Frederic McLaughlin was an eccentric thinker who was willing to think outside of the box when it came to running an NHL franchise.
McLaughlin’s big idea was to infiltrate pro hockey with more American players in the 1930s. While he methods, at time, may have seemed unorthodox, his Chicago Blackhawks won a second Stanley Cup in 1938 with eight Americans on the roster, a number that would not be broken until 1995.
His bold ideas and success at running one of the first U.S. franchises in the NHL are why McLaughlin is being posthumously inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Also going into the Hall at the Dec. 4 ceremony in Pittsburgh are Matt Cullen, Brianna Decker, Kevin Stevens and the 2002 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. In addition, Sam Rosen will receive the Lester Patrick Trophy.
Castle McLaughlin said her grandfather was influential in building hockey in his native Chicago area as well as trying to increase the number of Americans in the sport.
“My father was very proud of that fact, and also spoke about his father, Frederic, encouraging schools around the Chicagoland area to form actual hockey teams in the 1920s and early ’30s,” Castle McLaughlin said. “My father went to a place called Culver Military Academy, and because of the influence of his father, they started a hockey team there, and Frederic provided all the equipment and uniforms and so forth.
McLaughlin, who was an Army major, enters the Hall almost a full 80 years after his death at age 67 in 1944.
When the NHL made its debut in 1917, there were three Americans among the 51 players on the rosters of the original four teams.
The allure of American money drew the league to add the Boston Bruins in 1924 and the Chicago Blackhawks in 1926 – two franchises known today as part of the NHL’s “Original Six.”
With his family fortune having been built in the coffee industry — dad W.F. McLaughlin was among the first to sell pre-roasted coffee — the youngest McLaughlin son joined the Army’s 86th Blackhawk Division, a new unit, in 1917 during World War I after being in the Illinois National Guard. He was in command of the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion.
After the war ended, the Harvard grad married Irene Castle, a movie star and ballroom dancer widely described as the best-dressed woman in America. McLaughlin named the team after his Army division and took the chief’s emblem from his Chicago-area polo club, Onwentsia.
He had a roster already, acquiring the rights to the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Hockey League, which collapsed following the 1925-26 season. In their debut, the Blackhawks made the Stanley Cup Playoffs at 19-22-3.
McLaughlin’s aggressive style saw a churning of coaches. Still, the team made the playoffs in 1931, then won its first Stanley Cup in 1934, beating the renamed Detroit Red Wings in four games of the best-of-five series. The clincher was a 1-0 double-overtime triumph with Mush March scoring the winner and star goaltender Charlie Gardiner notching the shutout.
McLaughlin hired Bill Stewart, a Major League Baseball umpire who also officiated NHL games, as coach before the 1937-38 season.
Stewart’s first season turned out to be surprisingly successful. Of the 18 players on the roster, eight were Americans, mainly from Minnesota. All that team did was go 14-25-9, finishing third in the American Division. But the Hawks beat the Canadiens and Rangers in decisive Game 3s of the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, then topped the Maple Leafs 3-1 to win the Stanley Cup. Those eight Americans stood as the greatest number of U.S. players on a championship roster until the New Jersey Devils had 12 in 1995.
“I found it amazing that he pursued that for almost 20 years because he was criticized so heavily for it,” Castle McLaughlin said. “At the time, people thought he was crazy, and he persisted in trying to develop more American players.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.
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