The 1961 Stanley Cup Finals was the championship series of the National Hockey League's (NHL) 1960–61 season, and the culmination of the 1961 Stanley Cup playoffs. It was contested between the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks. Chicago was making its first Finals appearance since 1944, and Detroit its first appearance since 1956; both had lost to the Montreal Canadiens in those previous appearances. The Black Hawks won the best-of-seven series, four games to two, to win their third Stanley Cup, their first since 1938. This was the last time Chicago won the Cup until 2010, a 49-year drought.

This was the only title not won by the Canadiens, Red Wings or Toronto Maple Leafs during the Original Six era, and the only title won by a U.S. team between 1955 and 1970.

Paths to the Finals

Detroit defeated Toronto in five games and Chicago upset Montreal, the record five-time defending champion, in six, setting up the first all-American-team Finals since 1950, when the Wings beat the New York Rangers in a seven-game series.

Game summaries

Two future Hockey Hall of Fame members, Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, made their first Stanley Cup appearances. Hull scored two goals in the first game, including the winner, and Mikita scored the winner in game five.^[1]

This was the only Stanley Cup championship in the 1960s not to be won by either the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Montreal Canadiens^[1] or feature either team.

Stanley Cup engraving

The 1961 Stanley Cup was presented to Black Hawks captain Ed Litzenberger by NHL President Clarence Campbell following the Black Hawks 5–1 win over the Red Wings in game six.

The following Black Hawks players and staff had their names engraved on the Stanley Cup

1960–61 Chicago Black Hawks

Players

Stanley Cup engraving

• Allan Roy Edwards was engraved as Allan R. Edwards. He never played for Chicago. Roy Edwards first NHL game was during the 1967–68 season with Detroit.
• Denis DeJordy first NHL game was during the 1962–63 season, when he replaced Glenn Hall. This ended Hall's record of 502 consecutive complete games.
• Ronald Robert Murphy was engraved as Robert Murphy.
• Tod Aloysius Martin Sloan was engraved as Martin A. Sloan. He was engraved on the cup as Tod Sloan in 1951 with Toronto.
• Stan Mikita was born in Slovakia, but moved to Canada as young child. He was the first Slovakia born player to win the Stanley Cup.
• Wayne Hillman and Wayne Hicks both played in the last game of the Stanley Cup Finals game 6. So they qualified to be on the Stanley Cup. It was only game they played for Chicago that season. They spend the rest of the season in the minors.
• Captain Ed Litzenberger missed games 1 and 2 with an injury, so Ronald Chico Maki was dressed in his place. Maki's name was included on the Stanley Cup for dressing for 2 games in the Finals, even though he did not get any ice time, and Maki played his first regular season NHL game during the 1961–62 season.

Broadcasting

The 1961 Stanley Cup Finals were almost not televised in Canada at all. At that time, the CBC only had rights to the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs' games; home games only during the season and all games in the playoffs. However, with both the Canadiens and Maple Leafs eliminated in the semi-finals, the CBC's worst nightmare became reality. The CBC had to conceive a way to carry the Finals between the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings or face public revolt. According to lore, the CBC found a way to link their Windsor viewers as having a vested interest in the Finals with the across the river Red Wings. Thus, CBC was able to carry the series after inking special contracts with the Red Wings and Black Hawks as a service to the Windsor market. From Windsor, CBC linked the signal to Toronto and they relayed the coverage Dominion-wide. From there, Canadians were able to see the Finals with nary a glitch in the coverage.