r/hockey is going to have a field day with this one and he defined leaves behind a complicated legacy, but he brought us 3 Cups and saved the team from his father's terrible management
RIP
Posted Jul 25, 2023, 11:11 PM UTC
He has been a part of some atrocious behavior, but, speaking selfishly, he revitalized the organization that I loved since a child. Thankful for that.
RIP Rocky
The dude put Home games back on TV!
Basically kept the team in Chicago
I was mortified by his behavior at the town hall. But I thought the league’s investigation ruled he had no knowledge of anything else. When I think of Rocky these days it wasn’t positive, but prior to that town hall he was nothing short of a hero to the organization.
From now on I will only think of him as a hero. Dude saved the hawks
Why from now on? Some things are more important than sports success, and I don't see why you would not just forgive but completely forget his sins just because he did the one thing every single person is guaranteed to do.
This is pure speculation but I honestly think he was starting to show signs of early dementia at that town hall.
Bill had dementia too, iirc was "haunted" by his father at various points.
nah - if you knew him, he was sound.
Could be very well the case. Outburst go hand in hand with dementia
The fact that there was only one single instance that he semi lashed out also says a lot about his character. He was so even keeled it's rough that one bad interview really tainted his reputation.
Agreed. But man that was one bad interview…
It was truly disgusting
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As someone who spent a lot of time with him, it's hard to hear the criticism on his character. He was so kind to me, and my family, and me as an employee. He heard my parents were coming for Thanksgiving one year and made sure we had tickets to the Bulls which he knew were my favorite team. Just one of the many things he did for me without question.
I don't know if this is way out of line too soon, but it occurred to me Kaner and Captain played their rookie year with a patch for Bill. Now Connor will play his rookie year with a patch for Rocky in all likelihood.
That’s EXACTLY what I just said to my dad- we get a #1 draft pick, and the owner dies…again.
The Bears also had the #1 pick. Reinsdorf survived the Rose #1 pick so it may not cross sports.
Reinsdorf is a fucking vampire. He and V. McCaskey.
Yeah and unfortunately unlike Bill and Rocky, it doesnt seem like their children are much different than their parents. Though my theory is that Michael Reinsdorf has a similar situation to Bill/Rocky where Michael is running the Bulls like Jerry wants him to and hopefully when JR passes, he can put his own mark on the team.
Reinsdorf almost bought the Coyotes. League sweet talked him into it and he pulled out, when their owner threw them into bankruptcy, to prevent a sale.
Because he wasn't going to get a big payday!
I won't have any conflicting emotions when it's his turn.
He needs to sell, but he won't.
Rose also brought no chips, so that's probably how Reinsdorf lived.
Danny Wirtz gonna demand we trade away our next #1 pick
Dollar Bill is still pinching pennies in his grave.
Do we think he gets a patch? I know his son is in charge but I also think he’s aware of the climate shift in regards to Rocky after that town hall.
He completely revitalized the franchise after Dollar Bill died to include home games on TV and a dynasty under his ownership. He's gonna get a patch regardless of that awful presser.
Of course he gets a patch, while we can all agree the town hall and Beach scandal are not cool you also have to look at the good that contributed towards and respect it.
Crazy.
Morbidly, there’s parallels with Old Man Wirtz dying right before the 2007 season started and the Kane/Toews Era began.
Historically, he’ll be remembered by outsiders on how he tarnished his own legacy with how he handled the Beach situation.
For the fans, at the time, he made Blackhawks Hockey fun again. In 07, I got a Patrick Kane jersey for my birthday. Got made fun of for wearing it. A year later, my friends and I watched the Hawks play the Wings in the WCF & then a year after that we were downtown for the parade. Three championships in six years was a pretty great run especially for where Old Man Wirtz had the team. It’s a shame it didn’t last longer.
I still own that Kane jersey I got in 2007. If it still fit, I don’t think I’d get made fun of for wearing it.
I’m gonna be honest, outside of Reddit and hockey Twitter virtually no one is going to see him as having a tarnished reputation at all. Everyone was happy he got the team back on tv and winning 3 Cups.
If it weren't for that town hall, you may have been right. That performance sealed his legacy.
