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Al Suomi is the last surviving member of the ill-fated "All-American" Chicago Blackhawk team
from the 1936-37 season.
Born into a hard working blue-collar family in Eveleth, Minnesota on October 29, 1913, Al passed
the time playing hockey without ever really aspiring to play at any serious level, much less
the NHL. Beginning on the local rinks, he honed his skills as a winger and later went
on to play in high school and at the college level.
In the midst of the great depression in 1934, with little work and less money, Suomi got an
opportunity usually only seen in the movies. While playing pick-up hockey with two friends
named Rezinka and Sarri, the trio was approached by a stranger who stood by the rink for a while
and watched them play. Once they took a break, the stranger walked up to them and introduced himself
as a scout named Jack Manley and calmly said "You boys interested in playing pro in Chicago?
You have one hour to catch the bus to Minneapolis with me". Not sure what to make of the offer, Al
realized he had nothing to lose and promptly went home to say goodbye to his parents and pack his
belongings into a cardboard box before heading to the bus station.
As part of a marketing scheme, the Curtis Candy Company decided to put together a semi-pro
hockey team named the Chicago Baby-Ruth to promote their candy bar of the same name. The team would
play before all Blackhawk games, piggy-backing on the attendance of the NHL team. As promised, Suomi
got to try out and made the cut, while his hometown friends hopped back on the bus. Marketing or not,
Al enjoyed his time with the team and said it was good hockey. The following year he got a phone call
from Perk Galbraith's brother-in-law in Michigan who invited him to head to
the Motor City and play in the Michigan-Ontario Hockey League (MOHL) which he did. He also had a chance
to try out for the 1936 U.S Olympic team, but was ruled to be a pro and ineligible.
In 1936, Al and other MOHL players took jobs in Denver Colorado with a promoter named
Kay Iverson who swung a deal to have the players build the rink and strap on
the blades in a new Colorado league when the arena was done. All was going well until a telegram
arrived from Chicago asking Suomi to return and try out for the Blackhawks, which he did.
Iverson was incensed and sent a letter threatening a lawsuit if Suomi did not return. A little
naive and nervous, he showed the letter to Jack Adams, who chuckled and instructed him to throw it in the
garbage. That was the last he ever heard of Iverson.
Al was now back in Chicago, and unknown to him, he was once again part of what may have been just
another marketing scheme. In the waning weeks of the 1936-37 season, eccentric Chicago Blackhawks
owner Major Frederick McLaughlin announced that he was going to keep his Canadian players on the bench
and would field a team of players born in the US. He even said he planned to rename the team "Yankees"
for the next season. The move outraged other teams who charged that any team who played them would be
getting an easy win, which could upset the outcome of the standings.
When asked what he thought of the whole experiment, Suomi chuckled
and said "It was a legit tryout by Chicago, but we just weren't
the same caliber of players. We never really had a chance, and
the other teams didn't give us a break." The press wasn't kind
either, and called the squad a "Joke" which was fresh out of
diapers. Al took a special beating-up in the media at the hands
of none other than Jack Adams, who said Suomi looked like a
first cousin to the character created by
Ring Lardner, author of the
popular "You know me Al" book about a baseball pitcher. After
5 games which featured 4 losses and 1 win, the rookies were
cut loose, and would all fade into NHL history.
Al decided to stay in Chicago and joined an arena hockey league which folded in 1940. He then
tried his hand as a referee, but claimed it wasn't really for him. Despite stats in Total Hockey 2
that claim he played with the Virginia Americans and again in the MOHL with the Detroit Pontiacs in 1937
, Al never again left Illinois to play hockey, and it was actually his brother John that played with the
Virginia Americans of the TBSHL.
He later worked as a welder, electrician and a jack-of-all-trades, managing to avoid being drafted in the
war. He then founded Al's Hardware, which is now operated by his children and has two locations
in the greater Chicago area.
Now 88 years old, Al has four children and enjoys vacationing at his cottage in Minnesota,
where the wall is adorned with his only photo of his time in Chicago with the other "All-Americans".
Al managed to occasionally stay in touch with all of them except Ike Klingbeil before they passed away.
Bun Laprairie went on to be the manager of Marigold Gardens in Chicago, Butch Schaefer was a cabinet maker
in Eveleth, Minnesota, which is also where Milt Brink returned after hockey.
This profile was put together after a conversation I had with Al Suomi in February of 2002.
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Player Facts
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NHL Seasons
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1
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Goals
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0
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Assists
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0
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Born
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October 13, 1913
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Nickname
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Al
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Team
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Blackhawks
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Stats
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