks. The Hawks have been calling West Madison Street home since 1929. That year, when the Blackhawks moved into the Chicago stadium, prohibition is in full swing. Alapone runs the streets and professional hockey is still new to the city. But in 1929, the roar of the crowd met the chill of the ice and a new chapter in Chicago sports was born. Now, let’s say you’re not just a fan, you’re a player. You walk out into the ice in wool uniforms. Yes, actual wool. Your equipment nowhere near what players have today. Your gloves are thin. Your skates are stiff leather. And helmets, forget about it. A hard slap shot to the head means one thing. You’re probably missing the rest of the game. Or worse. A century later, the Chicago Blackhawks are one of the most legendary franchises in hockey history. So, just what makes our Hawks so original? Let me tell you about the banana blade. It all started with a broken stick during a routine practice. Chicago Blackhawks legend Stan Makita accidentally split the flat blade of his hockey stick into a jagged V-shape. And I and I heard a So, I looked down and the thing is still stuck in there. I pulled it out and my blade now was in this shape. Instead of being straight, it was it was kind of a L-shaped half L-shaped. Because there were 21 stairs going downstairs, I would have to go down and get another stick, come back up with those 21 stairs, and I really didn’t feel like doing it. So, in anger, I shot a puck against the boards. He was startled by the amount of velocity that this generated and the number of different spins he was able to put on the puck. And Bobby was the first one to ask, “What in the world is that?” So, I told him the story and and uh I had to make him one in the lefth hand curve and his first shot almost hit the organ. Soon he and teammate Bobby Hull were intentionally warping their wooden blades into deep curves by soaking them in hot water and bending them under door jambs at night. The result, the now famous banana blade. At first, rival players mocked the bizarre new sticks, but Hull and Makita quickly turned into the NHL’s most dangerous scoring duo, and they started a brand new trend. Within years, more than half the league had adopted the curved blade from subtle bins to Makita’s wow inch and a half hook. The innovation didn’t just boost speed and control, it changed hockeyy’s entire style of play. Players can now fake out goalies, scoop the puck off the boards, and whip shots with deadly spin and precision. They were trying to figure out a way to score more goals, and it worked. To this day, Stan Makita leads the Blackhawks in games played, assists, points, and seasons played. And Bobby Hull holds alltime Hawks records for goals, hatticks, shots on goals, and gamewinners. Man, that boy was clutch. Bobby Hull was the most exciting hockey player I’ve ever seen. He He would wind up around behind a net and go up the ice throwing offensive players off his back and then fire a slap shot that was probably 110 m an hour. He was the first player in the NHL to score more than 50 goals in the season and he did that four times. 10 minutes into the second period, Hull eases himself near the net to grab the opportunity set up by Stapleton. It’s number 53 for Bobby Hull. You might say he’s skating his way into the Hull of Fame. Thank you very kindly, folks all over the world. But Stash and the Golden Jet were not the only Blackhawks thinking outside of the box. Let’s look at Blackhawks innovation by the numbers. 10,000. That’s the altitude and feet that the Blackhawks were cruising along on March 18th, 1940 when they became the first ever NHL team to charter a flight. That first flight to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs in the Stanley Cup playoffs modernized the NHL. Suddenly, teams could travel on their own schedules, reducing fatigue and maximizing recovery time. This innovation gave players more consistency and comfort on the road, directly impacting performance and ultimately allowing fans to see them play more often back in home sweet home Chicago. [Music] Though hockey and cricket might seem worlds apart, the two sports share a surprising connection. The term hattrick actually originated in cricket, believe it or not, but it made his way into ice hockey thanks to Blackhawks forward Alex Kleta. There was a hat store in Toronto. So Kleta’s in there one day before a Saturday night game against the Maple Leafs. He was admiring a hat which at the time I believe cost between 7 and 10 Canadian dollars. And he said, “I love it, but I I don’t have the money.” So the proprietor turned to him and said, “You score three goals tonight, you’ll get it for free.” So of course, lo and behold, Kleta scores four, gets his hat. Alex Kleta’s hat trick is a legendary part of Blackhawk’s history because it sparked a tradition of fans throwing hats on the ice, forever linking Chicago to one of hockeyy’s most iconic celebrations. The end of last season, there had been 300 Blackhawks hatticks. Here we go. Here they scores. It’s a hatrick. These days, hatticks go beyond hockey. They can celebrate