History
1982:
Chicago Hawks are granted a charter recognizing them as an AHAI Tier 2 youth hockey club skating out of Saints Spectrum in Bridgeview. Their team colors would be red, white and blue. Their travel jerseys would be modeled after the New York Rangers. The Saints had moved out of the Spectrum the previous season.
09/1982:
Chicago Hawks hold their first tryouts for AA and A teams at the Mite, Squirt, Peewee, Bantam and Midget levels.
1983:
Chicago Hawks form a Learn-to-Skate program that will be on Sunday mornings at the Spectrum. They also form an In House program as a feeder program into the travel program. These teams will focus on skills and play games amongst the other in-house teams.
1993:
Mike Lebarre is elected President.
1994:
Chicago Hawks are one of the founding members of the South Suburban House League. This league will consist of teams from Homewood Flossmoor, St. Jude, and the Orland Park Ice Arena. Orland Park would leave the league in a couple of years to just stay in house.
1995:
Chicago Hawks are at their highest team counts. The organization consists of 10 travel teams and 14 house teams all skating out of 1 sheet of ice. Ice times started Monday thru Friday 6 pm to 11 pm for the travel program and Saturday and Sunday 5 am thru 9 pm for both the Travel, House and Learn-to-Skate programs.
Bill Miller is elected President. Todd Finner is named Hockey Director (his first hockey job out of college).
1996:
Darien Ice rink is built and the Chicago Hawks are one of the first programs to be offered ice slots. The Hawks purchased 5 hours on the weekend. There has been talk that a company was going to build an ice arena on 115th & Western. Over 50 percent of the Hawk membership came from that area. The Hawks did not want to make a commitment to Darien hoping that this rink on the southwest side of Chicago would be built.
1997:
The Chicago Hawks adopt a new logo to celebrate their 15th anniversary. Al Torres is elected President. Mike Smolen is named Hockey Director.
1999:
Brandon Janda and Sammy Messina skate on the same Minor Mite team. This highlight will comeback in 2006.
2002:
The Chicago Hawks introduce a 3rd jersey ( a red one with the original Hawks logo) to celebrate the 20th anniversary.
Chicago Hawks have a Midget team playing in a California-based league. They will play multiple teams from the West Coast every other week. This team is managed and coached by Tom Creal.
2004:
Chicago Hawks enter into a partnership with the Oak Lawn Park District. Oak Lawn will take over the House league program and feed their better players into the Chicago Hawks organization.
2005:
Chicago Hawks enter into talks with St. Jude about a possible merger because membership numbers are down.
Chicago Hawks are one of the founding members of the Southwest Spring League (SWSL).
John Janda has been watching the Complete Hockey blog on the internet about the Huskies moving out of Darien and over half of their membership was not happy with the move to Romeoville. They had set up their own thread to look into setting up their own club in the Darien ice rink.
01/12/2006:
St. Jude’s BOD takes a vote and backs out of the merger talks with the Hawks. Al Torres (President) gives John Janda approval to look into this possible move of the Hawks to Darien. John Janda sends an email to the address that was listed on the thread of the disgruntled members of the Huskies. This email found its way to one of the organizers of this group, Joe Messina. Joe’s son and John’s son had skated on the same team with the Hawks in 1999, so there was a connection there.
02/2006:
Al Torres and John Janda meet with a group of Huskie parents in Hinsdale about moving the Hawks from Bridgeview into Darien.
03/2006:
The Hawks meet with the Darien Park District and sign a 3-year lease to skate at Darien beginning this month.
Al Torres is the President of the Hawks and Joe Messina becomes the new Vice President of the Hawks. Pat McPartlin is named Hockey Director.
03/2007:
Joe Messina is elected President. Tony Daniels is named Hockey Director. Chicago Hawks celebrate their 25th anniversary with another 3rd jersey.
02/2008:
Hawks enter a team in the prestigious Quebec International Peewee Hockey Tournament.
03/2009:
Jason Lovelace is elected President and Kyle Kotrba is named Hockey Director.
09/2009:
The first Hawks team (Peewee) is admitted to play in the Central States Development Hockey League.
03/2010:
Greg Walch is elected President.
03/2014:
Tony Rossi is elected President.
07/2015:
Darien Phantoms Hockey Club is created.
03/2016:
Steve Poapst is named Hockey Director.
10/2018:
Melissa Surrette is elected President.
09/2019:
Chicago Hawks roll out a new alternate jersey for U18 team.
02/2020:
The 1st Annual Senior Day/Game is held for graduating seniors.
08/2021:
Chicago Hawks has largest membership in its history, with over 35 teams (which include Darien Phantoms teams).
09/2021:
Big Sis/Little Sis Program is created.
12/2021:
Brad Durkin is elected President.
03/2022:
16U team, coached by Jonathan Cannizzo, reaches the championship game in the Nationals Tournament. Team takes 2nd place. This is the first time in Club history a Hawks team has appeared in the finals.
06/2022:
Chicago Hawks Girls Program is named Girls Program of the Year.
08/2022:
Kelly Lyn Kelly is elected President.
10/2022:
The Midget/Mite Mentor Program is created.
03/2023:
Boys 18U and Girls 14U teams participate in the USA Hockey Nationals tournament. 18U finishes as a quarterfinalist and Girls 14U finishes as a semifinalist.
06/2023:
Kelly Lyn Kelly retires from Chicago Hawks Board and Amanda Hanlon is elected President.