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| Major Frederic McLaughlin |
By James Patton
Frederic McLaughlin (1877-1944) was a graduate of Harvard and the heir to a family fortune. He inherited the successful "McLaughlin's Manor House" coffee business from his father, who died in 1905. From 1923 until his death, McLaughlin was married to the famous dancer, model and silent movie actress Irene Castle, the widow of Vernon Castle, another WWI veteran. (Click HERE for more on Vernon Castle.)
A champion Polo player, McLaughlin went to the Mexican border in 1916 as a cavalryman in the Illinois National Guard. Upon his return he did the Plattsburgh course and was commissioned as a Major, receiving orders to the 86th ‘Blackhawk’ Division’s 333rd Machine Gun Battalion. This division was created at Camp Grant in Rockford, Illinois in August, 1917 with draftees from Illinois and Wisconsin.
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| Shoulder Patch of the 86th "Black Hawk" Division |
After arriving in France in October 1918, the 86th Division's infantry and machine gun units were "greatly depleted to form replacements for combat units." Senior officers like Major McLaughlin were not reassigned, but remained in Le Mans as permanent cadre in anticipation of repopulation with new soldiers from the 2 million men still training stateside. However, with the Armistice of 11 November, the additional men were never needed and he returned home.
In 1926 McLaughlin acquired the rights to the new Chicago franchise in the National Hockey League (NHL), which he named the “Blackhawks” in honor of his fellow soldiers. His wife Irene is said to have designed the iconic and now-controversial Indian head logo. During his ownership the team won two of its six Stanley Cups for the league championship.
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| McLaughlin with His Team and the Stanley Cup |
He is remembered for his dogged determination to use American players; once saying: “I think an all-American team would be a tremendous drawing card all over the league.” Others predicted that, while in America the crowds might come to cheer, in Canada they would come to laugh. Nevertheless, Chicago’s championship team in 1938 was 44% Americans (mostly from Minnesota); no NHL championship team has had more Americans on its roster until 2016. However, the overall record of McLaughlin’s Blackhawk teams was 332 wins, 430 losses and 136 ties.
In his time, he was roundly criticized by his Canadian colleagues, who ridiculed the level of his talent. The Boston Bruin’s Art Ross summed it up: “I have been in hockey 30 years and never in its entire history has such a farce been perpetrated on a National Hockey League crowd.”
The long-time owner and occasional coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Constantine “Conn” Smythe MC (1895-1980), was a CEF battery commander, RFC aerial observer and a POW for 14 months during the World War. He is an NHL legend, winner of ten Stanley Cups, and is the namesake of the NHL’s Most Valuable Player award. Smythe famously said of fellow team owner McLaughlin: "Where hockey was concerned, Major McLaughlin was the strangest bird and, yes, perhaps the biggest nut I met in my entire life."
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| Irene and Frederic, Apparently Sane and Unconcerned About Any Criticism |
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