three of almost anything. And the thing it all came about because of Alex Kleta’s hat, [Music] [Applause] fans will be the final game of perhaps the most exciting and dramatic playoff in the NHL history. Chicago sports fans, not only for the Blackhawks, they they want their team to win and they want them to play well. And the Blackhawks were always a team that pleased the crowd. All I want to say is the stereotype of who a Chicago is. That’s the Blackhawk fan. You know, Day Dem and you know, this and you know, uh I’m from Cicero. Like it is it is so blue collar the the the hockey fans and that to me is just makes it real. Well, of all the sports fans in Chicago, I’d say the Blackhawks fans are the most loyal by far. Maybe more so than any team in the city, the Blackhawks represent the working-class nature of the city. I do remember going to the first game. I remember being in awe of walking into the old Chicago stadium and seeing the brilliant ice lit up. I had never seen professional sports before. So I walk into the stadium with my father at about the age of 12 and just in awe of the of the of the whole experience. My dad got tickets in the second balcony. I got to see an original six team, the Detroit Red Wings. And um Hawks won 4 to2. I remember because Stam Makita had a two goals that game and it was my first game ever. So it was a special experience to see him win. I got to go down to Chicago Stadium a couple times and it was really amazing cuz back then in the 1960s Blackhawks were about as hot a ticket as there was in town. I remember my brother John bringing me. I was young. I think I was like eight or nine and it was really exciting. It was also a special time for me and my brother. you know, he was 5 years older, so we didn’t have a lot to talk about, but we had the Blackhawks. From frozen ponds to packed arenas, hockey, like many sports, has a way of bringing people together. Different backgrounds, different stories, but all chasing the same pup, sharing the same game. You know what? It’s like they say sometimes, man, the simplest things connect us the most. [Music] There are so many exciting times through the course of my public address announcing. I mean, of course, one of was the All-Star game which came here in Chicago right after the first Midwest War broke out. and the uh the fans were just very energetic and patriotic and the national anthem was just very stirring. One of the truly unique traditions in sports only happens right here in Chicago. Blackhawks fans cheer throughout the entire national anthem. the cheering of the crowd and the the the volume at which Wayne Mesmer used to sing the anthem and Jim Corellson does now reaches such a crescendo that it’s known worldwide. It It’s not just known leaguewide. The the anthem in Chicago is a very very special moment. In any other place, fans cheering during the national anthem would be seen as disrespectful. But in Chicago, somehow it’s the ultimate tribute. of the free and the glory. 552 including the playoffs. That’s the total number of consecutive games that Hogs goalie Glenn Hall played. That’s a record that will never be broken. Of course, he played every game. In the days when the goalies, they only had dressed one goalie and without wearing a mask. In those days, they only had the one goalkeeper. So, you simply simply played. I remember I had a reaction to penicellin and I remember that having difficulty getting the eyes open. So, I very nearly missed a game during that time. Now, all the teams carry two goalies and gives others some relief. The fact that the Hawks missed the playoffs didn’t stop the voters from recognizing Hall’s fine work in the Chicago Nets and he was named the Allstar Goender. Glenn Hall along with Tony Espazito is also widely credited with evolving the butterfly save. Butterfly is just to guard the goal. They go into like a a spread, you know, and Glenn Hall was the first to do that. I was kind of surprised to go down and came back up real quick. That was the thing that got me cuz normally at that time everybody stood up but he went down covered the angles. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all of these components in the butterfly style is okay you can drop to so that your head is the same height as the crossbar but that’s going to put your face in play for a lot of pucks. And that really led to the creation of the goal mask because otherwise it was suicidal to play the position. Your number one job was to stay alive. The second one was to stop the puck. And we looked at it in that order. Tony’s got it. Goalies are are, as you know, crazy or at minimum peculiar. They’re always tinkering on how do I take this to the next level. Tony took a mask that was very flat against his face and put little iron cages on the eyeholes because he was always getting dinged on the the orbital socket. I got the original one in the the 69 and then about 75 or six I uh I made an adjustment. What happened was I was getting uh hit a lot. I never did anything to improve my equipment until I got hurt. Rollston a deflection and it looked like he would