Ear on Chicago; The Fastest Sport in the World: The Chicago Black Hawks Hockey Team

We're standing in the dressing room of the Chicago Blackhawks, which is located in the Chicago Stadium out on West Warren in Chicago. We're going to do the story of the Chicago Blackhawks training session. Actually, they're going to be going out on the ice in just a few moments. We're going to talk to Johnny Gottsleek, who is the Public Relations Director, and man in charge of just about everything with the Chicago Blackhawks. Johnny, come over here and tell us something about the equipment that you have here. First of all, I saw Tommy Iban walk in with a big bucket of, what is it, coals in there? No, that's not coals, you. Those are pucks. Those are black vulcanized rubber, and they're three inches in diameter and one inch thick. And of course, during a practice session, they use approximately all 50 to 75 pucks. Let me take a look at one of those things. Now, tell me something about how this puck is made, John. Well, I just said this is vulcanized rubber. It's three inches across in diameter, one inch thick, and it weighs about six ounces. And I understand that you freeze them the night of a game. Yes, we do. We put these, we keep them in that bucket, and put some water in that bucket, let them soak in water for about all four or five hours, then place it on

the pipes, the freezing pipes, lay them on that, and they get pretty hard, then they get frozen for about five hours, and the night of the game, they are really solid, and the reason we freeze them is so they are more easily to handle, and they will not bounce or roll on the ice if they are frozen. What about some of the other equipment? For example, there's a lot of sticks around here, some gloves, and I saw the boys taping up their long socks. I suppose the best way to do it is start out with the skates themselves, tell me something about them. Well, all the boys use a particular type of skate. They all have their shoes fitted by the shoe makers, and of course, their skates are probably ground a little different than other ones, but every player has a certain type of skate that he gets accustomed to, and they all use two pair, probably three pair a year. I see. What about those long socks? Do they have to buy them themselves? No, they don't. All the equipment that these players wear, that you see in here, that's all purchased by the hockey club. A hockey player does not buy any equipment whatsoever,

whereas in baseball or some of the other sports, they have to buy their gloves, or probably some of the other equipment, their shoes. A hockey player has everything purchased by the hockey team. Anybody that has gone to a hockey game can remember seeing those gloves, those tremendous gloves that the hockey players wear. They're tremendous. Yes, they are. And they need them too. Are they kind of heavy? No, they're not. They're well constructed. The inside of the palm is a fine leather, and the players can get a good feel of the stick through that leather. Yet on the back side, as you notice, they are really padded with fiber covered with leather and then on top of that, there's not only fiber in there, there's horse hair and a lot of sponge rubber underneath. And they are quite cumbersome looking from the outside. You see that gold handers? He's not only got fiber in the back. He's got a great big piece of board on the back of the one hand, which stops a lot of rubber. As you know, when that puck comes flying at a gold hander at the rate of about 80 miles an hour, he needs plenty of protection on the back of those hands when he punches them out. Yes. Well, now, what about the shoulder pads and some of the inside material that the

boys wear underneath their shirts? A little while ago, I came in here and did you think you were in a football dressing room? Well, they have the shoulder equipment, much the same as the football equipment. They have these great big shoulder pads that are fiber with sponge rubber underneath, and they cover the shoulders. On top of that, they have padding around their elbows, elbow pads, then in their trousers, they have great big thigh pads, which are fiber, and they have shin guards, which come right from their shins, right up to where their pants meet above their knee. And those are all fiber down the front of their legs. And of course, behind that fiber is plenty of sponge rubber, especially around the knee to protect their knees. Well, they're protected from neck downpacks. They are almost like the old Roman gladiators. They have everything covered from head to toe. The only thing that they're exposed, I believe, in a hockey player is his face and his head. And at one time, they wanted them to wear headguards, but apparently, these hardy athletes, these hockey players, they didn't want that headguard around. They thought it was a little too cumbersome, so they discarded that, and you see him now skating around without headguards. And yet, you find very, very few serious injuries recurring or occurring from

hockey. Well, everybody is just about left, but Al Rollins, who is the goalie, and he's sitting over here with a bunch of equipment on, and I want to talk to him just briefly. Some of the things that Johnny didn't mention, now, were these long shin guards that you have. Now, they're a lot different from what the rest of the boys wear, tell us something about those. Well, they're approximately, well, they come up above the knees, about four inches above the knees, and, oh, I imagine, four or five inches thick. What's that sticking out down there? Is that the shoe? Oh, that's my skate. You see, they go over the toe of the skate, and they strap on, straps go through the bottom of the skate. And you're a stick is a lot bigger than most of the boys. Yes, it's wider, three and a half inches wide, the blade, and I think it's forward six about an inch and a half, something like that. Do you have to tape your own stick? Oh, yes, you tape all, everybody tapes their own stick. Al, can you use any size of stick you want to, or is there a regulation governing that? No, there's regulations just to the size. I mean, it's all in the rule book. I think the largest goal stick is three and a half inches. Okay, thanks very much. Thank you, Al.

