No. 7: Chris Chelios
At 46, Red Wings' future Hall of Famer is 3rd-oldest to play in an NHL game
His is the typical story of a Greek immigrant’s son who grew up in the south suburbs before getting the break that propelled him to NHL stardom while surfing on the sun-bleached shores of Southern California.
That Chris Chelios’ strange journey ends with him being celebrated as one of the greatest American-born players makes it more worthwhile.
(AP file)
‘‘Being a hockey player in San Diego was like being a member of the Jamaican bobsled team,’’ said Chelios’ friend and former teammate Jaye Park. ‘‘The odds of him making it to the NHL were millions and millions to one. He wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was his destiny.’’
Chelios, voted the seventh Greatest Athlete in Chicago History by a Sun-Times panel, is hockey’s grand old man. At 46, the Red Wings defenseman is the oldest player in the league and the third-oldest to play in an NHL game. He’s also Captain America, having served in that capacity for the U.S. Olympic hockey team three times. He helped Mount Carmel win a state championship as a 115-pound sophomore reserve. He won a national title in college and has twice sipped from Lord Stanley’s Cup.
He will be a first-ballot inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame when — or perhaps if — he retires.
‘‘I watched my dad in bars and restaurants, and I watched his work ethic,’’ Chelios said. ‘‘He did it for his family. He had no choice. He didn’t whine about what he didn’t have. He knew nothing else but work, and that’s what he instilled in me. I made my mind up that I was going to be successful.’’
Gus Chelios left Greece in 1951 and fell in love with hockey while running restaurants and bars in Chicago. He took his son to Chicago Stadium to see Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull and Tony Esposito. Chris, like his dad, caught the hockey bug.
‘‘They froze the basketball courts in the winter,’’ Chelios said of his youth in Evergreen Park. ‘‘The fireman would come and freeze it, and the kids maintained it by shoveling it. Back then, it was so easy. You would just call the fire department and tell them you needed a flood, and they would come down in 10 or 15 minutes. They were into it, too. They really cared about the kids having good ice. It became a science for them.’’
Gus’ restaurant business struggled. He eventually moved his family to the San Diego area, where he bought a restaurant near an ice rink — or as near as one could expect in sunny Southern California. Chris, toting his own gear, rode his bike 10 miles to and from the rink, where he played against older players in ‘‘beer leagues’’ because there were few other options.
‘‘He would call me on a Saturday night at 10 and say, ‘We’ve got the ice at 3. We’re going to skate from 3 to 5a.m.,’’ Park said. ‘‘I wanted to drink beer and chase girls. All Chris wanted to do was play hockey. He’d have his brother pull the car over on the way to the rink, and he’d run three miles by the side of the road.’’
He took a bus to Hawkesbury, Ontario, only to get cut by a Canadian junior team. He took another bus to Chatham, Ontario, and got cut again. He tried out for the team at nearby U.S. International University that had only been in existence one year. He was turned away once again.
‘‘Chris was 5-7, 140 pounds wringing wet, and he wanted to play defense,’’ said Maynard Howe, USIU’s coach at the time. ‘‘He hadn’t matured as an athlete and wasn’t mature in terms of knowing how to play the game, but he had a heart as big as the rink.’’
Chelios’ hockey career had essentially ended. He was surfing on a San Diego-area beach when he saw the USIU team training in the sand. He waved at a former teammate, who came over and mentioned that a team in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, was looking for a defenseman. Chelios was broke. He told the coach he could only try out if the team paid his way. At first the coach refused. A few days later, he relented.
Chelios grew three inches in the next year and filled out his frame. He was on his way to defying the odds and doing what few thought possible — becoming one of the best and longest-tenured players in NHL history.
His work ethic already was becoming the stuff of legend.
‘‘It gives every kid the hope that someday they can be in the same shoes I am,’’ Chelios said, ‘‘not necessarily turning pro but the fact that I grew up on the South Side of Chicago, and the odds were really against me making it to the NHL, but if you work hard, anything is possible. Everybody has heard that before, but it’s true.’’
The Chris Chelios file
Full name: Christos Kostas Tselios.
Sport: Hockey.
High school: Mount Carmel.
College: Wisconsin.
Career highlights: Member of 1979
Mount Carmel state-championship team. Member of Wisconsin’s NCAA championship team in 1983 and U.S. Olympic hockey team in 1984. Captain of U.S. Olympic hockey team in 1998, 2002 and 2006. Three-time winner of Norris Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s best defenseman. In 23rd NHL season. Entering the season, his 1,547 games ranked first among American-born players and ninth all-time. His 246 playoff appearances rank second all-time. At 46, the 11-time All-Star is the third-oldest player to play in an NHL game. Won Stanley Cup titles with Montreal in 1986 and Detroit in 2002.