beat Espazito, but Tonio making an amazing save. Tony Espazito still holds franchise records for wins, saves, games in goal, shutouts, and minutes played. From year one, Blackhawk games were not just about skating fast. Uh-uh. They were battlegrounds. Plenty of blood painted the ice in the early decades of Hawk’s history. So maybe it’s not quite a coincidence that the first ever blood bank invented in the United States was created right here at Cook County Hospital. Flash forward to 1969. Tony Espazto begins to flourish in Chicago when rookies Keith Magnus and Cliff Coral arrive. Defenseman Magnus led the charge to a whole new level of physical play. No helmet, no hesitation, all heart. If there was a fight to be had, Maggie was in the middle of it. He might have had something to do with the fact that NHL teams started keeping their own Dennis on the sidelines for every game. So my dad was really fortunate that he never played one day in the minor leagues. The veteran team that was around him, Bobby Hall, Dennis Hall, Stan Makita were really excited to have this young guy who was tough but who could also play. And my dad had done a little bit of fighting in junior but not as much as he was about to do. So he practiced karate in the summer and got his fist ready for for training camp. And in the training camp he fought every tough guy on every team that they played in the preseason. And he won some, lost some, but coach Billy Ray loved his attitude. That year 6970 was also a special season for the Blackhawks as a franchise because the year before they were last place in in in the league. They went from last place to first place, my dad’s rookie year. So Cliff Coral made the jump along with Tony Espazito and so those three rookies were instrumental in in that turnaround. Cliff found great chemistry with Stan Makita on his wing and then Tony Espazito became Tony O and set the rookie record for 15 shutouts as a rookie goalender. My dad paired up with Doug Jared on defense and so that was my dad’s new job as a policeman and one that he took very seriously. [Music] 140. The sound in decibb put out by the United Center’s goal horn, the NHL’s first. Team owner Bill Wartz had a yacht with a horn loud enough to be heard along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Back in the early 70s, he decided to install a similar horn, actually four separate twoft horns inside Chicago Stadium. And it became a huge ad because the place was loud anyway. And when a puck went in the net for the Blackhawks, I mean, that thing going off really set people off. So, uh, it added to the experience. The Blackhawks were the first team to do that. Daryl Sutter over the line. Shoot. He scores. Solder. After Batterman saved the day at one end, Sutter scores at the other end. One to one. The Blackhawks use of a horn marking every home team goal sparked a trend that spread to every arena in the NHL. Over the years, the horn has played different sequences and has been paired with sirens and Oregon themes and pop music. So, let’s hear it for this brass 100B. Another Blackhawks first. And now we go from sea captain to team captain. You know, it feels appropriate to stand next to the statue of John Baptist Point Dabo, Chicago’s first non-native permanent settler when we talk about another Chicago first. Dirk Graham happens to be the first black person to be a captain of a national hockey league team. Brother Dirk, man, he wore the C on his chest for six years. Now, he happens to be from about a thousand miles that way in Saskatchewan, but nonetheless, he has put on for Chicago. He led us to the Stanley Cup finals in 1992 where in game four, he had a hat-tick. Hawks get to the finals. The first three games go to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Before game four, Dirk Graham, captain of the team, stands up and says, “Boys, I’m going to play the game of my life tonight. Follow me. Let’s go. We’re going to get this game.” Dirk Graham goes out and scores a hat-tick in the stadium. Phenomenal performance. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh won the game. That was one of my favorite hat-ticks for sure. [Music] 36. Number of captains skating for the Blackhawks since 1926. The biggest names to wear the sea. Pierre Palot, Ed Litenberger, Dennis Savard, Chris Chelios, Jonathan Tabes, and Jim Belalushi, the celebrity captain who helped lead the 9192 team to the Stanley Cup finals. Well, every team in the league has selected an honorary captain and Jim Belalushi has been given that uh distinction by the Chicago Blackhawks. Yeah, it was a real honor to be on the ice with Stan Makita and Chilios and and receiving that sweater. I felt it was a little above me, but they honored me and I and I owned it that year. Wow, look at that. That’s a great clip, man. Wonderful sense of humor. Corona check in Chel not only with the players on the Hawks, but with guys in other teams. He was very respected. He had that stature with players that’s rare. whatever he possessed. Uh, and you could see it when when he played on the the Olympic teams as well. Maybe