On June 16, 2015, the Chicago Blackhawks won their first Stanley Cup on home ice since 1938.
If you’d like to learn about other things that were going on in 1938, you can download an e-galley of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Road to the New Deal, 1882-1939.
This spring’s championship was the third in six years for the Blackhawks, who play on Chicago’s west side. In 1938, Roosevelt was in the midst of his second term as president. F.D.R. would be elected to four terms. Star forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, each the recipient of a new deal (pardon the phrase), are signed with the Blackhawks through the 2022-23 season.
Hockey oddity file: historians have long considered the 1938 team, then known as the Black Hawks, the worst to ever win the Stanley Cup.
Yet talk about perseverance. The team lost its starting goaltender, Mike Karakas, to a busted toe. The Hawks, like all teams in those days, didn’t carry a second goalie. Alas, the replacement failed to arrive in Toronto before game time—Canada, being one of the few non-fascist countries of the era, did not make the trains run on time. According to lore, the Hawks recruited minor league netminder Alfie Moore from a bar near Maple Leaf Gardens, though other less enjoyable versions of the story suggest the Hawks had been in touch with Moore prior to him heading out for a stiff one. Whatever the case or Moore’s blood alcohol level, Alfie donned the pads and backstopped our heroes to a 3-1 victory. Moore collected $300 in pay and was sent home—or back to the bar, and he’s buying!—after being declared ineligible by the league office.