UNITED CENTER — Most people didn’t believe Joseph Foltman Jr. when he’d boast he could have played goalie for his hometown Chicago Blackhawks.
There was a letter to prove it, Foltman’s story went — if it hadn’t been lost when he hung up his skates and packed his bags for the Vietnam War.
“I would do it all over again. No regrets,” Foltman, now 74, said. “My dad fought in World War II during the Battle of the Bulge, and I respected him tremendously. I was called to fight for our country.”
Fifty years later, the Marine veteran was returned the letter that almost changed his life.
The son of an ex-girlfriend had found the three-paragraph letter — yellowed, stained, creased and typeset — in his grandmother’s attic. It was from former Blackhawks general manager Tommy Ivan and dated Feb. 28, 1967.
“Dear Mr. Foltman:” the letter began below official Blackhawks letterhead.
“If you will advise what League you play for and the schedule of the next three or four games — time and place we will try and have someone catch one of them if possible,” Ivan wrote. “I am sure if you have the ability you will catch the eye of some scouts and in turn will be contacted.”
On Thursday, Foltman gripped his letter, now framed, and drove in from Caledonia, Illinois with his wife, daughter, granddaughter and friends to join the team he always dreamed of skating for.
His daughter, Amber Shoedel, had sent his story about the tryout letter to the USO of Illinois, and word got to the Blackhawks, who arranged for a visit.
Blackhawks players, coaches and managers brought Foltman a jersey with his name and old hockey number on it. There were tears. And there was closure.
“Receiving that jersey, it was the biggest thrill of my life,” Foltman said. “It hit home. I could only manage to say, ‘Finally.'”
Foltman sat on the bench by the Blackhawks during their morning skate, where he “picked up a few tips” from his fellow goalkeepers. In the final period of the night’s game, the crowd around the ice rose to give Foltman the cheers he had missed out on.
Foltman’s uncle Larry Dodgers, who, along with Foltman’s dad, helped encourage him to take a shot in the dark by writing the team a letter, watched.
“He was very talented. He had all the instincts. I think he would have had a good tryout,” Dodgers said. “And for this to happen now — everyone deserves to get their recognition.”
There wasn’t much time to think about what could have been when Foltman was on the front lines fixing phone cables in Da Nang, Vietnam, he said.
The Melrose Park native went on to work in computers in California and drove a big rig throughout the Midwest. He’s semi-retired now.
But in all those years after the war, Foltman would watch Blackhawks games and wonder if his career could have gone further than his early days barnstorming city rinks with other suburban kids.
“I still have that thought, ‘Could I have really done it?'” Foltman said. “It’s like Vietnam, you ask yourself, ‘How did I survive and others didn’t?’ You think about that a lot.”
Foltman’s Blackhawks jersey will hang in his hallway, right next to the framed letter, the goalie said.
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