Championship Parade!!

Hello,

This is my first venture into blogging, so bear with me as I get my sea legs. As my blog description stated, I am a lifelong Chicago sports fan and most of my blogging will likely have to do with the teams I live and more often die with. As negative as I may seem towards our local teams, my inspiration to start blogging was our recently crowned 2009-10 Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks. I can't say I'm a huge hockey fan as I haven't really followed the Hawks since my high school days when they had such stars as Jeremy Roenick, Eddie Belfour and Chris Chelios. I started to follow the Hawks again the last 2 seasons, but I would be lying if I said I road the roller coaster with them the same way I do with the Cubs, Bears and Bulls.

All that being said, I did get into the Hawks most recent playoff run and found myself watching practically every game of the postseason. I was very excited about their cup clinching win last Wednesday night and I decided that today, I would take a half day from work and attend the victory parade/rally downtown. Let me start off by saying that the fans that I was near during the parade/rally were fantastic. Considering the hot temperatures, huge numbers of people and early morning intake of alcohol, it was a recipe for an ugly situation. Instead, all I saw was a lot of excitement and appreciation for a team that had just brought the city it's first Stanley Cup in 49 years. The rally itself was a huge success on behalf of the city of Chicago as the police, firemen and city workers did a great job balancing crowd control while at the same time letting people enjoy themselves. My personal highlights of the parade/rally were the singing of the national anthem by Jim Cornelison and the subsequent reaction by the fans. I also enjoyed the ovation that former Blackhawk stars Stan Mikita and Bobby Hull received. My Dad (a fellow tortured Chicago sports fan) used to tell me about how the Hawks were the hot ticket in town when he was growing up and how he and his brother used to look up to Hull and Mikita. It was great to see the newest generation of Hawks fans appreciating the former stars of the franchise.

Though I have heard a lot of talk about repeating as Stanley Cup champions, I urge Hawks fans to relish the most recent championship and not to think about what will happen with the team in the future. I remember being an 8 year old Bears fan when they won Super Bowl 20 and thinking how great it is going to be to win multiple championships. I sit here coming up to the 25th anniversary of that victory still waiting for a second Super Bowl. I had similar thoughts when the Cubs got close in 2003 and even though that season ended in a level 1 loss (see Bill Simmons for an explanation), I actually had optimism that with Wood, Prior and Zambrano, the Cubs best years were in front of them. Needless to say, we are now looking at 102 years without a championship on the North Side without any end to the disappointment in sight.

Congratulations to all of the die hard Hawks fans that stuck with them throughout the long drought. I can only hope that I'm lucky enough to see a similar celebration for the Cubs, Bears or Bulls in the near future.