
The Chicago Black Hawks won their first Stanley Cup on a Tuesday of this date in 1934, overcoming the Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Stadium by a score of 1-0 to settle the championship in four games. Not sure why the Stadium usher with the Cup is wearing a Soldier Field cap, nor who that might be next to him, eyeing the camera. On that guy’s right, admiring the Cup, is Chicago owner Major Frederic McLaughlin. Also on hand, to the usher’s left, Chicago forward Lou Trudel lines up alongside NHL president Frank Calder, Black Hawks coach Tommy Gorman, and defenceman Roger Jenkins. It was Black Hawks’ bantam winger Mush Marsh who scored the game’s only goal that night, in double overtime, while Red Wings’ defenceman Ebbie Goodfellow was sitting on the penalty bench serving out a tripping minor. Chicago centreman Doc Romnes won a draw in the Detroit end. “I was standing behind the face-off circle,” March recounted later. The puck came right to me, about 40 feet from Wilf Cude. All I had to do was to take a couple of steps and fire. I put everything I had on that one.”
I don’t have an answer, but I noticed that the usher is not only wearing a Soldier Field cap, but his jacket has the insignia of the 1934 World’s Fair, held in Chicago to mark the city’s centennial (“A Century of Progress”).
That part makes sense, because Soldier Field was being operated by the sports committee for the fair. (Among other events, Northwestern University moved some of games to Soldier Field — the first time since 1896 that the Wildcats played anywhere other than Stagg Field.)
Charles Bidwill, owner of the NFL Cardinals, was running Chicago Stadium at the time, having acquired it out of receivership in the spring of 1933. I thought there might be a Stadium–Soldier Field connection as a result. But the Cardinals only ever played four home games at that site, all in 1959, just before they moved to St. Louis. In the ’30s, the Cards played home games at Wrigley Field, and in 1940 they would return to Comiskey Park.
I note that, even in 1934, the Cup was getting the white-glove treatment (probably more a coincidence than a matter of policy). And later that year, with their Stadium lease about to run out, the Chicago Tribune was snarkily advising readers to expect the Hawks to threaten to build a new arena. A pro-sports tendency that hasn’t changed.