Jay Zawaski put himself through a little hockey fan therapy in writing “The Big 50: The Men and Moments That Made the Chicago Blackhawks.”
The Homewood resident held a grudge against former Chicago defenseman Chris Chelios, who was traded to the rival Detroit Red Wings in 1999. Zawaski was in college at the time.
“That was a tough thing for me to take. Chelios was one of my favorite players. The fact that he went to the Red Wings made it hurt,” he said. “He would come back to town with the Stanley Cup and he would be at Cubs games. In my mind, he was kind of flaunting the Stanley Cup to Blackhawks fans. I took that personally.”
Zawaski even wrote a few blogs early in his career disowning Chelios. At the end of the portion of the book about Chelios, though, Zawaski forgives him.
“In reliving all of (former owner) Bill Wirtz’s decisions to not pay or to mistreat star players, it sort of reset my mind,” he said. “I literally worked through that as I was writing that chapter.”
Zawaski is an executive producer and Blackhawks analyst for The Score WSCR-670AM sports radio. He also co-hosts The Madhouse Chicago Hockey Podcast with James Neveau. “The Big 50” is his first book. It was released this week.
Zawaski was approached by publisher Triumph Books in April of 2019. He finished the book in December. He wrote at least half the book in the last two months.
“I know that I’m a procrastinator and I can tend to put things off. So when I finally agreed to do it, I started off really quickly and then lost steam a few months into it. I had to really ramp things up toward the end,” he said. “It wasn’t difficult finding 50 topics, but it was difficult finding an interesting story for each topic.”
The book is not a ranking or a list, though. Zawaski said it’s more a collection of essays about 50 important topics in Hawks history.
That distinction gave him some flexibility. One of the chapters deals with some of the lower-profile players from the championship seasons between 2010 and 2015. Those players may not have garnered enough attention as individuals.
One of those guys, retired center Dave Bolland, wrote the book’s foreword.
“I didn’t want to write a book that’s been written before,” Zawaski said. “So much has been written about the Blackhawks that you almost read the same stories over and over again. My approach was to ask how I can write about these legendary players like Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito and say something new, maybe teach people something they didn’t already know.”
The research was extensive. Zawaski read biographies and rewatched VHS tapes and DVDs from when he was a younger hockey fan. He leaned on contacts in the Blackhawks media and team historian Bob Verdi. He did interviews with players and personalities. He even looked through old newspaper articles on microfiche about people and events he didn’t know much about, like the franchise’s original owner Major McLaughlin.
“It took a little bit of everything to find the angle that I was looking for on everyone. That was the big challenge,” Zawaski said. “Once I determined what angle I was going to take on somebody, it was finding that information. Other times, I didn’t know what the angle was going to be, so I had to say ‘OK, I don’t know a ton about McLaughlin.’ So I can’t prepare. I have to find something worth writing and then write it.”
Signed copies are available at Bookie’s New & Used Books at 2015 Ridge Road in Homewood. The book can be purchased on Amazon, as well, but Zawaski said he encourages the support of local businesses.
A personalized signed copy can also be ordered at madhousepod.com/book.