THE BLACKHAWKS

On November 17, 1926, 5,000 sports fans filed into the Chicago Coliseum to watch the first ever Chicago Blackhawks game, against the Toronto St. Pats. Major Frederic McLaughlin, who made his fortune in the coffee business, had paid $12,000 for the franchise. His new venture paid instant dividends when the Hawks upset the St. Pats, 4-1. Major McLaughlin's wife, Irene, designed the Blackhawks' first uniforms—striped outfits of red, black, green, and beige, bright stockings modeled after Indian blankets, and light tan gloves with fringed cuffs! The Chicago Blackhawks have been one of the most colorful and controversial teams in hockey for more than three quarters of a century. The Hawks first drank from Lord Stanley's Cup in 1934, and dominated the league in their Cup-winning quest of 1961. But for decades, the team has been haunted by the famous Muldoon Curse, each season battling, with traditional flash and gusto, to lift one of the sport's most enduring, and endearing, legacies.