The Blackhawks National Anthem Is The Best in Sports

Blackhawks Anthem

If you haven’t had the chance to attend a Blackhawks game in Chicago you are missing out.  It is a tradition for Blackhawks fans to applaud and cheer insanely loud during the singing of the national anthems.  Having been lucky enough to see it last year during the Stanley Cup Finals, I needed to share at least some video with you.  It definitely doesn’t do it full justice, but it gets the point across.  This tradition originated during a 1985 Campbell Conference playoff game at Chicago Stadium versus the Edmonton Oilers.

In this clip Wayne Messmer sings the National Anthem at Chicago Stadium during the ’91 NHL All-Star game, days after the U.S. went into Iraq at the start of the Gulf War.

This was broadcast live to the troops in the Middle East, and Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf reportedly played a tape of this to his soldiers.

FAST FORWARD to 1 Minute and 40 Seconds into this video for Jim Cornelison singing the Anthem before the 2009 playoff game v. the Canucks.

And one of my personal favorites is nearly the entire city of Chicago Stanley Cup National Anthem during the celebration parade.

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  • Sam Oshana

    Really well said James, I enjoyed this a lot. Looking forward to your next post.

  • http://twitter.com/WhoopAss WhoopAss

    My boys grew up bouncing away in their jolly jumper to the Beastie Boys and some old school drum and bass, but we have held off on Wu-tang. It’s not the swearing, it’s the sentiment in the tunes that’s just not age appropriate. And for any frowny parents I can safely say by 10 year old won’t even utter “crap” in my presence because he thinks it’s a swear word, so the Beastie Boys haven’t done them any harm (and it’s inspired some fairly high-brow conversations as well as a little creative rhyming)

    What I will say is dangerous is John Denver. Yep, too much at an impressionable age gave me a totally false impression of the world and, let’s face it, who doesn’t want to put tape over the mouth of a six year old who never stops singing “Grandma’s Feather Bed”.

    Whatever you play your kids just make sure it’s something you’ll be happy to have them sing back at you, over and over and over again.

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