Photo by Ross Dettman via Strictly FX
Approaching their
25th anniversary, the Chicago Wolves have achieved a rare feat by sticking as a
minor-league franchise in a definitive major-league market. They have done so,
in large part, by being an entity that almost anyone with on- or off-ice ties
would just as soon stick with.
The
Chicago Wolves have prepared future stars — or at least energizing role players
— for the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards. Among their spectators, they have
influenced prodigies in the special-effects business.
Yes,
they have honed eventual Stanley Cup contenders as well. And they have planted
a penchant for pucks in local prospective skaters. As for themselves, they have
amassed four playoff crowns — two apiece in the International and American
League.
But
their direct and secondhand on-ice accomplishments only make part of their
story. Without the tales of their off-ice prowess, the point does not sink in.
“We
wanted to make it entertaining, other than just hockey,” co-founder and Chairman
Don Levin told Pucks and Recreation.
Levin’s
vision for the former spawned Strictly FX, which has erupted into a model
special-effects company. The enterprise and its precursor have fueled the
Wolves’ stimulating pregame bonanza throughout the team’s 24 seasons and
counting.
In
the NHL, fireworks are not unheard of at marquee events. You will see them
shoot into the open air at the Winter Classic. At enclosed arenas, they might
pop out of the ceiling on opening night, when a home team clinches the Cup or
after smaller victories.
The
same happens in other sports, and among other minor-league or collegiate programs
with a big-enough building and budget.
But
Levin wanted every night to be a special occasion for his customers. He ordered
guaranteed glitz for everyone attending a single game at the Rosemont Horizon
(now Allstate Arena). Since the fall of 1994, Mark Grega and Ted Maccabee have
taken charge of delivering that.
Early
on, Grega and Maccabee oversaw the pregame festivities in a detached
collaboration. As they said in an October 2011 segment on the Wolves YouTube
channel, they were taken aback by the hefty request. But they obliged with
nightly supplies of fireworks, flames and lasers.
Strictly
FX, however, traces its inception to 1996, when the Wolves were entering their
third year. As Maccabee told Projection Lights & Staging News in 2016,
Levin would only continue his and Grega’s contracts if they formally merged.
“Basically,
we were designing the shows through another firm, which wanted to go another
direction,” Maccabee elaborated in an email to Pucks and Rec. “With the
encouragement of Mr. Levin, we formed Strictly FX.”
Within
another two years, one of Prince’s designers requested the company’s lasers. Two
decades later, the bulk of their commitments are with mainstream musical acts.
The
quantity and quality of Strictly FX’s clients are not unlike the scrolls of
past and present NHLers among Wolves alumni. In fact, the former may exceed the
latter on both counts. Acts utilizing their flair and flare include Beyonce,
Coldplay, Roger Waters and WWE.
The
company is an eight-time Parnelli Award winner for top pyro company of the year.
It has flaunted its work at other award shows, including the CMAs, Grammys and
People’s Choice. And it has handled the halftime effects at many recent
Lombardi Trophy Games.
“And
it’s all an offshoot of the Wolves,” Levin proudly remarked.
An
offshoot that has never broken off from its roots. Grega and Maccabee still
have their pawprints on the presentation at Allstate Arena.
“Before
the Wolves’ pregame spectaculars,” Maccabee said, “there were only a few
companies in the world that even understood how to put all this together. The
Wolves’ shows fundamentally created a new type of company in Strictly FX. The
Live Special Effects moniker was a name born on the footsteps of the Allstate
Arena and the Chicago Wolves.
“We
have always looked at the Wolves’ openness and forward-thinking as being a
design lab for our work. It has always been a true give-and-take partnership.”
He
added, “We will always appreciate and honor the people and places that brought
us to where we are today. The Wolves were not just there, but were the very
beginning of our journey to becoming a world-class special-effects team. That
is as special as it gets.”
Bursts of
inspiration
If
you have never witnessed Strictly FX’s breakout spectacle, go watch any
“Chicago Wolves intro” upload. Then query the equivalent for any team in any
other league, NHL included. You are sure to find something, but likely not an
equivalent.
By
comparison, most anything else looks, sounds and feels like a scholastic
study-a-thon with classical music penetrating the silence. Among Chicago
sideshows, the Wolves even drown out the dynasty-era Bulls intro that made
“Sirius” a clichéd arena melody.
“It’s
unmatched in any rink: NHL or American Hockey League,” general manager Wendell
Young, who co-starred in the introductions as a goalie for seven years, told
Pucks and Rec. “We always tell the fans to get there early.
“That’s
a part of our whole package of why we’re successful. We’re very much an
entertainment package, with a hockey game going on.”
