If you were a kid playing hockey in Chicago in the 1960s, you wanted to be Bobby Hull or Stan Mikita. In the winter, there were never enough hours of daylight to pretend you were a member of the Blackhawks’ front line. Gary Leverence and his friends from Saint Rita High School skated in McGuane Park or flooded backyards until the 4:30 dusk, then stomped down to his dad’s basement to swat plastic pucks around a Coleco table hockey set. “We announced
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Leverence, a ponytailed, 52-year-old part-time blues/rock guitarist, is the last remaining member of the Original Six and, therefore, president of the oldest table-hockey league in North America. The CTHL outgrew Stan Leverence’s basement sometime in the 70s. It now meets every Sunday in the cellar of Harry’s Tap on Paulina near 32nd. With six tables wedged in among its pipes, low-hanging ductwork, and concrete floor, the room feels as claustrophobic as Chicago Stadium during a Norris Division final. An American flag hangs from a beam next to a much larger Canadian flag. Sunday night is supposed to be a work night, not a drinking night, but the league still draws two dozen players, guys wearing hockey jerseys and Kiss T-shirts over their growing beer bellies.
Barry Daniels joined the league this winter but is already so fanatical he posts his “Diary of a CTHL Rookie” every week on Yahoo’s Table Hockey Cafe (groups.yahoo.com/group/tablehockeycafe/). “I haven’t played table hockey since I was a teenager,” he says. “Now I’m addicted. I go over to the other guys’ houses and practice on Saturday nights. I didn’t realize table hockey could be played like this. These guys are bangin’ on the tables like you wouldn’t believe, and they take it. It’s a kid’s game made for men.”
This Sunday’s most-hyped game is between league leaders Dennis Schaade and Mike “Big Daddy” DiGangi. Big Daddy, a Stanley Cup champion, is built like a beanbag chair but still has the nimblest hands in the league. He’s 17-1-0. Slender, 24-year-old Schaade is the CTHL’s youngest player, recruited from a junior league Leverence organized at Saint Barbara Grammar School.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Nathan Mandell.