because in many ways he was probably the greatest American-born player. From what I could tell, the Americanborn players carry a little bit of a chip on their shoulder because the NHL is still very much a Canadian-driven game given the athletes in in in the league. So, in many ways, I think the Americanborn players feel they almost have more to prove. Cementing his reputation as one of the toughest and most tenacious defenseman the team has ever seen. Chrischelio spent more time in the penalty box than any other Blackhawk in history. I think he would trade me to have his jersey retired up there. I think he thinks he would have to die to get it up there. So, he is going to go to heaven, I think, when this happens. Shelios’s number seven is one of just nine numbers retired by the Blackhawks. Hi. How you guys doing? Good. I’m excited about where we’re heading. I love the group already and I know what’s come before us. You know, the leadership group that was here before us, the success that’s been here. Um, and I’m excited to get back. In the early days of the league, Canadians dominated every NHL roster. In fact, all the way up until like the 1920s, most teams only had a few US players. It was very rare to have even one American player, maybe two, but uh Frederick Mclofflin, who was the first owner of the team, said the heck with that. He may have been the father of the rivalry, saying, “I’m sure American players can can compete at this level. We have to give them the opportunity. Like Chicago’s secret underground streets, these Americanborn players became the Blackhawk secret weapon. They didn’t just take up roster spots either. No, no, they played a pivotal role in the Hawks winning two Stanley Cups. Soon after, C was sewn on the sweater of John Maruchi. He’s the first American-born player to become a captain of an NHL team. The success of those early American players led the way for future Blackhawk stars like Chris Chelios, Eddie Ochek, and of course, Patrick Kane. 3:30 p.m. Puck drop on the 19th of March, 1933. Blackhawks versus Red Wings. The NHL’s first ever matinea game. The Hawks made history at Chicago Stadium that Sunday, facing Detroit for a afternoon contest in front of 6,000 fans for a game that faced off at 3:30 instead of 8:30. The Blackhawks were not very good that year, but in 1934, they beat these same Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. The introduction of Madden games in the NHL brought the speed and drama of hockey to daytime audiences, opening the sport to young fans. [Applause] Help to the back. New York shot deflected. They score three to two with less than a minute to go. Anytime you’ve got an important game with two of the original six, it’s cool. It just is because there’s so much history. In another original six game decades earlier, the Blackhawks faced off against the New York Rangers on January 5th, 1957. Over 5 million viewers tuned into the CBS network for the first nationally televised NHL game in US history. For the Blackhawks, it was more than just a game. It was a turning point. Struggling with attendance and visibility, the national broadcast gave Chicago a rare spotlight, connecting the team with fans far beyond the arena. I think the fact that the Hawks were on the first national television broadcast speaks to the fact of the original six and why I think it’s still a big deal to have a game against Toronto or Chicago or Boston or Montreal. You know, it’s those were big name teams and they still are to this day. You know, it speaks to the the legend that the Blackhawks are. Yeah. You grow up and you become a part of this team and uh yeah, there’s no place else that I would have rather spent my my most of my career and very fortunate and grateful that it was here in Chicago with the Hawks. You know, 100 years in and uh hopefully the next hundred is just as much fun. For a hundred years, Chicago Blackhawks have been more than just a hockey team. They’ve been pioneers. From breaking new ground in player development to redefining the fan experience, the Blackhawks have never ever been content to follow. They’ve led with bold decisions, enduring rivalries, and a legacy built on both triumph and transformation. This team has left an indelible mark on the NHL. As they step into their second century, the Blackhawks carry with them not just a rich history, but the spirit of innovation that makes them legends. [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat.

The premiere of the Chicago Blackhawks docuseries “Always an Original” explores the untold and true history of the team, revealing how the Blackhawks not only influenced Chicago sports but also set the standard as originators in the league.

Hosted by Chicago urban historian Sherman “Dilla” Thomas and featuring reflections from Jeff Garlin, Jim Belushi, Billy Corgan and more, this first episode captures what it truly means to be an Original.

The full series is produced by local Chicago studios and directors, with each episode bringing a unique perspective on the team’s legacy.

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