The
team has the accolades to back Young’s word. In December 2013, Gameops.com declared the display the best team introduction in all of professional sports.
The prizes in other categories that year went to MLB and NBA franchises.
That
honor underscores Grega and Maccabee’s commitment to never stagnating as they
keep giving this minor-league team major-league treatment. When the franchise
was making its first impression, that was crucial to reflecting a clear message
the Wolves wanted to send.
As
senior executive vice president Wayne Messmer told Pucks and Rec, the key was
stressing the “pro” half of “minor pro.” To stress the grit and guts of
almost-NHL action, they put forth the tagline, “These guys are animals.”
“We
were going to have real checking, real guys playing hard,” said Messmer. “Not
an adult, no-check league.”
Accordingly,
the introductions came out hammering. They started with fireworks bursting over
the neutral zone and cone-generated flames flanking the players as they entered
from behind the opposing net. Since the inaugural game, the elements have danced
to the rhythm of the “Kickstart My Heart” chorus.
Ooh,
yeah (boom)/Kickstart my heart/Give it a start/Ooh, yeah (boom), ba(crack)by(crack)
Ooh,
yeah (boom)/Kickstart my heart/Hope it never stops/Ooh, yeah (boom), ba(crack)by(crack)
The
entrance later acquired a tunnel shaped like a gaping wolf’s mouth. With it
came a pair of paws to emit the fire. Together, when dormant, some incarnations
of the props have looked like a wild canine mimicking the Great Sphinx of Giza.
Most,
if not all spectators might as well be in Egypt for those spurts when the
20-foot flames rise. Even Young says he can feel the heat from his box above
the two-layered seating bowl. Those not well-versed in physical science wonder
how the ice stays playable.
Over
time, the extravaganza has experimented with other dressings, adding some
permanently. There is no shortage of howling audio, lest anyone forget the
franchise’s spirit animal.
The
center-ice screen may flash an extra music highlight video to warm everyone up
for the Motley Crue montage. Or it might intersperse nature footage with
players narrating the words of Rudyard Kipling.
At
ice level, Skates the mascot procured a pair of gauntlets to blast sparks from
the center dot. Smoke has snorted from the unbelievably inanimate wolf tunnel’s
nostrils. Extra cauldrons on the circle tops light up in sync with the wolf’s
paws. More flames have fumed from atop the scoreboard.
And
barring a shutout, Strictly FX’s night is not over when the crew strikes the
set. There are sometimes enough leftover fireworks for when the home team
strikes the net.
Through
24 seasons, the Wolves have put on this show 1,074 times. That includes every
regular-season and playoff game in the building’s hockey history plus the 2001 IHL
All-Star Game.
Those
who have experienced the atmosphere in person must marvel whenever visitors win
here. Even the IHL All-Stars lost to a then-slumping Chicago squad, 4-0, on
their try.
In
more seriousness, those who do not know better must wonder how this bombastic
bonanza has continued. The longevity of the team itself is impressive on its
own, as is its budget.
But
while the team’s website and public-address announcer warn potentially
sensitive spectators in advance, it is still amazing how few grievances they
have heard regarding the surplus of sight and sound.
“Noise
pollution?” Levin asked, as if unfamiliar with the phrase.
Enough
of the community has paid heed to the advisories. As Levin can recall, Wolves season-ticket
holders have never been subject to case studies by Cook County audiologists. Management
has not fielded any Helen Lovejoy-type pleas to “think of the children.”
The
fact is anyone who knows the Wolves knows they very much do think of the local youth. That was part of the franchise’s
premise, and one of its keys to signature status in North America’s second-best
hockey league. It offers a bargain at game time, then generously returns
people’s visits around the great Midwestern metropolis.
“It’s
fun, it’s good, it’s inexpensive,” said Levin, whose only child, Robert, was
two when the team formed and recently played goal at Arizona State. “A family
having a good time for not a lot of money.”
Robert
Levin is one completed example of the game’s influence on green Horizon/Allstate
Arena goers. As for the pregame’s life-changing potential, the quintessence was
one spontaneous student of special effects.
“At
age 13, he would often stand behind the glass next to our shooting position and
watch as we would fire them,” Maccabee recalled. “He has now become a
world-class show designer, and now we are a customer of his!
“It’s
a testament to the incredible reach that the Wolves’ show has had over the
years.”
A
quarter-century of that reach affirms what began, at least on the surface, as a
gamble on the rebound.
‘A comeback in
every way.’
Allstate
Arena, which basically borders Chicago proper, was not built with hockey in
mind. It was conceived that way, but the WHA’s Chicago Cougars folded before
construction. As Sports Illustrated’s Mark Mulvoy wrote in 1975, “the Cougars’
planned new arena in suburban Rosemont had melted away in the heat of local
politics.”
