Chris Chelios (born Christos Kostas Tselios on
January 25, 1962 in Chicago, Illinois) is an
American professional ice hockey defenseman for the
Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League.
Chelios has also played for the Montreal Canadiens
and Chicago Blackhawks. Chelios has played in the
NHL since 1984, and has earned many awards during
his long career. Chelios is the oldest active player
in the NHL, has played the most games of any active
player in the NHL, and has the most career penalty
minutes of any active player. On November 24, 2006,
he played in his 1,496th NHL game, the most of any
American-born player, passing the record total of
Phil Housley. In the 2007–08 season, he appeared in
the playoffs for an NHL record 23rd time, having
missed the playoffs only once (1997–98) in his
entire career. Chelios is of Greek heritage. His
cousin, Nikos Tselios, also plays professional
hockey.
Chelios was raised in Chicago and was a standout
youth hockey player. He briefly attended Mount
Carmel High School, but moved to Southern California
in 1977. As a teenager, he was twice cut by Junior B
teams in Canada and hit a low point when he had to
borrow money from strangers to get home to
California one year. As Chelios said, "I wasn't any
bigger or any better than the other guys, so they
weren't going to take a kid from the States when
they could have a local guy." He returned home and
grew three inches while adding 40 pounds of muscle.
Chelios was then drafted by the Montreal Canadiens
in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft. Prior to being drafted,
he played for the Moose Jaw Canucks of the SJHL.
Chelios enjoyed two strong years at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison after being drafted. As one of
the top collegiate players in the country, he was
selected to play for the United States at the
1981–82 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. In
1983, he was part of the Badgers NCAA Men's Ice
Hockey Championship team and was named to the
All-Tournament Team and the Second WCHA All-Star
Team. Chelios was a member of the U.S. Olympic
Hockey team for the 1984 Winter Olympics in
Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. After the Olympics he made his
debut for the Canadiens, playing 12 games in the
regular season and 15 in the playoffs. That summer
he joined the United States team at the 1984 Canada
Cup. He wore number 24 in Montreal and Detroit, and
number 7 in Chicago.
Chelios grew up in Chicago, where his father,
Constantine "Gus" Chelios owned a chain of Greek
restaurants. The family moved to Poway, CA in 1977
when his father left his struggling business in
Chicago to open a restaurant in the San Diego area.
He was a Chicago Blackhawks fan during his childhood
but was more focused on football, idolizing Bears
linebacker Dick Butkus.
Chelios has been married to his wife, Tracee, for
twenty years. They met while students at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. They have four
children, Dean, 18, Jake, 16, Caley, 14, and Tara,
12. Dean Chelios, a forward, scored a pair of power
play goals to help his high school team,
Cranbrook-Kingswood, win the division 3 Michigan
state high school hockey championship in 2006. Dean
plays for the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the USHL
in Cedar Rapids, IA.
He was very active in charitable causes during his
playing days in Chicago, founding Cheli's Children."
He is the older brother of former minor-leaguer
Steve Chelios, Cousin of NHL player Nikos Tselios,
whose father was one of Gus Chelios' brothers. The
family name was originally Tselios, but Gus Chelios
changed his family's spelling. His cousin, also
named Chris Chelios (little Chris), is a former
minor league player and current coach of the Robert
Morris College Women's Hockey team in Chicago, IL,
he is also founder of the CCH Xtreme hockey school.
In his career, he has befriended many non-Hockey
athletes and entertainers. In 2004, Chris and surfer
Laird Hamilton trained with the US bobsled team, and
hoped to form the first Greek bobsled team at the
2006 Winter Olympics. They weren't successful. On
Scrubs, Dr. Perry Cox often wears a Chelios Red
Wings jersey; Chelios is friends with actor John C.
McGinley, who portrays Cox. During the fourth season
of the show, which was concurrent with the 2004–05
lockout, Cox was seen on at least one occasion
wearing a number 24 Motor City Mechanics jersey. He
is also close friends with actor John Cusack, Pearl
Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Smashing Pumpkins
frontman Billy Corgan and musician Kid Rock. One of
Chris' oldest Hollywood friend's is D.B Sweeney.
Chelios appeared with D.B. in The Cutting Edge
(1992) and in Two Tickets to Paradise(2007). Chelios
is also Godfather to Sweeney's son Cade.
