Back in June, a former Belmont resident called a current Belmont resident to deliver some exciting news.
Castle McLaughlin, an “off and on” Belmont resident for the past 30 years or so, got a call from Pat Kelleher, executive director of USA Hockey and 1988 Belmont High School graduate. He informed her that her late grandfather, Maj. Frederic McLaughlin, the original owner of the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks, was to be inducted into the U.S.USA Hockey Hall of Fame in December.
“It’s a pretty big deal to found an NHL team, one of the ‘Original Six,’” McLaughlin said. “I’m glad that they’re trying to circle back and recognize the foundational people. Although I do wish this happened during my father’s lifetime, I really enjoyed meeting everybody, and it gave me an opportunity to learn about my grandfather and appreciate him more.”
Kelleher, a member of the selection committee, delivers the call every year to inductees and their families. He was “thrilled” to be calling someone in his hometown. Kelleher has lived in Colorado and worked at USA Hockey for the past 24 years.
“We always joke about things somehow swinging back to Belmont,” Kelleher said. “There’s a long history for the Kellehers in Belmont.”
The Little League field on Grove Street is named for Pat Kelleher’s father, Dan Kelleher, a member of the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame, who coached youth hockey in Belmont for 40 years and, Little League and Senior Babe Ruth level baseball teams for close to four decades. His mother, Maura, still lives in Belmont, as does his brother, Brendan, the coach of the Watertown/Belmont girls hockey team, and his family.
Castle McLaughlin traveled to Pittsburgh and
at the Dec. 4 induction on behalf of her grandfather. A Lake Forest, Illinois, native who graduated from Harvard and served in the United States Army during World War I, Maj.or McLaughlin purchased the NHL’s expansion franchise in 1926, renaming and moving the Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds to Chicago and renaming thembecoming the “Chicago Blackhawks” after the nickname of his army unit, the 86th Infantry “Blackhawk” Division. The team won the Stanley Cup in 1934 and 1938 under his ownership. Maj.or McLaughlin encouraged Americans to play hockey, created amateur teams at schools in Greater Chicago and donated the uniforms and equipment to get them going.Castle McLaughlin, 68, never met her grandfather, who died in 1944 at age 67 of heart disease. Maj.or McLaughlin’s estate sold the team shortly after his death. It was later sold a second time before the current owners, the Wirtz family, bought the team in 1966.
Maj.or Frederic McLaughlin was inducted into the larger, more well-known Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario in 1963. Castle McLaughlin is now retired but formerly served as the Curator of North American Ethnography at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
“I like Belmont very much,” said McLaughlin, who was born in Arkansas and has lived in about 15 different states. “I started working on the election polls this fall and met the town leaders and was so impressed… It’s a beautiful town.”
McLaughlin’s father, William F. McLaughlin, who loved ice hockey, was a die-hard Blackhawks fan. A student of the game and team historian, William enjoyed attending games when his father, Castle’s grandfather, owned the team.
When they livedWhile living with her father in Tulsa, Oklahoma, William took Castle to Tulsa Oilers games. Hockey was mMuch more violent back then; Castle prefers the modern game.
A fan of participating in and following equestrian sports growing up, Castle McLaughlin wasn’t a huge hockey fan until now. She admits she’s never been to a hockey game in Boston but enjoyed the induction event and a Pittsburgh Penguins game so much that she’s becoming more of a fan. McLaughlin will be a Blackhawks fan, of course, and also follow the Bruins as well as women’s hockey (she enjoyed connecting with inductee Brianna Decker). She’s been in touch with the Blackhawks organization recently about the team’s upcoming centennial in 2026.
“The induction certainly deepened my appreciation for hockey,” McLaughlin said. “I found the whole hockey community so nice.”
And so did Kelleher and the local connection.
“It was great. Actually, Belmont made a connection for us,” Kelleher said. “I would say it was probably long overdue that her grandfather was recognized in our U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. The fact that we shared the Belmont connection for sure made it special.”