Let's get back here to Johnny Gottsley just a minute. Johnny, there's a couple of players still remaining in here besides Al, and I'd like to talk to a couple of them about awesome equipment and sticks and so on. Well, I guess there's none better than Harry Watson, who is probably one of the best left wingers in the National Hockey League. He's one of the members who belongs to that Charmed 200 goal club. I think Harry has approximately 230. Now, here he comes. Harry, how many have you? How many goals have you scored in your lifetime? Oh, I don't know exactly, John. Around two, 25, something like that. Harry, tell me something about the stick. First of all, I understand that all of these sticks aren't alike, and I'm sure that a lot of hockey fans probably thought they were. Well, that's true. Every player, we're like the ball players. Every player has a different feeling in the stick. Some like them light heavy, wide in the blade or narrow in the blade, short blades, long blades. Every player has their own particular likes about sticks. It should be like a baseball bat then. That's true. Well, Harry, why do you have to put the tape on it? Why don't the sticks come with the tape on them? Well, these sticks are all manufactured in the factory. Some fellas like the

blade taped all the way down, and half way down, three cores of the way everybody has a different liking on the sticks. Well, everywhere I look, you fellas are using tape for some reason or other. You take up your socks, you tape up the stick. You must use a lot of tape. Well, that's true. I think they go through about a ton over the year. That's a lot of tape. A ton of tape? That's right. Is that right? Well, Harry, I know your anxious to get out there, and we won't hold you, so thanks a lot for talking to us. Thanks, Hugh. Hugh, here is Nick McCoskey, who just came up with a terrific game the other night. He's one of the big boys of our club. He weighs about 180 and stands around 61. He's used mostly as a defensive forward checker, but the other night he came up with a couple of big goals for us to be Detroit. Now, Nick, here's your notice as he walks by, he'd come over here, Nick. You see, he has a couple of molars missing. Now, I wish you'd ask him about that, because I think that's a trademark, a couple of missing teeth on every hockey player, so you just ask him if you've crushed it on that. Is that right, Nick? Every hockey player has a tooth or two missing? And I'll tell you what, all he wants for Christmas is a tooth or two front teeth.

But when you laugh now, I can say that your two molars are missing. What happened? Well, this happened about seven years ago, where I was with New York at the time, and I went to check one of the other players, and he flipped the puck, and it'd be right and unfortunately, it'd be right in my face, and I lost a couple of teeth, split my lip here and there. But it's a standard thing in hockey. I bet there's about 80 % of the hockey players have a few of their teeth missing because of sticks and pucks and elbows that I thrown at them. What other injuries have you suffered? Any major ones besides that? Well, I suffered dislocated shoulder, I've had them, but had about six or seven of them. And while in New York, I had it operated on since then, it hasn't bothered me. That's about four or five years back. Well, Nick, I know this is a mighty rough game, and Johnny was talking to us a little while ago about helmets. Why don't you thought us were the helmets? Helmets are too cumbersome. They get on your way. When you're perspiring, you know, they

irritate your forehead, and some of the players have used them, but that's a few years back. That's when Johnny Gottslick, Johnny Gottslick's days, you know, that's when the sissy's were playing. No, no, no, no. But, you have more freedom with yourself, you know, they just gave it up as a bad thing all together. Well, okay, Nick, thanks so many for talking to us, and we'll see you out on the ice. Okay, here. Johnny, how about somebody else we can talk to? Well, right over here is our captain, Gus Mortsson, and he can tell you a great deal about this game, because he's been one of the old standbys for many, many a year. He played with the Toronto Maple Leafs for about six or seven years, and we got him a few years ago and made him captain, and he's our leader out on the ice. He's a good, solid character, as you see him come by here, come over here, Gus and meet Hugh Hill. Hello, Gus. How are you? Fine. Listen, maybe it'd be better if you and Johnny talked Gus, because you fell as can talk over old times, and I'll listen, and if I think of something, I'll throw in a question or two. Well, Gus, tell me this, how come that most of the boys right now are coming from Canada that we have so few of American -born hockey players playing? How come? Well, the similarity is something like you have in baseball

