Here come the Hawks!

When my Blackhawks play the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field in the annual NHL Winter Classic on New Years Day, it will be a great deal more than just a hockey game. It will mark the end of a dark era for my team, and the beginning of a bright, new one.

At this writing, the Hawks- after a long season in the wilderness- are only five points behind Detroit for first place in the NHL Western Conference Central Divison.

Hall of Fame Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett was a distant cousin of my father's by marriage. Dad grew up across the street from the old Cubs ballpark on the West Side. He followed the Bears ever since they moved to Chicago as the Decatur Staleys. He passed his loyalty toward both teams on to me as a legacy; we lived and breathed the Cubs and the Bears in our house.

I was the product of a mixed marriage; my mother came from a family of otherwise fine, decent people who happened to be (shudder) White Sox fans. But Mom went along with the men of the house when it came to baseball.

But both Mom's and Dad's greatest sporting enthusiasm was the Chicago Blackhawks. They literally courted in the first balcony of Chicago Stadium, right above the place where the boards curve, and Dad's chief rivals for Mom's heart were the Hawk's "Pony Line" of Max Bentley, Doug Bentley, and Billy Mosienko. Dad was a regular at Hawks' games and hung around with some of their players during the early part of the franchise's history. He was there on April 10 1934, when the Hawks won their first Stanley Cup on a goal in overtime by Harold "Mush" March.

Like father (and mother), like son. Among my earliest sporting memories was watching the Hawks' Saturday afternoon games on TV. I well remember my first trip to Chicago Stadium for what turned out to be a 6-1 defeat at the hands of the New York Rangers (my parents told me that I kept them awake the following night, crashing into the boards and repeating my father's refrain from the game, an appeal to "Wake up, (Lorne "Gump") Worsley (the New York goalie)! You're not that good!"). And I was innoculated to some degree for a lifetime of disappoinment as a Chicago sports fan by the annual ordeal of listening on the radio as the Hawks were eliminated year after year from the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first round by the hated Montreal Canadians.

The Bears' NFL championships in 1963 and 1985 were among the highlights of my life, but the Hawks' unexpected 1961 Stanley Cup- won the year they finally managed to get by Montreal in the first round, due in large measure to Glenn Hall's remarkable series, one of the most stellar Stanley Cup performances over the course of an entire series ever turned in by any NHL goaltender in history- remains the greatest thrill of my lifetime as a sports fan. The Waters men were hockey fans when being a hockey fan wasn't cool, and as great as were the heartbreaks to which the Cubs subjected me in 1969, 1984, 2003 and 2008, the Hawks' defeat at the hands of the hated Canadiens in the seventh game of the 1971 Finals- one of the greatest hockey games ever played- ranks near the very top of the list of the greatest disappointments of my life as a sports fan.

The less said about the tenure of the late William "Dollar Bill" Wirtz as owner of the Blackhawks, the better. Suffice it to say that the glory days of Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita and Glenn Hall gave way to a long dry spell as one of the most inept and seemingly disinterested managements in professional sports history came very close to permanently killing hockey in what was once one of the greatest hockey towns in North America. But Bill Wirtz passed away a couple of years ago, and in the brief time he's owned the club his son, Rocky, has systematically reversed his father's blunders. The Hawks- who have made the playoffs only once since 1999- responded by finishing 20th over-all and barely missing a post-season appearance. This year, they have the seventh best record in the NHL, and seem a virtual lock for the playoffs.

After playing to embarassingly sparse crowds for years, the Hawks currently lead the NHL in attendance- and scoring. Last year's Calder Cup winner (NHL Rookie of the Year) and the runner-up- Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews- are both Hawks (finishing so badly for so long a time does have its advantages!). The years in the doldrums also netted Patrick Sharp and several other young stars. General Manager Dale Tallon added star Christobel Huet to help the very solid Nikolai Khabibulin in goal, as well as All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell.

Bill Wirtz refused to televise home games. Rocky is televising all of them. Bill fired popular announcer Pat Foley; Rocky hired him back. Hockey itself is back in Chicago, and while it may be another year or two before the Hawks can realistically be called a likely contender for their fourth Stanley Cup, they already rank in the top tier of NHL teams.

Exiled though I am here in Des Moines, where I can't even get the Hawks on any but internet radio, I can only rejoice. It's like a piece of my life that has been missing for a long time is back.

Oh. And fellow Iowans... "The Hawks" are a professional hockey team. They have absolutely nothing to do with the University of Iowa.

And here come the Hawks!