The
building opened five years later, under the village of Rosemont’s jurisdiction.
By that point, the whole WHA had evaporated, leaving the NHL as its sport’s
only major league again.
With
no superior venues available within their city, DePaul University men’s basketball
became the Horizon’s first tenant. The Blue Demons were variously joined by
flash-in-the-pan semipro hoops and indoor soccer and football teams. Otherwise,
they and touring musicians were the chief fillers of a venue seating anywhere
between 16,000 and 18,500.
Then
professional indoor roller hockey became a hit. Levin says that was when he,
along with Buddy Meyers and ex-Blackhawk Grant Mulvey, sought a franchise in
Chicago’s name.
Levin
was the lifelong Chicagolander of the group, and brought broad business acumen
to the table. His production company has connections to aircraft, medical
equipment, movies, sporting goods and tobacco.
Mulvey,
a former 10-year pro who later coached the Wolves before leaving the game in
1997, had the most hockey knowhow. Although Meyers, the current vice chair, had
been an NHL players’ agent and the Soviet Red Army team’s attorney.
Together,
the troika had the name, logo and the works ready for a coming-out party.
It
never happened, at least not on wheels.
Other
groups would put Chicago in Roller Hockey International for a time. The Cheetahs
played one year at the smaller UIC Pavilion, then another at the Odeum Expo
Center in Villa Park. Five years after the Cheetahs folded, the Chicago
Bluesmen operated at the tiny Fox Valley Arena for RHI’s 1999 swan song.
As
for the Wolves, the timeline and treasure trove are self-explanatory.
“Twenty-four
years later, four championships plus division titles,” a soft-spoken Meyers
told Pucks and Rec. “I think we’re pretty happy.”
By
the time RHI collapsed, the Mulvey-led team had completed five IHL seasons. One
of two Triple-A ice leagues at the time, the IHL had ambitiously expanded to major
cities. It would try such ex-WHA or established NHL markets as Cincinnati,
Cleveland, Detroit, Houston and Los Angeles. (Since 2013, only Cleveland has
kept a team at that level.)
Upon
gaining approval for Chicago, the Wolves set up shop at the Horizon, which
finally sprang for ice-making equipment. Within four weeks of announcing
itself, the franchise received more than 1,000 season-ticket requests.
Some
of those calls doubtlessly came from estranged Blackhawks fans. Though
respectable in the standings, the local Original Six team suffered from what
many considered polarizing ownership by Bill Wirtz.
Even
Messmer, who has legendarily belted the national anthem at every major Chicago
sports venue in his lifetime, wanted in on the new club.
Messmer’s
greatest Chicago Stadium performance happened on the heels of Operation Desert
Storm at the 1991 NHL All-Star Game. The next year, he fulfilled the same duty
at Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Final on the heels of appearing in John
Goodman’s Babe Ruth biopic.
Two
years later, he was one of the NHL’s first loose pucks happily joining the
upstart pack in the suburbs. Familiar faces to follow included winger Al
Secord, a 466-game Blackhawks veteran who came out of a four-year retirement.
Four
days after participating in the Wolves’ formal 25th season kick-off this month,
Messmer was reached via cell while RVing with his family at Mount Rushmore. In
a way, it was the perfect spot to reflect on his entry into sports executive
work.
There
he was beholding the massive mugs of four legendary leaders of the free world,
including two Founding Fathers. In his own smaller-scale, but hardly trivial, endeavors,
he completed a quartet that launched one American dream factory.
“It
was the opportunity to be at the ground level, putting the organization
together as a builder,” he told Pucks and Rec of the Wolves’ allure. “It was a
challenge and a great opportunity, and I saw the potential.”
He
set a precedent with that attitude. When the franchise was two going on three,
it hired another Chicagoland lifer, though one with admittedly negligible
hockey exposure.
Courtney
Mahoney had attended Badgers basketball and football games as an undergraduate
at the University of Wisconsin. She had also interned with the NBA’s Detroit
Pistons. But coming home to something fundamentally new enticed her upon
graduation.
“There
was a lot of room to grow,” she told Pucks and Rec. “I wanted the opportunity
to learn.”
Messmer
came to the club with his own learning curve. He had held marketing posts for
both residents of Chicago Stadium plus both of the city’s baseball teams. He
also experienced trial and error by working with the defunct Chicago Sting
soccer franchise.
As
the market’s IHL vision took shape, Messmer joined the founding troika at a
meeting where, “as I love to say, I was the only guy taking notes.” For the
rest of the winter of 1994, they set about forming the franchise’s philosophy
and filling carefully crafted office positions.
