Chris Chelios

1962-

American hockey player

Chris Chelios is one of the best, most seasoned defensemen in the National Hockey League (NHL). He has played in the NHL since 1984, winning three Norris Trophies and two Stanley Cups during that time. Although earlier in his career Chelios was known for his violent style of play and short temper, as he has gotten older he has become a more restrained but no less effective player.

Perseverance

Although Chelios was born in Chicago, a relatively good place for a boy to learn hockey, his family moved to San Diego in 1977. There were few good players for Chelios to compete with and learn from in southern California. He played in a weekly game with a team of Marines for a while, but even this was not enough. During his senior year of high school, Chelios took a bus to Hawkesbury, Ontario to try out for a junior B league team there. He was cut from the Hawkesbury team after one game, so he tried out for another junior B league team, this one in Chatham, Ontario. That didn't work out either, and Chelios found himself in a bus station in Michigan without enough money to make it home. He borrowed the money, returned to California, and began attending the U.S. International University in San Diego, which had inaugurated a hockey program one year earlier. Chelios did not make the team. Finally, he found a place with a junior B team in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Chelios's career started looking up in 1981, when he was recruited to play for the University of Wisconsin. Chelios, formerly a forward, credited his time spent playing under famed Wisconsin coach "Badger" Bob Johnson, one of the most successful hockey coaches of all time, with teaching him how to be a solid defensive player. Chelios was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1981, but he remained in college, helping Wisconsin to win the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) hockey championships in 1981 and 1983. Then, after playing with the United States hockey team at the 1984 Olympics, Chelios finally began playing for the Canadiens.

The Big League

Chelios's first National Hockey League (NHL) game was in March of 1984, at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers. He remembered it to Sports Illustrated reporter Jay Greenberg in 1990: "I was lined up across from James Patrick, whom I had played against at Moose Jaw, then when he was at the University of North Dakota, and then when he played for the Canadian Olympic Team. We were thinking the same thing, because we had these big grins on our faces. I was like a ten-year-old."

Chelios quickly established himself in Montreal, which won the Stanley Cup in his third season there. On the ice, he was known for his daring offensive plays and hard-hitting defensive style. Off of the ice, he was widely credited with a great deal of carousing, although Chelios says that stories of his exploits were greatly exaggerated. Still, by the late 1980s Chelios had settled down, marrying his wife, Tracee, whom he met at the University of Wisconsin, in 1987, and having his first child, a son named Dean, in 1989.

Chronology

Controversial Shots

In 1990, Chelios was traded to the Chicago Black-hawks. There, he expanded upon his reputation for rough defense, which had been cemented by an incident in a 1989 playoff game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Chelios elbowed Flyers player Brian Propp, driving his face into a metal bar holding up the glass around the rink. He was knocked unconscious, and a riot by Flyers fans nearly followed. However, Chelios was unapologetic. "I'm sorry he got hurt, but if he hit his head on the metal, that's just bad luck. I know I'm chippy, but that's when I'm most effective," he told Greenberg.

Chelios also gained notoriety for a thoughtless comment he made during the 1994 lockout, when NHL management refused to let the players play when the two sides could not agree on contract terms. Chelios, worried about his career and about the future of the sport, said to a reporter, "If I was [NHL commissioner] Gary Bettman, I'd be worried about my family, about my well-being right now. Some crazed fan or even a player, who knows, might take it into his own hands and figure that if they get him out of the way this might get settled." Chelios immediately regretted the comment, but it was too late.

In recent years, Chelios has attempted to tone down his aggression on and off the ice. "I want to be a role model for my kids," he told Sporting News reporter Larry Wigge in 1996. "I certainly don't want my … kids to come up to me or my wife, Tracee, and ask why daddy's such a mean guy." Still, Chelios maintains a tough streak. "He comes to win and he'll pay the price to win, whatever it is," Lou Lamoriello, who coached Chelios in the 1996 World Cup and the 1998 Olympics, told Sporting News reporter Helene Elliot. "That's something you don't teach. It has to be within a player."

Career Statistics

Awards and Accomplishments

Another Stanley Cup

In 1999, Chelios was traded to the Detroit Red Wings, the division rival team that he had learned to hate as a boy cheering for the Chicago Blackhawks and as an adult playing for them. He was sorry to leave his hometown, he said, but if he had to be traded he wanted it to be to a team that had a chance of winning the Stanley Cup. Fitting in with his new team was tough at first—"It's sort of like letting Public Enemy No. 1 free and telling his enemies that they have to make friends with him," Chelios said to Sporting News reporter Larry Wigge in 2000—but eventually it all came together. In 2002, Chelios achieved his goal, winning his second Stanley Cup at the age of forty.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Dowbiggin, Bruce. Of Ice and Men: Steve Yzerman, Chris Chelios, Glen Sather, Dominik Hasek: The Craft of Hockey. Toronto: Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, 1998.

Periodicals

Elliott, Helene. "Made in the U.S.A." Sporting News (January 19, 1998): 27-29.

Falla, Jack. "Alors! Look Who's Coming to Dinner." Sports Illustrated (November 19, 1984): 44-47.

Farber, Michael. "Captain America." Sports Illustrated (February 15, 2002): 12.

Farber, Michael. "Prince of Darkness." Sports Illustrated (May 27, 2002, 2002): 46.

Greenberg, Jay. "Daddy Dearest." Sports Illustrated (January 8, 1990): 36-39.

"Looney Goon." Sports Illustrated (October 10, 1994): 16.

Myers, Jess. "'Badger Bob' Remembered." Minnesota Daily (December 2, 1991).

Simmons, Steve. "'It's a Great Day for Hockey.'" Toronto Sun (September 12, 1996).

Swift, E. M. "In a Class by Himself." Sports Illustrated (December 9, 1991).

Wigge, Larry. "'A Junk Yard Dog.'" Sporting News (January 10, 2000): 56.

Wigge, Larry. "Red Wings Again Champs in Deadline Dealing." Sporting News (April 5, 1999): 50.

Wigge, Larry. "Rink Brat?" Sporting News (May 6, 1996): 43-44.

Other

"'Badger' Bob Johnson." U.W. Badgers.com. http://www.uwbadgers.com/history/hall_of_fame/1992/johnson_bob.aspx (November 17, 2002).

Finder, Chuck. "10 Years Have Passed, But Memories of Badger Bob Are Still Strong." Finder on the Web. http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/columnists/20011120webfinder1120p4.asp (November 17, 2002).

"Player Bio: Chris Chelios." National Hockey League Players' Association. http://www.nhlpa.com/Content/THE_PLAYERS/player_bio1.asp?ID=939 (November 10, 2002).

"Robert 'Bob' Johnson." U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. http://ushockeyhall.com/Enshrinees/Robert%20Johnson.htm (November 17, 2002).

Sketch by Julia Bauder