This Day in Hockey History – April 16, 1961 – Chicago’s Drought Ends in Snow

After 23 years going dry, the Black Hawks had to celebrate their 1960-61 Stanley Cup victory in Detroit as Chicago was closed off by its worst snowstorm of the season. With a big 5-1 win in the Final on April 16, the Black Hawks took home the Stanley Cup for the third time, having won in 1934 and 1938. It was the first Chicago sports title since 1947 (when the NFL Cardinals took the prize).

The Hawks had a pretty middling season, finishing in third place with 75 points. In the semi-finals, they pulled off a miraculous upset when they ousted the five-time champs and first-place (with 92 points) Montreal Canadiens. Meanwhile, the fourth-place (with 66 points) Detroit Red Wings took out the Toronto Maple Leafs (with 90 points).

When the two Midwestern teams faced each other, they alternated victories throughout the first five games. Each won only at home, with Chicago taking all the odd games and Detroit all the even. The pattern finally ended with Game 6 at Olympia Stadium. There, they had the largest crowd of the playoffs, 14,328. This included alumni from the 1937-38 Hawks like goalies Mike Karakas and Aflie Moore, Carl Voss, Captain Johnny Gottselig, and Coach Bill Stewart.

At first, it looked like Game 6 might stick to the pattern because Detroit got on the board first, at 15:24 of the first period. While Al Arbor sat out an interference penalty, Gordie Howe “hammered a 40 foot powerplay drive from direct center,” and “when Howe’s shot hit Hall’s pads and dropped to his feet, [Parker] MacDonald slammed home the rebound before Hall could drop to cover.”

However, the game turned in the second period. According to Coach Rudy Pilous, “I raised a little hell. I just told them that tonight’s game was worth $1,000 to the winner, and the loser gets nothing. If they didn’t want it, I knew somebody who did.” Soon thereafter, rookie Wayne Hicks was called for hooking. In killing the penalty, Reggie “The Horse” Fleming (who had just been traded (by Frank Selke of Montreal) to Chicago the previous June) “took the puck away from Len Lunde deep on the Hawks’ right boards,” then “poled the puck to the other end of the ice.” The recap continued, “Fleming poke-checked the puck away from [defenseman Pete Goegan], swerved to the left and rode it home.” He’d scored an unassisted shortie at 6:45.

Fleming was credited with not just tying up the game but turning it in Chicago’s favor. As one teammate commented, “There’s the guy who got us on our way. He scores in the second period, and we get the lift to win.” In the locker room afterwards, Fleming just kept chanting, “Yes, sir. Yes, Sir. Yes, sir.” He then told Selke, “I told you, didn’t I, that I’d be with a champion some day.”

Just before the period ended, at 18:49 Ab McDonald scored the game-winner. Goalie Hank Bassen “after blocking a shot by Bobby Hull, [was] completely out of position” to block. In the final period, the Black Hawks took advantage of “panic driven mistakes by the Wings” to score thrice more. Coach Sid Abel acknowledged, “We ran out of gas. We stopped skating after the first period.”

In their own net, Glenn Hall (who had been traded by Detroit five years earlier) made 21 saves. The local papers called him a “quiet, calm, nerveless knight of the nets” who “twice reached back into the goal to steal scores from the Wings in a second period that bred frustration in the enemy.” He modestly remarked, “When did I know we had ‘em? Well, it was when we got the fifth goal right near the end.” In celebration, Hall was carried off the ice by his teammates.

Obviously, the Black Hawks had made their higher ups happy. Co-owner and chairman of the board Jim Norris said, “Our nerves were a little on edge. I was pretty sure we were going to do it when Fleming got that goal, but somehow I didn’t want to watch after we got two ahead. We’re happy and proud tonight.” His brother Bruce, the head of the opponents, came over to congratulate him. Coach Pilous summarized, “This hockey team, I’d say, has improved 25 to 30 per cent since the start of the season. They’re tired now. They have a right to be. Now they have the pride of champions.”

The new champions only got as far as the Metropolitan airport, where they had an “extremely mild” celebration of beer at the cocktail lounge. After two hours, they finally had to give up and return to the hotel because the “snow and wind in the Chicago area forced cancellation of the charter flight.” In their “worst snowstorm of the year,” “gusts of wind up to 45 miles an hour piled drifts as high as 10 feet in places.” According to the Chicago Tribune, “The snow closed Meigs field, but traffic was moving in and out of O’Hare field and Midway airport.” Apparently, the snowfall broke a record for the date, April 16, that was set all the way back in 1897. 

Understandably, the Black Hawks’ flight was rescheduled for 9:30 in the morning “depending upon the weather.” The team did make it home, where Chicago “cheered them at O’Hare field, escorted them in the parade to City hall, and cheered them some more as Mayor Daley presented them the city’s certificate of merit.” According to Mayor Daley, they were “the greatest hockey team ever put together anywhere,” and “no team could surpass them for ability and agility.” That night, the Black Hawks officially celebrated at Bismarck Hotel in Chicago.

As it turned out, Chicago fans had to wait twice as long until their next Stanley Cup victory, which wasn’t until 2010.

Additional Sources:

• “Hawks Bring Stanley Cup to Chicago” and “Big Storm Closes Roads,” Chicago Tribune, 17 April 1961, part 1, pp. 1-2.
• “Our Black Hawks are World Champs!” Chicago Tribune, 17 April 1961, part 4, pp. 1 and 4.
• “Defense Rests: It’s Hawks 5, Wings 1,” Detroit Free Press, 17 April 1961, pp. 35-36.
• Ted Damata, “Chicago Honors Its Hawks at Ceremony in City Hall,” Chicago Tribune, 18 April 1961, part 3, pp. 1 and 4.
• https://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/chi-vs-det/1961/04/16/1960030216#game=1960030216,game_state=final