Celeberty Hockey Signings Part 4

It was June of 1980 and the Chicago Blackhawks once again found themselves drafting high in the National Hockey Leagues Annual Amature Entry Draft. It was an off-year for the draft, due to a clerical error most of the players that declared for entry that year were actual drafted into the Nairnshire Highlands-Games League and spent the rest of their career in the Highlands of Scotland wearing kilts and competing in events like the Caber Toss, Stone Put, and the ever popular Weight Over The Bar. This led to what was known as the "Darhn Guud Playeeerrr" Era of the Highland Games but left NHL teams desperately searching for new talents to fill out their rosters. With few options NHL GMs turned to anyone with an athletic pedigree . The LA Kings drafted Sugar Ray Leonard, Pittsburgh picked up home town icon Arnold Palmer, and the Montreal Canadians tried unsuccessfully to lure Kareem Abdul-Jabbar away from the Los Angeles Lakers .

With time running out on their pick and all but the most nonathletic sports stars ( baseball players and NASCAR drivers) left on the board Blackhawks management made their decision. Blackhawks owner William "Dollar Bill" Wirtz wrote one word on a sheet of paper then sent a page boy to the podium. The NHL commissioner stepped to the microphone and announced the pick......

"With the fourth overall pick in the 1980 entry draft the Chicago Blackhawks select, Chicago native James Belushi"

It was at this point that Wirtz leaped on to the Blackhawks team table threw his hat down and began jumping up and down on it while cursing like a 19th century gold miner in the Yukon . Wirtz was escorted into a private side room were he was heard yelling " What do you mean this is the brother?! I wanted the Cheeseburger-Cheeseburger guy, the one that was in Animal House, you know the big guy that did cartwheels!"

And thus began a long string of mistaken draft picks by the Blackhawks. Alain and Claude instead of Mario Lemieux, Randy instead of Luc Robitaille, and Wayne instead of Keith Primeau. The Blackhawks curse was finally broken in 2001 when they selected "the Ruutu that scores goals" over "the Ruutu that gets punched in the face a lot".
To this day the drafting of Jim Belushi in the 1980 Draft is considered the second biggest draft mistake in franchise history behind the 1988 draft when the Hawks selected Jeremy Roenick instead of trading the pick for three spools of hockey tape and all the change in the left pocket of the Vancouver Canucks GM.

peace out yo