Sep
26
What a Magical Time for Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks Fans!
The trembling rafters and deafening noise of the maniacal crowd made their way through the old stadium on Madison Street and shot through the old television set miles away in the cramped, upper-floor apartment on the Northwest side of Chicago.
The baritone vocal cords of Wayne Messmer not only sent goosebumps through the sold-out crowd at the Chicago Stadium but also through the family of die-hard Blackhawks fans gathering for the big playoff game.
Only seven hours before, the Chicago Bulls had crushed the Miami Heat in the second game of a first-round playoff series. Some seven hours later, the hardwood floors of the Chicago Stadium had been replaced with a solid sheet of ice that the Blackhawks would use to skate all over and physically dominate the St. Louis Blues.
Oh, what memories from the Spring of 1992! The Blackhawks and Bulls, Chicago Stadium roommates, were respectively on the way to the NHL Stanley Cup Finals and the NBA Finals. Both teams did it in different fashions, generating much excitement and anxiety along the way.
Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer, Chris Chelios, Eddie Belfour, Mike Keanan and the rest of the Blackhawks got hot, winning 11 straight games to capture the Clarence Campbell Conference crown before getting swept by the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
The Hawks seemed to have the Penguins beat in Game One of the 1992 Stanley Cup before Pittsburgh star Mario Lemieux scored the game-winning goal late in the third period and then blocked a desperate shot on goal as time expired. Pittsburgh would shut out the Blackhawks 1-0 in a disappointing Game Three and then end the series two nights later despite a first period hat trick from veteran Blackhawk Dirk Graham.
The Bulls, defending champions themselves, were pushed to the limit in a scary second-round duel with the New York Knicks; a series which established the best rivalry in the league during the early nineties. Chicago would once again deflate the Cleveland Cavaliers the following series, however, not without a late rally in a clinching Game Six victory at the Richmond Coliseum. Chicago would take a 1-0 series lead against the dangerous Portland Trailblazers, featuring Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter and Jerome Kersey, in a game in which Michael Jordan shrugged off his own greatness. The Bulls would stage a dramatic comeback in the fourth quarter of the clinching Game Six at the Chicago Stadium and go on to win another title the following year for the first of two three peats in the Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson era.
In the spring of 1992, one Chicago team won it all. Another Chicago team just fell short. Both teams had a city in the palm of their hands, leaving many memories.
Slightly more than 15 years later, the Bulls and Blackhawks are once again roommates; this time at the United Center. While the Bulls are a very respectable team when considering the status of the modern NBA, the Blackhawks are like the old yet incomparable Chicago Stadium: nothing but a memory.
Blackhawks Owner and President Bill Wirtz died this morning from cancer years after killing a franchise and sport in the city. The Blackhawks are now nonexistent on the Chicago sports scene, thanks to Wirtz and his refusal to keep great players, pay for top free agents and listen to a once-dedicated, now disillusioned fan base.
Wirtz officially killed the Blackhawks when he blacked out home games on television years ago. With his passing today, Wirtz has not prompted memories about his life but rather provoked memories of a magical spring of hockey and basketball in the city.
It’s about time Wirtz did something for Chicago fans.
(Read more about the death of Bill Wirtz at ClassicAthletes.com)
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
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