FEATURE: Blackhawks Pop-Culture Moments You Forgot and the Stadium That Started It All

A special to Blackhawks.com by former Public Address Announcer with more than 65 years of Blackhawks hockey coverage.

The Chicago Stadium was home to the Blackhawks for 65 seasons before moving across Madison Street to the United Center in January 1995. Built for $7 million, it was once the largest indoor arena in the world.

The Stadium hosted thousands of events besides hockey and basketball, running the gauntlet of concerts, boxing matches, ice shows, circus shows, track meets, rodeos, political conventions and even the first indoor NFL football championship game.

Also known as "The Grand Old Lady," Chicago Stadium was unique in many ways besides its size and seating capacity. It had the Barton Organ with more than 3,600 pipes in the venue’s ceiling, which produced a sound equivalent to 25 brass bands. In 1943, a four-sided analog Bulova clock and scoreboard was installed, which was upgraded in 1975 to a digital one. In 1973, the horn from the Blackhawk yacht was added, sounding for every Blackhawks goal.

It quickly became one of the loudest buildings in hockey, often making the arena shake, especially as the Blackhawks started to rebound in the 1960s behind Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and Glenn Hall, who led the team to a Stanley Cup in 1961. And who could forget the deafening ovation during Wayne Messmer’s rendition of the national anthem before the 1991 NHL All-Star Game.

"There's just something about it," said Chris Chelios, who played the first half of his Blackhawks career at the Chicago Stadium. "It's in the top two buildings, in my opinion, with that type of atmosphere. The old Chicago Stadium and Madison Square Garden, and that's it. I don't think other teams enjoyed coming into Chicago playing against us, it was just very intimidating and loud. You knew you were going to be in for a battle and that was the mystique of that building. And being our home rink, we felt it was a great advantage for us. The fans, the atmosphere, you talk to anybody that played in the 90s in that building or maybe even in the 80s, it was just a tough place for them to play."

"You can say anything you want, but that building made us," added Chelios.

Chicago Stadium’s lore – and the atmosphere and traditions the United Center carried forward – certainly helped turn the Blackhawks into a pop culture phenomenon.

The Blackhawks played against Sesame Street in a 1975 exhibition match held during the team’s Christmas party to help grow the game to a younger audience. A few years later, a Blackhawks jacket made an appearance in Queen’s "We Will Rock You" music video — perhaps a similar one referenced more than a decade later in a 1989 episode of Seinfeld.

The Blackhawks also found their way into movies. In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Clark Griswold sported team sweaters, a look that still appears at games to this day. In Swingers, actor and noted diehard Blackhawks fan Vince Vaughn played NHL '94, perhaps the most popular NHL video game of all time, which featured Jeremy Roenick on the cover.

Vaughn’s character, attributing his hockey video-gaming success, said in the movie: "It's not even so much me as it's Roenick. He's good."

The Blackhawks made several appearances and references in Wayne’s World (1992) as well, including Stan Mikita’s Donuts, named after Blackhawks Hall of Famer Stan Mikita.

Most recently, during the team’s transition to the United Center, the Blackhawks played a role in the 2011 comedy/drama film The Dilemma, featuring Vaughn (again) and Kevin James. The film went to great lengths to replicate the atmosphere of a Blackhawks game day, even including public address announcer Gene Honda.

"My role was to be the Blackhawks public address announcer," Honda said.

Easy enough, right? Or so it seemed.

"Okay you say that, but in true Hollywood style, I had to go audition for my own job," Honda said, only half-joking. "And honest to goodness, as I'm walking into the room for the audition, I'm thinking: 'What the heck's going to happen if I don't get the part? Won't that be embarrassing?' But luckily, I walked in and they said: 'By the way, you're just here as a formality. We wanted to talk to you and we wanted to hear your voice because we love your voice.' So I said, 'Okay thank you, woo hoo!'"

The cultural reach didn’t stop there.

Famous musicians began wearing Blackhawks attire, including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Iggy Azalea, and Chicago’s own Chance the Rapper, among many others. Now, the logo is everywhere.

The Chicago Stadium helped build the fan experience and the brand, and the winning that followed launched it into a different stratosphere.

"When you travel around to different places, look around and look for the Blackhawks logo. You will find it," Honda said. "And that in itself is a testament to the popularity of the brand and the popularity of the team."