here in the States, Johnny. All the big players and most of the players in the American and National League are from the States, whereas in Canada, it's hockey's our national game, so that's where all the hockey players come from. There will be a few more come out of Minnesota, though I believe they're getting their leagues going real well up there, something like about 15 years ago. I think the hockey's had around six or seven American players in their team, and they won the Stanley Cup. So, maybe I'll get a few more players right here. Yes, Hugh. That's right. We had seven. I was on the club at the time that you're talking about, Gus. We had seven players. We had Virgil Johnson. We had Phyto Perper. We had Colley Dahlstrom. We had all quite a few at that time. We had seven all together. Well, is it one of World's championships? Is it true that there is no player in the league now from America? I believe there at the present time, Gus. Is there anybody? No, the last one I know was Ivan Irwin, and he was born here in Chicago. That's right. Ivan Irwin. He played with the New York Rangers. The Rangers, yes. And he's in the minor leagues now. He's playing problems now. Yes, Gus, tell us. You're one of the better defensemen in the National League. Who are some of the tough characters to stop out

there? And how do you go about stopping these fellows? Do you hit them high, low, or what do you say? What do you do against a fellow like Richard? Well, I'll tell you, against the better players, and you have quite a time hitting them. But the best thing to do on those players is to back up and try to keep them away from the net and make them shoot. When you go after them to hit them, they usually step around here, and then they go in home free. So you try to keep them away from the net and make them shoot. And that's what all you can do. Well, who are some of the real tough guys to stop? I tell the real tough guys to stop for Richard and Gordy Howe. And I think Del Vecchio with Detroit is very tough. He's shifty. Nobody seems to notice them too much, except the players playing against him. That's unusual to hear him say that. Many people, I guess, never notice Del Vecchio out on the ice. They probably pick Lindsay or something. Now, here's coming from a fellow like Martzen, who knows these fellows in Del Vecchio, just a little sneaky, tricky player there that somebody may be overlooked. Actually, Lindsay isn't as tough as some of those other fellows to stop, because Lindsay just depends upon his speed to cut around you to get in. And if you're on your toes, you can back up with them. But Todd Sloan with Toronto is, I think, he's one of the shiftyest in everyone, because he can go both ways. Well, there's one question I want to ask both you

fellows. Most of the players that I've seen in here this morning are tall, strong, big men like yourself. Is this a game where a little guy could get in and play? This game here can be played by both the big man and the little man. And the little man has every bit of a chance to make Gord in hockey as the big man. In fact, we've had some mighty Gord little men when we can go back right to the black cocks with a Bentley's mosey ankle. Right now, we have hergishamber on our club. Only 155 pounds and about five foot seven. That's it. And a pretty shifty hockey player, one of the greatest. In fact, he came up with three great years that's scoring over 24 goals each year. He's running into a little tough luck right now. Herg is, but he's just not able to break out of it anytime. But any young, any small man, has just put a chance. Henry Richard. The Rock is brother. He only weighs about 145 pounds. And I think he must have quite a few goals. He's in a double figures. Well, we want to get out there and watch you, boys. Practice a little bit. I know that you're scheduled out on the ice according to the blackboard up here behind me. At 11 o 'clock in the morning. And it's, well, it's pretty close to 11 o 'clock right now.

There you go, a lotter. Stay like that, Rick, we ain't just back. That sound you're hearing out there is the sound of the Chicago black cocks in a practice session. There's two teams going here. And you see they're going at it hammer on tongue. There's no quarter -ass right now. This is a good, real, tough practice session. They are getting ready now for our game in a couple of days. And of course, when we have a practice, two days in advance, Tommy Aivan really gives it to him. Day before he eases up. But right now, as you notice, they are going at it as hard as they could as they would in the game. Here they are up on the attack now. You see the ones in blue are up on the attack. They're trying to get a play going. And it's backfired. And Tommy now calls that play. He's calling them over and going to explain it to him right now the mistake that they have made. You hear him? You probably hear him talking out there. Tommy used to be a player himself, of course. Yes, he did. Many, many years ago, Tommy never played pro, but he played a lot of amateur hockey. But he certainly managed ever since the first day. I guess that he got connected with hockey was managing and coaching. Now I see a new team going out on the ice.

