Finally, since moving to the Western Conference for the 1970
– 1971 season, the Chicago Blackhawks are in the Stanley Cup finals with
Original Six counterpart Boston Bruins. This holds more than passing interest
for this fan, who saw his first Hawks – Bruins game in 1960, but would have
been more fun if it had happened at least six years earlier.
Bruins vs. Black Hawks, 1960
Our father began taking us to Chicago Stadium in the 1950s.
We saw one of the great Montreal Canadiens teams on New Year’s Day in 1959 and
the Boston Bruins on February 27, 1960; the ticket in the first balcony was
$2.00, about $15.50 in today’s money. Exactly 34 years to the day, I attended
my last game at the Stadium, a 4-0 win for the Bruins for which viewers in Boston
got a quick glimpse of me at the first stoppage of play.
Black Hawks program cover, 1958 - 1959
Attending college in Boston meant Hawks-Bruins game at the
Boston Garden and watching Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito vs. Bobby
Orr, Phil Esposito and Derek Sanderson. Unlike the Celtics, for whom you could
even get playoff tickets without difficulty, the Bruins were a higher priced,
more sought-after ticket. One year I bought obstructed view seats, which in
effect were standing-room. For a January 1971 appearance, I set out with $10 in
my pocket, vowing to come back with half of it. Nobody was selling for less
than $10, and I’d given up hope when just before game time, I heard some kid
shouting, “Who wants to get in for $5? Who wants to get in for $5?” Skeptical
at first, I asked him how. “Go outside, up the stairs and give the guy on the
landing $5,” he said. I bounded up the stairs, handed a man in a suede coat
half of my money and walked through a turnstile manned by a uniformed usher (no
ticket provided) into the Garden. The usher was talking to a uniformed Boston
policeman. The Bruins would win that night, 6-2, but the Hawks would go on to
break our hearts, blowing a lead and the Cup to the Canadiens in game 7 at the
Stadium.
The family in Boston Garden, 1992
One of my college roommates, Nate Greenberg, was already
covering sports for the Boston Herald Traveler while carrying a full
course load. He would eventually lose his full-time job at the newspaper after
it was acquired by the Hearst Corporation and merged with the Record
American. Through skill and a stroke of good timing, he became the Bruins’
first full-time public-relations director in 1973. I’d lost touch with Nate
until late 1983, when we reconnected for a most interesting game. On December
18, the Black
Hawks (as they were known then) retired Bobby Hull’s number, despite residual
mutual ill will over his defection to the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA in 1972. As
we walked through the concourse, Nate spotted Hawks executive Bob Pulford, not
the most popular guy, approaching. “I’m going to yank Pulford’s chain,” he told
me. “Hey, Pully,” Nate said, “Why are you retiring this guy’s number after all
of the trouble he gave you?” In typical Pulford fashion – he didn’t like Hull
from his playing days with Toronto – he muttered something unintelligible while
looking at the floor and not breaking stride.
The night #9 was retired: Dec. 18, 1983
Over
the years, Nate arranged tickets for Bruins games not only in Chicago but also
in Florida (first ever appearance), Detroit, Philadelphia and Denver. Until the
old guard retired, the Florida Panthers, out of friendship with Nate, comped
our tickets every year, regardless of the opponent, except one. For the Hawks,
it was the other way around; they finally comped the tickets for their second
appearance one season after Nate told them I’d taken out a second mortgage to pay
for the ($75) tickets for the previous game. On three separate occasions, Nate
arranged for tickets directly behind the Bruins bench, where we watched coaches
Steve Kasper, Pat Burns and Robbie Ftorek work up close and personal.
Seats behind the Bruins bench, 2003
Boston Bruins media pass, March 22, 2007
Because
of a lockout, my plans for seeing the final Blackhawks game at the Garden gave
way to attending a Saturday game vs. the Cup champion New York Rangers. The
press boxes in the old Garden were crow’s nests hanging from this second
balcony, which provided a great view of the ice. After the game, while Nate
tended to Bruins business, I loitered outside the Rangers locker room, where I
saw Mark Messier emerge and shower attention on a young Rangers fan confined to
a wheelchair. The Rangers captain signed numerous collector cards, posed for
pictures with the boy and then commandeered an onlooker to photograph the
mother with him and her son.
Nate
had a serious inkling that 2006 – 2007 would be his last season with the team.
With that in mind and the Hawks not playing in Boston, March 22 – a weekday and
my birthday – was the best time for another press-box visit. The new Garden
made sure the paying customers got the best seats, so the press box was located
in a level that ringed the top of the arena, for which you could walk around
the entire distance except for a glassed-in area containing electronic equipment.
I rode the elevator up with Guy LeFleur and Bob Gainey – the Canadiens were the
opponent that night – and settled into seat #2 (Nate’s of course was #1). The
gentleman in seat #3 was former Stanley Cup goaltender and coach Gerry
Cheevers, who chatted amiably until departing after one period. It turned out
this was his first appearance in the Garden that season, having been let go as
a scout months before. Cheevers departed after the 1st period. And, for the first and I’m sure only time, my name and
birthday greetings graced a scoreboard.
TD Garden, March 22, 2007
After 34 years with the Bruins, Nate indeed "retired." I'll leave it at that. We will never see a Stanley Cup final together - we almost did when Detroit won the Western Conference but the Bruins were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals some years back - but at least the dream match-up finally came to pass. Unless a ticket drops out of nowhere, I will be watching Game 5 (and perhaps Game 7) just like Nate: in the best seat in the house, a lounge chair in front of the HD TV. It will surely beat watching the Hawks blow the Cup in 1971 in a beat-up chair in front of a black-and-white console TV in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
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