But
six months and five days before opening night, a ghastly incident nearly
silenced the songster. Still working for the Blackhawks, Messmer was en route
to a favorite postgame hangout in the wee hours of April 9. An assailant fired
a bullet through his car window, hitting his neck.
Hospitalized
in serious condition at the time, Messmer sustained devastating damage to his
throat. He missed the Hawks’ last two regular-season and three playoff outings
at the original Madhouse on Madison. He later recalled being told 18 months
might elapse before he restored normalcy in his speaking voice.
Within
one-third of that timetable, he strolled onto the Rosemont Horizon’s red carpet.
Together with his wife, Kathleen, he was ready to make the last and most
recognizable mark on a start-up where he “had my fingerprints on literally
everything.” The duet was set to complement organist Nancy Faust, something
else borrowed from the downtown venues.
Before
Chicago took a 4-2 decision from the Detroit Vipers, Messmer officially added
the Wolves to his Star-Spangled resume.
“It
was a comeback in every way,” he said.
Hawk eyes
In
the fall of 1994, Messmer had ample company among local fans with rusty vocal
cords. A host of setbacks was plaguing the Windy City’s major-league sports
scene.
The
ongoing baseball players’ strike had cut the Cubs and White Sox seasons short. If
normalcy had continued, the Sox would have likely made the playoffs.
Chicago
Stadium, home of the Bulls and Blackhawks, was giving way to the United Center.
But interest in pro basketball was still dented by Michael Jordan’s first
retirement. Meanwhile, another work stoppage in the NHL put the Blackhawks in
their own indefinite deep freeze.
“We
certainly got more attention than we would have if those things didn’t happen,”
allowed Levin. “There was an opportunity to go see us, and so we got a lot of
people to come and sample us.”
Still,
Levin’s group entered the year not banking on outside assistance, let alone
major-league misfortunes. Like a cerebral skater, they were a few steps ahead of
their obstacles in the game.
Levin
foresaw most pairs of ticketholders — husband-wife, boyfriend-girlfriend,
parent-child, buddy-buddy — being one-half established puckhead, one-half
novice viewer.
Making
the latter say they went to a virtual Motley Crue concert and a hockey game
broke out was good insurance. Ditto assorted contests and interactive sideshows
after whistles and between periods.
With
that kind of package, who needed Ringling Brothers? Who needed the city-limits
sports experience where, Messmer supposed, most would be “working two jobs to
afford the tickets”?
Besides
his employer’s own merit, Young made allowances for the breaks the Wolves
caught early in their box-office battle.
“A
perfect storm was happening here,” he said. “(The Blackhawks) were not doing
well even before the lockout.”
Afterward,
Young recalled, there were Sunday afternoons when matinees on Madison Street
and Mannheim Road went head-to-head. It was not unheard of for Wolves games to
bring in a bigger audience than an overlapping Blackhawks ticket. They still
did on occasion as late as their 10th season.
They
also outclassed their NHL neighbors in TV viewership, for they were playing
against themselves on that front. When the Hawks returned for a shortened 1995
season, their home games were still off the air, per Wirtz’s policy.
For
their sophomore year, the Wolves inked a deal to put a minimum 22 home and road
games apiece on a local network. Their carrier has changed multiple times, but
their presence in living rooms and the returned favors of fans at their house
stuck.
By
2003-04, their 10th anniversary, all 80 games could be seen on a Comcast
station. Two years later, when Wirtz dropped Blackhawks play-by-play man Pat
Foley, the Wolves picked him up.
The
Hawks eventually hired Foley back. Today another channel offers a scaled-back
slate of televised Wolves games. When that is not an option, anyone with
Internet service can watch a webcast through the AHL’s site.
But
Levin and partners never fear fans choosing home convenience over the full
Allstate Arena experience.
“Very
easy decision to make,” he said of the TV deals.
Pact with the pack
Allstate
Arena’s configuration forces the Wolves to breach a bit of hockey etiquette.
At
youth games, you may hear coaches telling players to stay on their side of the
center line during warmups. That is easy to do in conventional venues, where
the runway to one’s zone leads either to one’s bench or across from it.
But
the big rink in Rosemont that got its first team at age 14 placed its locker
rooms behind the Zamboni entrance. As such, amid the pregame festivities, the
Wolves make the first ice scrapings in their competitor’s crease.
For
the padded personnel of both parties, that is just the business. Sometimes you
have to deal with strangely structured facilities and delayed access. For
Wolves visitors, who have no right to pass under the lupine leviathan, this
means literally working around the tunnel just to enter and pump your legs for
a minute less.
That
may be work, but don’t bring up the B-word to the boss.