Why do they change this? Well, there's this last crew. The last bunch were out there about four minutes. And that's about what he gives him in a practice session. And so now he's changing players and getting a new set of forwards out there. And of course, here is their back out on the attack again. Here is the hawkster. I looked to me as though Tommy is trying to develop a power play, which has been sadly lacking in the black hawks this season. Our power attack has not been too well. And he's trying to get five men up on the attack. As you notice, they all go into that one zone. The five men, here is a nice pattern play. And there is a shot, but it's wide of the mark. But that's what he's trying to do right now, trying to get that power play working. Now, Johnny, for those people who are not acquainted with the game of ice hockey, why don't you explain a little bit of the rules? For example, let's talk about the ice itself. How deep is it? Well, this ice out here at the stadium is approximately a half an inch thick. It's been in now for about five days. But when the ice is only put in for the game itself, the day of the game, it could be as thin as only a quarter of an inch thick. But right now it's about a half an inch thick. And of course, they

don't like to let it pile up too much. If it gets to be more than a half an inch thick, it becomes what we call sugary, soft on top. And the players don't like it that way, because they cannot, there you hear that noise. The boy is just made out of quite a yell. There was quite a drive at Mr. Rollins, and he made a tremendous save on it. But if the ice is sugary, you get it back to the ice. The players don't like it. They can't control that puck too well. In fact, you can see it bouncing a little bit now on this ice because the ice is a little bit scuffed up and cut up, there's quite a bit of snow on it right now. You'd rather have the puck slide, of course, than you would bounce. Oh, definitely, yes. That's why we freeze that puck. So it's easier to control, and it slides along smoothly on the ice. Here's a new team going out again. All right, now what about the blue lines? Well, the blue lines, they divide the ice into three sections. There's a blue line, 60 feet out from each net, as you notice. 60 feet out from each net is a blue line. And right cutting the ice directly in half is a red line. Right across the center of the ice surface divides the ice in half. Now, an attacking team can pass right up to that red line, an attacking team, up to that red center line. He cannot pass

to a player beyond that red center line. In other words, he can pass up to there. But as soon as he gets up to that red center line, he can drive it into the attacking zone and follow it in, which they just did right now. As you notice, the game today, Hugh, they try very much to get this power play going by driving the puck into the end zones and then piling in after it and overpower the defending team. You notice we're trying to overpower the defending team. In the old days, the hockey was played a little differently. They tried very much to control that puck as much as possible. They carry the puck across and into the defending zone. They would keep possession of it as long as they could. But with this new red center line, it has opened up the game so much that now they have to take advantage of that center line to permit them to drive it in half the length of the ice, which they do. Well, now you played under the old rules. Yes, I did whether you play under the new ones. Yes, I also played under the new ones just as a new one. Well, I think it creates more action because after all, hockey, you like to see the greatest action around the net. Yes, because that's the payoff department, right in that goal. And of course, our action right now centers all

within around 60 feet around that net. And that's where we want that action today. We don't care about these fancy plays and center ice anymore. We want to have a lot of action centering around the goal mouth. Now, there was a face off a little while ago, right out in the center of the ice, as you said, along a red strip. Yes. And then right in the center of that red stripe is a black circle, small one about 12 inches. 12 inches? That's what the, yes. Now, that's where the puck is picked up. They face off to start the game. They drop it right on a little blue circle, right that's directly in the center of the ice. And if you noticed in there is that from that blue circle, there's a radius drawn of 15 feet and you have another great big circle, right in the center area. That means that no one other than the two men that are trying to get the draw are permitted in that circle, that big 15 foot circle. That's to keep them away. So there isn't too much jostling and pushing and shoving to give the two men a chance to get that draw. And that is very important here to get that draw because many a time, if you get that draw, you try to get it over

to your wing man and he immediately shoots at the net and he many a time catches them off guard. I noticed the other night that Rocket re -shared scored a goal within 12 seconds. In other words, his center man got that draw, slipped it over to the rocket. He immediately made about two strides, pulled the trigger and he shot a goal from 60 feet out in 12 seconds after the game got underway. So that's how important that draw is. What about the time of a game, John? How long does a hockey game last and how's it time? Well, the hockey game lasts 60 minutes of active play action. That is, anytime there's a time out, a stoppage of play, the clock stops. So a game you must get at least 60 minutes of playing time or but you might be around some time oh, you could sit in this ring for probably an hour and a half, two hours to watch a 60 minute game. I recall many years ago, we played a 60 minute game it took us over two hours and a half to play with a lot of time outs and there was a lot of hassling and a lot of arguments and bickering but that goes on many a time. However, in Stanley Cup play, Hugh, that is when we play off for the world's championship and the Stanley Cups in the final, then there is unlimited

