All it took was one season, one long playoff run and one championship to make the Chicago Blackhawks the toast of the town. Chicagoans love two things: deep dish pizza and winners.
We love NBA MVP Derrick Rose and the Bulls because they’ve been winning, the Bears have been winning, and now we have the Blackhawks.
Over the course of the last two years, the Blackhawks have been in a love affair with the city of Chicago. Chicagoans will grab hold of any team that is winning and support them to the fullest.
This is backed up by the fact that both the Bulls and Blackhawks led the league in attendance this past year. The old saying that “winning cures everything” describes Chicago perfectly. No matter what is going on in the city, if your team is winning you’ll be happy.
Chicagoans love to brag about their team and wear their favorite player’s jersey with pride everywhere they go. During the Blackhawks’ magical playoff run last year, a massive group of fans leaped onto the crowded bandwagon.
At every Chicago bar there were hundreds of newly bought Hawks jerseys cheering for their team like they’ve been in love with them for 50 years.
Everybody loves a winner is what describes the Hawks skyrocketing up the priority list of Chicago fans. They had a great regular season, but not everyone thought they were ready for the big lights and the uncertain NHL playoffs.
Even as a one or two seed in the NHL playoffs it is extremely hard to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. As the playoffs went on and the Hawks kept winning, every series would garner more and more newly found Hawks fans at bars all over the city. Watching a Chicago team in the playoffs gave everyone an excuse to go out on a Tuesday night to a bar with all their friends and cheer like they knew what was going on in the game.
It all came together in the Stanley Cup Finals when the Hawks faced the Philadelphia Flyers in an epic six-game series. Hawks jerseys were bought and bars were packed for every game as Chicago cheered on their new favorite team as the Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup since 1949.
With that year, that series and that win the Blackhawks became the toast of the town. The Bears had a down year, the White Sox and Cubs were average at best, and the Bulls were hanging out in mediocrity, and the Blackhawks and a stranglehold on the Windy City.
The icing on the cake came when the Blackhawks had their championship parade in the middle of Michigan Avenue.
More than two million people showed up on this blistering hot June morning to see their Blackhawks and the Stanley Cup. I was at this parade, in the middle of the madness, and it seemed more like two million teenage girls screaming their heads off for the Jonas Brothers.
I have never seen so many people so happy before. It just showed that in Chicago if you are a winner, the city will be your best friend and biggest fan for the rest of your life. Once you win a championship in Chicago, you are a legend and an immortal.
Just ask the 1985 Chicago Bears.