“It’s
not like a business,” Levin insists. “I love it.”
Once
the home players join Levin in street clothes, like Young has full-time since
2001, it is back to equal treatment for all guests. Now the GM imparts a
straightforward message to his charges at every year’s preseason meeting.
“We
are accessible,” Young tells them.
He
should know. This franchise let him access high-quality competition when he had
nowhere else to go this side of any ocean.
Even
if the 1994-95 NHL lockout did not singlehandedly nourish the Wolves, it
certainly spurred Young’s role in their chronicles. He has been with the club
since the start, with only a half-year in Pittsburgh interrupting his tenure.
An
11-year professional veteran of 177 NHL games in four cities, Young peaked with
the Penguins, logging 43 appearances in 1989-90. He later accepted two IHL
conditioning assignments in as many years with Tampa Bay.
But
at 31, he should have been a staple in The Show when the first Gary Bettman-era
work stoppage began. Looking to stay sharp while the Lightning lacked room in
their minor-league system, he joined the independent Wolves.
“I
got a taste of what the organization was about,” he said. “The city itself,
everything around it. Quite honestly, it was better-run than some NHL teams.”
On
Feb. 16, 1995, one month into the belated season, Tampa Bay traded Young’s
rights back to Pittsburgh. He logged 10 games there, but could not dislodge the
incumbents ahead of him going forward.
As
he flickered, at best, on the radar of the league’s other 25 teams, he
remembered his outstanding experience in Rosemont. The Wolves were equally receptive
to bringing him back.
“So
I jumped on it,” he said.
He
went on to play 322 games for Chicago’s IHL chapter, winning 169. Over a
seven-year span dating back to the lockout, only four skaters wore the Wolves
crest more than Young. That was no small feat on a team that stayed
unaffiliated for five seasons and kept or brought back 10 players for four
years or more.
This
was the right hospice for a languishing NHL dream. It was such an ideal
arrangement that death is not even the operative metaphor. Unprecedented living
and the spawn of inviting transitions to the front office framed the narrative
properly.
Part
of that notion reaffirmed itself in 2010 when hockey’s most famous Chicagoan
wrapped up a Hall-of-Fame career. Chris Chelios, who captained his hometown
Hawks during his peak years as an award-winning defenseman, could not be
acquired on two previous tries.
He
stood pat during the 1994-95 lockout, and was a Red Wing when the 2004-05 NHL season
was cancelled. As such, he passed the time with the United League’s Motor City
Mechanics.
But
after being released by Detroit, he came home and dressed with the Wolves in
hopes of reviving his NHL candidacy. He would for a while, but closed
everything out in the 2010 AHL playoffs, where Chicago fell one overtime goal
short of the Calder Cup Final.
As
for Young, he admitted that, “I could have left and never come back. But I was
enticed by the way the organization was run and how caring they were about
their family. It just kept me coming back.”
Young
is known as the Ringmaster for having collected championship jewelry in major
junior, the NHL and two high-end minor leagues. In his days patrolling creases
and bench doors, he amassed six rings in all.
First
he won Canada’s coveted Memorial Cup in the middle of his last amateur stop in
Kitchener. Five years after going pro, he backstopped the Hershey Bears to the
Calder Cup and garnered the tournament MVP trophy. He was on Pittsburgh’s depth
chart when the Penguins claimed back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992.
But
he did not complete his peerless cycle with the IHL’s Turner Cup until three
years after deciding he had a good thing going in Chicagoland. That decision
also ensured his first home-ice championship clincher at any level.
It
happened on Monday, June 15, 1998. One night after Jordan sank his go-ahead
shot to put away the Bulls’ last title in Utah, the Wolves sold out the Horizon
for Game 7 of their final.
One
night before the NHL’s Red Wings repeated as champions, their fellow Detroit
representatives looked to do the same. The matchup, Messmer recalled, “was
always a nice rivalry. Kind of a leftover from the NHL.”
After
tempers flared in the pregame warmup, the visiting Vipers succumbed to the
Horizon’s heat. A three-goal outburst after the halfway mark of the third
period usurped the Turner Cup for Chicago.
Never
mind that Stephane Beauregard, the younger half of the rotating tandem, got the
start and the shutout. Young was relishing an atmosphere he said “has never been
matched by anything I’ve ever been a part of.”
Young
was among the personnel who had experienced the previous hockey playoff finale
in Chicago. His Penguins completed their repeat and a sweep of the Blackhawks
in Chicago Stadium on June 1, 1992.
The
two experiences, he said, were “right up against each other.”
Young
added another title in 2000, then hung up his pads the next year. As his
playing days and the IHL expired, he received the last Snider Trophy for “unselfish
donation of time and other resources to charitable and educational efforts
within his community.”