play if the game should finish a tie after the end of 60 minutes. They play until that tie is broken and they could play that all night. The longest game that has ever been played was something like 227 minutes of overtime. Oh, brother. They played until 230 in the morning. Before they just about dragged it. They just about did and finally the game did end in victory for one team, detroit won the game, won the nothing over the Montreal Canadians and the game ended at approximately 230 or three in the morning. Well, John talking over the rules and regulations of a hockey game probably wasn't too interesting to a hockey fan because he knows all about it. But for those who are not acquainted with the game, perhaps we can get a few people out here to watch the Hawks. Well, now, John, we've talked quite a bit about it and about the practice session and I want to talk to Tommy for just a minute. Tommy, you're working on pretty hard this morning. Oh, and we haven't got ice tomorrow. That's the reason. See, there's a fight here in Amor and we want to go just a little longer and a little harder. Johnny was telling us that you're working out pretty hard a couple of days before the game and then he's off the day before. Yeah, how do they look? Well, they look pretty good. Sometimes they look sharp, sometimes they

don't look too sharp. But we're head manning the puck pretty good this morning. That's the most important thing. You know, on other words, when I say head manning it, I mean, they're throwing a puck to the man. It's an old 15 or 20 feet in front that's on site. See, the puck travels faster than the man. Yes, a little while ago, Tommy, we were watching you maneuvering into a sort of a power player. Are you working out a secret weapon here? No, not necessarily. We're just trying to get a man in the open and give him the puck. That's all. It's pretty hard to do, you know, when everybody's covered. But if we can wiggle a fella out into the open wide, that's what we try to do. Some of these fellas are a little green, you know, they're young and you got to have a lot of patience. Well, Tommy, don't let us take up any more of your time. Oh, we haven't worked, we've worked pretty hard, but you're really seeing them working now for about 15 minutes. Yeah, okay, we'll watch and we'll listen. Well, Johnny, getting back to the play, now these fellas just, Tommy just said, we'll work awfully hard. And I saw them coming off the ice a little while ago and these boys are perspiring and they're not breathing too hard, but they're getting an awfully good workout. Do they lose weight, for example, in a practice session like this? Yes, they lose as much weight, probably more so in this session here because they're going more constantly into the longer

clip at a time. They go for four minutes at one stretch. And now just to just give an idea why they lose, listen to this, here they're doing a little bit of stop and starts. You might be, this is the toughest conditioning of all. You may have been able to hear the boys digging in as Tommy blows that whistle. These fellas skating at top speed all dig down and stop dead. And that is really a tough session for conditioning. They go the length of the ice, how long is it? That, the length of this ice is about 187 feet. And they skate the whole length of it. And then Tommy will blow that whistle. You can hear them now. Keep going here. Here they come. Let's listen. Coming right by us. When they get down to the end of the ice, they hit that ice and skid to a stop. Charlie, they're about ready to leave the ice here. We couldn't record, of course, the whole 15 minutes that Tommy was talking about. The boys have just been racing up and down the ice. They're still doing a little bit of racing. And one team has already finished. And they're leaving the ice and going back to the dressing room. And we're going to go down there in just a minute. Well, this is the

final right now, Hugh. He puts them through. Tommy puts them through a good skating session. As you notice, that one group that went around the whole length of the ice in a sort of an H shape, a figure eight, right behind the nets and all. And he really has them skating at top speed. And they go around the rink about 10 or 12 times. And this last, the second group is just finishing off now. And that really does what you call pull their cork wet for the final session. And now they're going to go downstairs. And of course, they'll hurry and get their showers and get home and climb right into bed and get a little bit of rest. I like and imagine that they would because they'd be awfully tired after a workout like that. That must be awfully tough on the legs, John. Yes, it is. These boys have to have good leg muscles. And of course, they have to be in a one condition at all times. They certainly can't tear around too much or rather abuse themselves because this takes too much out of them right now. And you'll notice as Tommy, he keeps them in pretty good shape. These boys are in first class physical condition. Johnny, we've been watching some mighty rugged football here in Chicago with the Bears and against the Cardinals, for example, and against the Lions when there were some injuries. But this game here is,

