Hall of Fame Professional Hockey Team Owner. He was the founder and owner of the Chicago Blackhawks franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL). After graduation from Harvard University in 1901, he made his mark in the business world by working in his father's coffee import business. He served as a Sergeant with the 1st Illinois Field Artillery, part of the Illinois National Guard, during the Mexican Border War and during World War I as a Major with the 333rd Machine Gun Battalion, which was part of the famous Black Hawk Division. After the war, he married actress & dancer, Irene Castle. In 1926, he purchased the Portland Rosebuds of the Western Hockey League from Frank and Lester Patrick, and immediately relocated the franchise to Chicago where he renamed it "Black Hawks," in honor of his wartime unit. Known to most as 'Major,' he was a firm believer in the inevitable success of his team, eventually moving them from their original home at the Chicago Coliseum to the Chicago Stadium. Despite hard economic times during the Great Depression, his teams as a whole enjoyed large attendance and good success. In the early 1930s he was forced to take a loan from his friend, Montreal Canadiens owner Joe Cattarinich, in order to keep his team afloat. Cattarinich's 'investment' in his friends team would eventually pay off as the Black Hawks won Stanley Cups in 1934 and 1938. McLaughlin's tenure as owner was not without controversy, as he was inclined to lean toward American-born hockey players to fill out the Black Hawks roster, and later became the first owner in NHL history to have a full roster of American born players. He continued with the day to day operations of the Black Hawks until 1943 when he began to suffer from heart disease. He died at the Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest, Illinois, from the effects of what was determined to be a Cerebral Spasm (stroke) which he had suffered the previous May. In 1963, he was posthumously elected to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in the Builders category.