The Black Hawks began play during the 1926-27 season as one of the "Original Six" NHL teams along with the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.

The Black Hawks played their first game on November 17, 1926, against the Toronto St. Patricks, who they defeated 4-1 in front of a crowd of over 7,000.

After the Black Hawks finished the 1926-27 season in third place, owner Frederic McLaughlin, who felt they were good enough to finish first, fired head coach Pete Muldoon. According to sportswriter Jim Coleman, Muldoon responded by yelling, "Fire me, Major, and you'll never finish first. I'll put a curse on this team that will hoodoo it until the end of time." While the team would go on to win three Stanley Cups in its first 39 years of existence, it did so without ever having finished in first place, either in a single- or multi-division format. In 1967, the last season of the six-team NHL, the Hawks finally finished first, breaking the supposed Curse of Muldoon, 23 years after the death of McLaughlin.

Mike Karakas was the league's first American-born and trained goaltender and the first player of Greek descent. In his first season with the Black Hawks (1935-36), Karakas was awarded the Calder Memorial Trophy after posting a 1.85 goals-against-average with nine shutouts in 48 games.

Tony Esposito was one of the pioneers of the now-popular butterfly style of goaltending. In 1969, the Blackhawks claimed him from Montreal on waivers, and Esposito had a spectacular season, posting a 2.17 GAA and setting a modern-day NHL record with fifteen shutouts, for which he won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league's best rookie.

Owner Frederic McLaughlin was very interested in promoting American hockey players, then very rare in professional hockey. Several of them, including Doc Romnes, Taffy Abel, Alex Levinsky, Mike Karakas, and Cully Dahlstrom, become staples with the club, and under McLaughlin, the Black Hawks were the first NHL team with an all-American-born lineup.

His blonde hair, legendary skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high velocity all earned him the nickname "The Golden Jet". Hull's younger brother Dennis (nicknamed "the Silver Jet") starred alongside him with the Black Hawks for eight seasons, scoring over 300 goals in his own right.

World War II had decimated the rosters of most NHL teams, and with the Black Hawks searching for players, Max and Doug Bentley convinced the team to sign their brother Reg. The trio made history on January 1, 1943, when they became the first all-brother line in NHL history. Two nights later, Max and Doug assisted on Reg's first, and only, NHL goal.

Harold "Mush" March is best remembered for scoring the game-winning goal in the second overtime of Game Four of the 1934 Stanley Cup Finals to lift the Chicago Black Hawks to a 3-1 series triumph over the Detroit Red Wings.

In the 1938 Stanley Cup Finals against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Black Hawks goaltender Mike Karakas was injured and could not play, forcing a desperate Chicago team to pull minor-leaguer Alfie Moore out of a Toronto bar and onto the ice. Moore played one game and won it, but Toronto refused to let him play the next, so Chicago used Paul Goodman in Game 2 and lost. For the third and fourth games, however, Karakas was fitted with a special skate to protect his injured toe, and the team won both games, giving the Hawks their second championship.