if not as rough, maybe a little rougher. Well, it could turn into a pretty rough game. Of course, there are all big men in this game as you'll notice with us. But the small man has a good chance, but it's rough no matter whether you play it in practice. As they played it here today, you'll notice they hand out that body check just as they do in the game. Any game that has bodily contact, especially like hockey here, it's a tough game to play whether you play it just for fun or you play it for keeps as a professional. Well, Johnny, let's go downstairs now where the boys are gone and go down to the dressing room and talk a little there. Fine. Yeah. Down in the dressing room now, Johnny, the trainer down here is working on one of the boys. Looks like he's got a cut on his nose. This is our young rookie Forbes Kennedy. He was just nicked below the left eye, right beside the nose, cut. I'd say, how long is it nick? This is Nick Garan, our trainer. What about a half inch long? How many have to take a stitch, Nick? You'll take about three or four, anyways, to close down. We twist it very close here to make it approximately. We use facial sutures that close up pretty, you know, plastic surgery work, so it closes up pretty nicely.

If you use thick of sutures, it takes longer. It takes less stitching than put in, but he's at least a little scar, and all this one holds up pretty well. Won't leave a scar at all. Very little if any, very little though, no trouble, no. He wouldn't notice it, but a month or two, it's all gone. You have to do quite a bit of stitching, how about, don't you, Nick? Oh, yeah, sweet, put about 40 a year. I'd do anyways in training camp and emergency work, and all, usually when we travel on the road, we have the club physician of the home club that's usually there to do the work for us. What else do you do besides stitching? A lot of taping and not a first aid work and physiotherapy work, like using the diaphragm and whirlpool and infrared lamps, metcolator, so a lot of work to do. We have a lot of injuries that don't show at the game, bruises like in football, you have bruises and little poles, the Charlie Horses and so forth, that we catch in time and they'll be back playing before anybody knows they're hurt. What are the most common ones, Nick? Well, bruises are the most common, Charlie Horses. Take very rare. Ronnie Ames, and in the legs, and in knees, but in knees and

ankles. Hitting with a puck, usually most of them bruises caused by violence, traumatic injuries, not so much by twisting and turning, but they're pretty good shape. Athletes usually, I mean, pretty well developed, so she's hockey player, as far as the legs are concerned, they're about the best in the league, you see. There's no trouble with knees and even ankles, but in bruising, now there's Johnny Wilson just walked in. He had a laceration next to him, Malilist, a bone on the outside of the foot, and there's about a half inch long, and they put in three sutures to close it up, but we have to strap it up just like a tape case. That's what I call it. I use about tape case, where you put goers, the last of last tape over it to prevent any motion in version e -version, flexing the extension of the leg. That eliminates the aggravation at the portion of the bone. So a lot more injury and hockey than there is in the old, for example, football, Nick? Well, I was at the Bears 1950, I helped at Rosie in training camp, and they have a different type. They have their sonas, but they have actually a week to recuperate once the season starts. I mean, they do scrimmaging. I mean, no scrimmaging at all, just in sweatshirts and sweatpants and run through plays. But now, game, it's physical contact. Every time they put on a pair of skates and grab a hockey

stick. Yes, I noticed we were out there at that scrimmaging, and there's plenty of body contact. Well, plenty of body contact. I think it couldn't play the game. They didn't have any body contact. Okay, Nick, thanks everybody for talking to us. You better get on that cut there. Well, Johnny, I think that just about wraps up our story. We started with the dressing room, and we're ending with the dressing room, where a boy has had a little cut, and he's getting it fixed up. And he's ready to go. Yes, he sure will. First to sure, Nick will take care of him. He's put fellas into the game many a time when you figure they'd be out three or four games. Nick is one of our best, or has been one of the best trainers the Black Hawks have had. Johnny, before I leave, I must tell the fans who don't know what that, although you're now retired from an actual active playing, you're now a public relations director, and as I said, you have many other jobs. You played with the Black Hawks for 17 years and won over their greatest stars in the early days. Thank you, Hugh. We won two championships, two world championships while I was with them, and I hope that we can repeat very soon because the Chicago fans certainly are deserving of it. They've been great supporters of the Black Hawks these many years while we've been, while not having the

good times that we had before, but I'm sure there are better days ahead for the Black Hawks and the fans will certainly be rewarded real soon. I hope so, Johnny. Thank you very much for talking to us. And that's the story of a practice session of the Chicago Black Hawks. This is Hugh Hill speaking from the Chicago Stadium in Chicago.