There were few controversies on the Blackhawks back in those days, certainly no goalie controversies.
Glenn Hall played every minute of every game with no mask, a knot in his stomach, and fully aware that the next morning’s practice would belong to him too.
“Oh, how I dreaded that,” he said. “I was blessed to have Bobby Hull on my side when it counted. But all the other days, I had to face him. The idea was not to stop the puck, but to keep from getting killed.
“That’s why it was so great, traveling by train. There was nothing the coach could do about practice, no matter how furious he was about the night before. He couldn’t make you skate in the aisles.”
Then again, there wasn’t much reason to be mad at those Hawks when they finished the 1960-61 season. They won the Stanley Cup, and maybe some of their magic will rub off when the former champions return to Chicago this weekend.
“Looking forward to it,” Hall said on the phone from Canada. “I haven’t seen some of those guys in 20 years. We’ll all take a number, and stand in line until it’s our turn to tell a bigger lie.”
The Chicago Blackhawk Alumni Association, a terrific group that also sends youngsters to college, is organizing this toast to yesteryear. It will culminate Sunday when several members of the Cup squad are introduced before the current Hawks engage the New York Islanders at the United Center.
If time permits, the Hawks of then can remind the Hawks of now that playoffs are ready for surprises if you are.
The 1960-61 team coached by Rudy Pilous finished a distant third behind Montreal during the regular season, winning only nine of 35 road games. There were no Hawks on the first NHL All-Star team, and only two on the second, Hall and defenseman Pierre Pilote. There were no Hawks among the league’s top 10 scorers. Bill Hay ranked 11th, with 11 goals and 59 points.
“But we really jelled in the playoffs,” Hall recalled. “We became an even better team after we won the Cup. Yet we didn’t win another. That’s another reason you perspire and bleed, which we did. You never know when the next opportunity will come, or if.”
The Hawks split the first two games of the opening series in Montreal, then shocked the favored Canadiens 2-1 in Game 3 here on an overtime goal by Murray Balfour. Montreal coach Toe Blake, swearing in French and English, took a swing at referee Dalton McArthur at marathon’s end.
Blake was fined $2,000, and the chagrined Canadiens pelted Hall with 60 shots in a 5-2 victory in Game 4 here. They didn’t score another goal until October. Hall beat Montreal 3-0 twice, and the Hawks advanced.
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“Good God, no way we wanted to go back to the Forum for Game 7,” Hall said. “I still shiver just thinking about it.”
Detroit, meanwhile, upset second-place Toronto, thereby creating a rare all-American Cup final. The Hawks and Red Wings split four games before Chicago won the last two for another 4-2 series triumph. Ab McDonald and Reggie Fleming scored the big goals at the Olympia on April 16, 1961.
“It was earlier then, and there was a blizzard,” Hall said. “We couldn’t get home, so we celebrated there. The next night in Chicago, we celebrated again. Probably the next night too.”
Hall returned home to Alberta for the summer to work in a fast-food restaurant.
“Fixing hamburgers, ice cream cones, whatever,” he said. “You needed another job then. Maybe I earned $11,500 that season. Maybe. But we loved it, and it wasn’t like it is now. When I first came to Chicago in 1957, we had maybe 5,000 fans in the building.
“Then Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita showed up, we won the Cup, and it became a hockey city. I had my nervous moments. It was true about me throwing up before games and occasionally between periods. But it really was fun. All except practice. No, practice wasn’t fun.”