Don's Blog We Win!

Confessions of a Fan

Our St Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup last night after 52 years of sometimes gut wrenching futility. 

I grew up as a sports fan in La Grange Illinois watching baseball on a ten inch TV. I would watch both the Cubs and the Whitesox. Most of my friends were Cub fans but I opted for the Brooklyn Dodgers because of their storied history. They lost me when they moved to Los Angeles so when I arrived in St Louis it was easy to fall in love with my new team, the Cardinals, because of their GasHouse Gang history and the fact that they were regular winners. They have won five World series Championships since I have come to town (1964,1967,1987, 2006, & 2011). I loved Sportsmans Park in north St Louis and have enjoyed two iterations of Busch Stadiums downtown.

The year I came to town the St Louis Hawks won a National Basketball Association Championship (1958). The final game was played at the Kiel Center and the Hawks beat the Boston Celtics with Bob Petit scoring 50 points.

In Chicago I had been a Chicago Bears fan so it was interesting when the Chicago Cardinals moved to St Louis. Bill Sheridan and I had season tickets but the St Louis Cardinals did not win an NFL championship and finally moved to Phoenix. The St Louis Rams arrived from Los Angeles and as The Greatest Show on Turf with Kurt Warner they won the Super Bowl NFL Championship in 2000.Their weasel owner moved them back to Los Angeles several years ago.

In Chicago I was a Black Hawk fan and loved to watch hockey at the Chicago Stadium. When I moved to St Louis we had a minor league hockey team so I was excited when the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams

and the St Louis Blues started playing in 1967. That year they played in their first Stanley Cup Final. Bill Sheridan and I walked up to the ticket booth and got $15 tickets for the two games at the St Louis Arena. They lost in four straight games to the Montreal Canadians and but goalie, Glen Hall won the Con Smythe Trophy for MVP.After those first few years they have made the PlayOffs many times (over 40) but have never made it to the finals until this year. For many years we had two season tickets and I would go to the games with my son Gordon. 

But we never really had a championship calibre team until this year. You may know making the playoffs

was dicey since we were in last place in early January. We got a new coach and a new goalie and we started winning games. Last night against all odds and against the hopes of the East coast broadcasting crew we soundly beat the heavily favored Boston Bruins 4-1 in Boston for our first ever Stanley Cup Championship.

We are all elated and at the same time wondering if it really happened. It did and WE WON!

All our St Louis teams have won championships. We are about to get a new Major League Soccer team. We'll se how long it takes them to win their title.