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Sawbucks
Hawks' vocal fans know Foley belongs
April 16, 2009
BY DAN MCNEIL
When the puck drops tonight in the Blackhawks' first playoff appearance in seven years, you might observe a bit more spring in the step of play-by-play man Pat Foley. It has been that way all season.
It's always easier to embrace something you love when you've had it taken away from you.
For many Hawks fans, Foley's return to the microphone after a two-year hiatus has been as rejuvenating as the team's 104-point season. His crisp descriptions of the fastest-moving game, sense of humor and enthusiasm for his hometown team have been an integral part of the local hockey culture.
One could argue that Foley was the Hawks' biggest star for the several years that followed the club's last postseason cameo in 2002. Even during the darkest hours in team history, Foley was providing spirited dialogue.
Despite the Hawks' woes and shrinking crowds, Foley demonstrated the same enthusiasm as when he was cutting his broadcast teeth as a student at Michigan State. While the other kids were in Daytona for spring break, Foley was in a dormitory basement, flapping his gums on WMSN with sidekick Mark Roth, his elbow-bending buddy and a self-anointed college hoops genius.
So where did the loyal soldier land after more than two decades as the voice of the Hawks?
On the beach. In May 2006, the Hawks mysteriously fired Foley. Nothing beats encoring a dreadful 65-point season than the whacking of a popular franchise frontman.
''I felt like I got kicked in the teeth and don't think I deserved it,'' Foley said. ''Sure, it hurt.''
There have been many hurts, many bruised egos and strained relationships in this often dysfunctional hockey family. Healing those fractures was at the top of John McDonough's to-do list when chairman Rocky Wirtz appointed him Big Chief Blackhawk in the fall of 2007.
McDonough knew Foley's dismissal was unpopular and says ''a lot of fans unplugged their allegiance to the Blackhawks'' as a result.
In 2005-06 and 2006-07, the Hawks were 29th in the NHL in attendance. I'm not suggesting Foley's departure was responsible, but it was yet another horrible gaffe for a team whose fans already had become contemptuous.
Foley spent two seasons calling games for the Hawks' Rosemont neighbor, the Wolves, an organization that has understood the value of customer relations since its birth in 1994.
''On Day 1, we realized we were at odds with former players and a lot of people,'' McDonough said. ''We had to let everybody know we were out of the grudge business. That's why we reconnected with Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito and guys like Pat. These are pillars of the franchise.''
Foley is one of the rare broadcasters who has earned that claim. When the Hawks arose from the rubble in the mid-'80s, Foley -- the youngest play-by-play man in the league at 26 -- was embarking on one of the greatest runs in Chicago sportscasting history.
He captured the imagination of his audience with his signature ''BAAAN-ER-MAAAN!'' when Hawks goaltender Murray Bannerman made a miraculous save. When the Hawks pushed a superior Edmonton team to six games in the 1985 Campbell Conference finals, Foley's star burned as brightly as the players he covered.
Foley is as synonomous with the team he describes as any current voice in town.
McDonough, the former Cubs marketing mogul who worked side-by-side with the legendary Harry Caray for more than 15 years, acknowledges as much.
''There is a tremendous amount of energy in that voice,'' McDonough said. ''It's the voice of a few generations now. This is his home. This is where he belongs.''
And Foley never has felt more at home than he has this season, one in which the Hawks' about-face on and off the ice is one of the nation's biggest sports business stories. Amid a depressed economy, they led the league in attendance, averaging 22,247. They were 19th last season.
Television ratings on Comcast SportsNet were up more than 100 percent. Sports apparel stores can't keep items with the Indian head logo on the shelves.
''It's been a magical season,'' Foley said. ''There is nobody anywhere that has made this dramatic of a turnaround on and off the ice.
''They're out of hibernation.''
So is Foley. That's as appropriate as postseason hockey in Chicago.
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