Perhaps
his most selflessly sacrificed asset that year was the pair of lips he lent to
a pig in a stunt he promised when the Wolves raised $10,000 for diabetes
research.
He
was the third Chicago player in five years to collect the Snider Trophy. Since
then, the AHL’s equivalent award has gone to a Wolf twice. Stay-at-home
defenseman Scooter Vaughan won it this year.
“It
just goes to show we have quality people here,” Young said. “Character guys.”
With
five league men of the year before even starting their 25th year, a seasoned
Wolves spokesman like Young can get away with saying, “our team is off the
charts compared to a lot of other teams. And that’s not knocking what other
teams do.”
Young’s
prototypical hockey humility is more self-evident when he deflects his own
achievements, no matter how many he has logged.
As
the team switched leagues, Young switched roles. He won another Calder Cup in
2002 as the executive director of team relations, then another as an assistant
coach in 2008. After one more season in that capacity, he filled Kevin Cheveldayoff’s
shoes as GM.
Before
any of that, Allstate Arena hung up another banner, making Young’s No. 1 the
franchise’s first retired digit. Every hunk of hardware he hugged during his
playing career guest-starred the night his number went up.
He
will round out a full decade as GM concomitant with the team finishing its
silver anniversary. Between playing, coaching, directing team relations and
assembling the roster, he will have been a Wolves employee for all 25 seasons.
“There’s
not a lot of hockey players who have been around a team for 25 years,” said
Levin.
In
July, Young’s full body of work earned him the AHL’s Thomas Ebright Award “for
career accomplishments to the AHL.” But he exemplifies his sport all the more
through his deference to colleagues. While some may proclaim the one-time
masked man the face of the pack, he points to those who stopped wearing blades
long before he did, if they ever skated at all.
“We
have a great staff that goes unrecognized for the most part,” he said. “We go
and have fun playing the game we love. But it’s the behind-the-scenes people
who make the difference in an organization. Most of the credit should go to
them.”
Young
would know, for he has seen the works of the same core group since he arrived. Besides
the troika of Levin, Messmer and Meyers, all five members of the hockey
operations staff plus team photographer Ross Dettman have been with the Wolves
since their inception.
An
additional four front-office or ownership personnel date back to the IHL. Four
more figures have logged at least 10 years with the team.
Mahoney
joined fresh out of college in 1996, and has risen to senior vice president of
operations. Ticket-sales director Eric Zavilla also took his first full-time
job with the Wolves, and will round out two decades this year.
“The
trust that Don Levin and Buddy Meyers put into me is everything I’ve wanted,”
said Mahoney. “I continue to work hard to earn that. I’m not sure you can get
it anywhere else.”
But
the Wolves ownership structure still hasn’t changed. And even when people on
lower rungs cannot be retained, that is helping to introduce the first wave of
employees younger than the franchise itself. Between that and the one-time pups
coming to IHL games now bringing their offspring to AHL tilts, the pack’s
generational transcendence is blooming.
“We
have a mantra on our team: We’re family,” said Young. “Once you’re a Wolf,
you’re always a Wolf.”
Territorial
markings
The
2018 Stanley Cup Final pitted a rare pair of franchises shorter-tenured than
their respective AHL affiliates. The champion Washington Capitals took root in
1974, 36 years after their development partner in Hershey.
Meanwhile,
the Vegas Golden Knights, who won the West as a first-year expansion team, are
the second parent club in Wolves history younger than the Wolves themselves. Previously,
the Atlanta Thrashers arrived in 1999, allied with the Wolves in 2001, then cut
ties upon moving to Winnipeg in 2011.
Although
the new Jets first general manager, Cheveldayoff, stands as a legacy of that
affiliation. He had built Chicago’s IHL and AHL championship teams in the same capacity.
He won the NHL’s 2018 GM of the year award after the Jets lost the conference
final to Vegas.
Over
time, Wolves alumni in The Show may have waved a more visible variety of
banners than the products of any other AHL mainstay. But for Levin, the key to
that longevity, especially in the Blackhawks’ backyard, is sticking with their
trademarks.
“Over
the years, we’ve built our own identity,” he said. “It’s not part of something
else.”
Like
an Original Six NHL team, the Wolves have never drastically altered their crest
or colors. The pattern of the team jersey has changed, but always offers a
crisp combination of burgundy, gold, black and white. (Except for the countless
special-occasions jerseys, such as St. Patrick’s Day or Military Night.)
On
the chest, the fang-flaunting wolf’s head originally meant for roller hockey
has been another constant. Little has changed besides the addition or
subtraction of a stick-and-puck backdrop.
