Every Cub Ever (H)

By Rick Kaempfer

Jan 14th, 2015

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Extra entries starting with the letter H…

~George Halas 1895 (Cubs fan 1900-1983)
Growing up in Chicago during the Cubs championship era (the first decade of last century), George Halas was a die-hard Cubs fan. When he was a boy, he and his friends used to hang around the player’s entrance at West Side Grounds and wait for Frank Chance to show up. When he arrived, the boys would beg the Peerless Leader to let them into the games for free. Chance obliged them on several occasions, something George Halas never forgot. Halas later became a baseball player himself. A month after World War 1 ended, he signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees. He eventually made it to the show for part of the 1919 season, but an injury ended his career after only 22 at bats. The next year the Yankees had another right fielder; a little known fella with the last name of Ruth. Halas obviously also excelled at football, and was one of the founders of the National Football League. He patterned the team colors after his college team (the University of Illinois), but he named them “The Bears” as a tribute to his favorite baseball team: The Chicago Cubs. Halas’ Bears even shared Wrigley Field with the Cubs for nearly 50 years. George Halas is a member of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame, and Chicago Bears fans will always revere him for his incredible success. But never forget, George Halas was a Cubs fan even longer. (Photo: Bain News Service)

~The Heckler (Cubs blog/website)
The Heckler has been dishing satirical slices of Cubs pie for several years. The website also skewers football, basketball, and hockey teams, but the Cubs are clearly the easiest target in professional sports, and the Heckler does a great job of poking fun at the Cubs and their fans. Recommended only for Cub fans with a sense of humor (I have heard from enough of you to know that’s not a universal trait).

~Ernest Hemingway 1899 (Cubs fan 1899-1962)
Hemingway grew up in Oak Park and was a precocious boy of 9 when the Cubs last won the World Series. He had more than a passing knowledge of that great Cubs team. His father was the doctor for Cubs owner Charles Murphy, and young Ernest saw his share of Cubs games at West Side Grounds. In 1949, he wrote a letter to his friend Ed recalling those days. He wrote: “I would say ‘Dear Lord, this isn’t as bad as what Frank Chance goes through every day, but please give me the courage to bear it like he does.’ Frank Chance couldn’t duck if they threw at his head. After he had his first concussion after I think it was Marquard hit him he would freeze, and nobody threw him anything that wasn’t high and inside. Finally he had such awful headaches that it was tough for me, a punk kid, to see him.” In the 1940s Hemingway invited ex-Cubs players like Billy Herman, Larry French, Augie Galan, and Curt Davis to hang out at his house in Cuba. But though he eventually became a Dodgers fan (all of those players ended up playing on the Dodgers after they left the Cubs–and the Dodgers trained in Cuba), his baseball teeth were cut in Chicago, watching the World Champion Chicago Cubs.

~John Hughes 1950 (Filmmaker)
Hughes grew up in Northbrook, and set many of his films in and around his hometown. Among them, the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” That movie is the reason for this listing. Among the famous locations featured in the movie; the Sears Tower, the Art Institute, the Board of Trade, and of course, Wrigley Field. The three friends catch a day game that day, and it was an actual Cubs game, not one recreated for the screen. The game took place on Wednesday, June 5, 1985 at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were hosting the Atlanta Braves, and the score was tied 2-2 in the top of the 11th inning with the Braves batting. Claudell Washington is batting against Lee Smith as Leon Durham holds Paul Zuvella on first base. (In the movie, the fry cook tells Mr. Rooney, who sees it on television, that the score at that point was 0-0.) The Cubs eventually lost that game in the 11th inning. Washington flied out for the first out of the inning. The batter after Washington was Rafael Ramirez and he hit a two run home run off Lee Smith to win the game.

~Bonnie Hunt 1964 (Cubs fan 1964-present)
She’s a Chicago girl and makes no bones about it. Bonnie Hunt grew up in Chicago in a large Catholic family, along with three older brothers, two older sisters, and one younger sister. They lived in a neighborhood west of Wrigley Field and absolutely adored the Cubs. How deep is her Cubs love? She claims that she hasn’t missed a single opening day at Wrigley Field since 1977. When her daytime talk show started up in 2008, she came to Wrigley Field and had a little fun with Ryan Theriot. Bonnie Hunt isn’t one of those bandwagon jumpers claiming all things Chicago. She told the Tube Talk Podcast that being a Cubs fan is deeper than just loving baseball or Chicago. It’s a philosophy of life. “No matter how bad it gets, no matter how tough it gets, you get back up and do it again.” Needless to say, the Cubs have invited Bonnie to sing “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” a few times. (She can actually sing too). She may have starred in some of the best movies in the last twenty-five years (“Rain Man,” “Dave,” and “Jerry McGuire”), and she may be a talented screenwriter and director (“Return to Me”), not to mention a great voice over actress (“Monsters Inc.” and “Cars”), and a gifted improv artist (“Second City”) in addition to being an Emmy nominated talk show host, but Chicago girl Bonnie Hunt is something else first and foremost: A Cubs fan.

Video and audio beginning with the letter H…

Watch Stan Hack get the hit that wins Game 6 of the ’45 series, the last WS game the Cubs won before 2016…