Why
would it? It once won back-to-back championships in The Hockey News’
minor-league logo competition.
Late
in their IHL run, the Wolves finally joined forces with an NHL team. However,
their affiliation with the New York Islanders was partial, and only rookie Rick
DiPietro’s goalie equipment displayed any trace of it.
In
the AHL, Chicago has linked with four different parent clubs. Throughout that
time, it has silenced the cynics who assumed that, at some point, the Hawks
would leave them a link-up or swallow-up choice.
Mere
market size may be one fortuitous factor. The coexistence of the Cubs and White
Sox is the last pure remnant of Major League Baseball’s old
one-team-for-both-leagues-in-every-city makeup. Today New York and — depending
on how you look at Anaheim — Los Angeles double dip with every major sports
entity.
Chicago
is the third-largest American metropolis behind those two, and braves its
winters not unlike to its Upper Midwest neighbors. The latest Census estimate
tallied a population of 2,716,450.
Cook
County collectively boasted 5,211,263, a near 50-50 split between city and
suburbs. It is the country’s second-largest county, and still does not cover
all of Chicagoland.
All
things considered, the area makes sense as a two-team hockey market. Still, it
takes more than population and passion.
As
Levin was apt to remember, the Toronto Roadrunners failed to get a lift-off in the IHL. That franchise finally came, only to leave after one year in 2003-04
as Edmonton’s AHL affiliate.
“We
don’t get enough credit for what a great hockey city Chicago is,” said Messmer.
“I think it’s the dedication to making it work from Don more than anything
else. I credit that as No. 1. His passion for the game, love of the game and
the organization.”
Simple
arithmetic shows how special an AHL organization must be to successfully share
a dateline with a marquee NHL club. The longevity of Chicago’s scenario only
stopped doubling up everyone else’s, active or defunct, in 2016-17.
While
the Wolves celebrate their silver anniversary, the Toronto Marlies will carry
out their 14th season as the Maple Leafs’ crosstown affiliate. The Marlies now
have sole possession of second place all-time, ahead of the Philadelphia
Phantoms’ 13-year run as the Flyers’ nextdoor child club.
The
Phantoms arrived in 1996, occupying the Spectrum until that hallowed hand-me-down
mansion closed. Today they play in Allentown under the Lehigh Valley dateline.
At
least those teams, like a few others past and present, had the local NHL
squad’s expressed support. In the bygone IHL, the Detroit Vipers arrived concurrently
with the Wolves. Sharing the Palace of Auburn Hills with the NBA’s Pistons,
they initially thrived as a cheap, reliable alternative to the Red Wings.
But
fair-weather fandom soon bit the Motor City moccasins. Not long after the
Wolves denied them a Turner Cup repeat in 1998, the Vipers’ fortunes plummeted.
An
nhl.com retrospective in 2015 supposed that, after operating independently, the
Vipers doomed themselves by linking with a then-middling Tampa Bay parent club.
The Bolts fed their roster with a revolving door of no-names who could not
coalesce.
As
they went in the win column, so they went at the gate. By 2001, the Vipers were
one of the five unfortunate franchises to fold when the IHL caved in.
The
Wolves were different. They filled all of the Blackhawks’ public-relations
seams and proved that even big-city remoras crave a wallet-friendly sporting
experience. All the team, on- and off-ice, needs to do is give the customers
their money’s worth.
“We’re
in the suburbs, the NHL team’s downtown,” said Young. “They’re focused on corporate,
we’re focused on family.
“There
is room in town for both of us.”
Not-so-off seasons
Allstate Arena, which college basketball ditched this year, is a jutting symbol of its
tenant’s gentle-giant approachability. Depending on which direction you drive,
it may be the first attraction you see after landing at O’Hare International
Airport. It is a simple 10-minute drive up I-90 West.
But
it does not pretend to be a part of the city and nobody else’s. Instead it
brands itself “The Center of Chicagoland Entertainment.”
With
a population hovering around 4,000, Rosemont is one of the smallest communities
on the city’s outskirts. Allstate Arena could accommodate the people of four
Rosemonts at a single Wolves game.
From
April to October, the parking lot hosts the weekly Wolff’s Flea Market. (That’s
a family name unrelated to the hockey team.) A Target containing a CVS and a
Starbucks stand to the left across Lunt Avenue.
Staring
straight ahead across Mannheim Road, you no longer see tiny Rosemont, but Des
Plaines. The much larger suburb’s border includes a local-chain car wash, a
Potbelly Sandwich Shop and another Starbucks.
The
venue looks out of place in a neighborhood reminiscent of where Joliet Jake and
Elwood Blues caused immeasurable damage fleeing the police. But of course, that
was only cinema. The entertaining chaos here is more contained and certifiably
safe for sentient beings and property.
While
the games occupy the men of the hour two or three days a week, they and their
off-ice counterparts team up to show the organization’s mom-and-pop side the
rest of the time. When they are not treating their ticketholders to a product
barely a step below the highest quality of hockey, they prove themselves anything
but big-shot pretenders.
Well
beyond their game abode, the Wolves share their wealth with Chicagoland. Their
headquarters have always been in Glenview, alongside the Levin-owned DRL
Enterprises. Their trusty pyro provider is still in Wood Dale, though has since
added an L.A. office.
For
the past 15 years, they have practiced at a two-sheet rink in Hoffman Estates,
whose Sears Centre briefly housed a third
local pro team. (The Chicago Hounds and Chicago Express mustered one season
apiece in the UHL and ECHL, respectively.)
And
the Wolves will go to any other zip code in or around Cook County for just
about anything else when they have the time. Whether the host or the guest
representing the club initiates the gathering is anyone’s guess.
Within
two weeks of being swept from the first round of the 2018 playoffs, the Wolves
got cracking on their milestone campaign. While most of the roster had
dispersed, team representatives spent the four-month offseason pursuing 25 Acts
of Service.
Mahoney’s
department began drafting the special summer service series one month before it
went into action. After starting on May 10, they had already chalked up 18
activities within the first three months.
In
between, the suburbanites invaded the downtown last Monday to ceremoniously
commence their season. The block party covered Michigan Avenue with 15
statue-size replicas of past Wolves goalie masks. They are scheduled to stay on
display through the end of September.
Carnival
games and photo ops with alumni like Cheveldayoff and enough players to fill a
game-night roster dominated the day. After dusk, the festival culminated in a
sneak peek at Strictly FX’s silver-anniversary edition of its pregame intro.
Darren
Haydar, the captain of Chicago’s last Calder Cup team, was one of the blasts
from the past soaking in the blasts of the future. Five years and five team
changes (all overseas) removed from his last Wolves game, he tweeted last
Tuesday, “Thanks for a great event and I look forward to checking in on the
25th season.”
“It’s
quite rewarding that there’s still that camaraderie and affection for our
organization,” Meyers remarked.
The
day of the downtown festival coincided with the 19th of Act of Service. The
Children’s Home & Aid social-service provider partnered with the club for
fundamental hockey lessons. Beneficiaries of other projects include homeless
shelters, summer camps, local and overseas food drives, active-duty soldiers
and reading initiatives.
During
the season, the educational undertaking gets more intimate. Quebecois players
will visit advanced high-school French classes as guest lecturers. The goal is
to establish fluency through hour-long conversation with a natural.
Three
times in 2018-19, the team will bring younger students to an 11 a.m. game as a
field trip. They have done the same before, and drawn approving stamps from
teachers.
For
that and many other offers, senior director of program development Stefanie
Evans has secured Chicago the most group-ticket sales of any AHL Western
Conference team six years running.
Four
other Wolves front-office figures have hardware on their resume, including
Mahoney. The AHL has recognized her for promoting the team, outstanding
community relations and fan experience.
“It’s
tough,” Mahoney said. “You’re competing with a lot in Chicago. But also,
there’s a lot you can do and a lot you can help out.
“We
can see the impact we’re making, so it’s really close to home. It’s a privilege
to have a job where you can do this stuff. We’re always asking, ‘What more can
we do? How do we reach more people?’ It never stops. It’s why we’re here.”
The
last decade’s downtown renaissance and its repercussions are additional proof
of the Wolves’ exceptional viability. When the suburban franchise hit teenhood,
the nearby NHL team enjoyed a wave of PR healing.
In
2007, the Blackhawks moved their AHL base to their home state for the first time,
77 miles west in Rockford. Justifiably hyped rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan
Toews both made the team out of training camp. Rocky Wirtz succeeded his late
father as principal owner and promptly put home games on regional television.
The
next year, Wirtz lured Foley back from the burbs to fill the long unused booth.
Not even a week had passed since the Wolves won the 2008 Calder Cup when they
lost their future Hall of Fame TV voice.
Over
the ensuing decade, Joel Quenneville came in and coached the Kane/Toews core
group to three Stanley Cups. Rockford has honed much of the supporting cast on
those teams.
The
Wolves have yet to hang up another banner in the meantime. But they are a
tried-and-true, self-distinguishing Chicagoland institution. Even if they go 49
years between titles like the Blackhawks did, their seasoned leaders are
confident their base will stick.
“My
son growing up with the players, my wife. It’s just been a wonderful, wonderful
time,” said Levin. “We look forward to even more.”