I’m gonna be honest, outside of Reddit and hockey Twitter
Yup. The very online and everyone else don't always see eye-to-eye. I'll forever think of Rocky as the one that allowed me to watch home games on TV and got us 3 cups.
it doesn't help that these chronically online fans of other teams are so stuck on misinformation. the jenner and block report cleared him of wrongdoing and covering up the situation, which makes sense since mcdonagh only told him "5%" of what was going on with the team. despite that, they're convinced he was a leader of the cover up. obviously he's not entirely innocent, as at the end of the day, he is the owner, and he handled that town hall really badly, but man the chronically online dancing on his grave is disturbing
IDK man, everyone I know that is a Chicago sports fan shun the Blackhawks because fuck them and what they did. It's gonna take a loooooong time for them to come back to the team, if ever.
I know no one in real life that stopped liking the Hawks because of the Kyle Beach incident. Not a single person. The only reason I’ve ever heard people watching less was because of the losing but now everyone is pumped about Bedard and back on the bandwagon. Kids on my Squirt and Peewee’s teams have already been wearing his jersey to practice.
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nobody from 2010 is still there, so anyone shunning them is just an idiot hurting themselves for no reason
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He handled the Beach situation well at first. Paid for the independent investigation, televised the results. Tried to be incredibly transparent, where I think most sports franchises would have tried to cover it up as much as possible.
Then that press conference happened. I can understand the frustration having to constantly talk about it, plus I think that reporter was an idiot anyway, but now thats all that anyone remembers about how he handled the Beach scandal.
Does not make what he did there right, and he should have stepped down from his role with the organization even before the Beach scandal came to light. It’s not fair to him to say he handled it badly overall though.
I can see other owners going back to try to cover up these things again as a result of how he’s being treated over this. If people are going to shit on you either way what’s the incentive?
You don’t have to defend him to me. I gave the Beach situation a sentence and clarified it’s more important to outsiders than the fans of the team. If you don’t believe that, go read ESPN’s article about Wirtz passing.
If we suck again (we will) and win the draft lotto again, how nervous does Danny get? Joking aside, man was one of the guys at the top of the list of people fans can thank for getting to watch a dynasty. Without him spending money and being committed to a great on ice product, we likely have 19 & 88 with no surrounding cast.
Absolutely.
I mean just look at the cast of that 2010 team and the support of league veterans that really helped propel them. The Hossa signing. Not to mention locking up Seabrook and Keith on defense. What they did in 2010 allowed them to be able to then mix in some younger names for 2013 and 2015.
My best Blackhawks moment from this whole era of Blackhawks hockey was getting to watch Alex Burrows score the game 7 overtime winner in round one of 2011 and slay the Dragon that was good hockey
No cup :)
Then what happened?
And we won 2 cups after that. Enjoy mediocrity and watching petersson and hughes waste away their prime years
The real engine behind the hawks championship machine. He gave us all memories we can cherish for a lifetime and ill always be grateful for that. RIP
Hold on, did something happen to Dale Tallon?
Whoah that’s crazy.
Thanks for putting Hawks games back on TV. My condolences to his family.
The worst thing he did was snap at a reporter asking him about something he was not a part of or aware of. If that's unforgivable, then I don't wish that level of judgement on anyone else. He helped to create some amazing memories for me and I'll thank him for that.
Believe what you want but ultimately the buck stops with the owner. Even if as you believe he wasn’t aware of what went on (laughable imho) he always had the power to find out, stop it and protect the player and he didn’t you take your pick which is worse but both unforgivable 🤷🏼♂️
A law firm worth more than the Wirtz cleared him, so I don't know how you can just make that jump and call people who believe it laughable. Especially considering Wirtz hired McDonough to do operations and manage for the Blackhawks. Wirtz owns way more than just the Hawks. The buck stops there, for sure, but at the end of the day he's another owner of a company that had one employee assault another. A really low bar for a one way ticket to hell.
r/conspiracy would welcome you.
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An owner hires a team president to handle all that for him, and if you're the president in that situation (like if you're the chief of staff for a politician) part of the job is to not tell your boss things he doesn't want to know or things that might open him up to legal liability. And even if that wasn't true, there was about a three week span between when the front office heard about the situation and when Aldrich left the organization - during which time they were in the last two rounds of the playoffs and then won the Stanley Cup! Whatever conversations Rocky had with McDonough during that time would have been about the team's performance, upcoming games, ticket sales, marketing, parade plans, etc. In that situation, how would you be psychically intuiting that you should ask about how the AHL players were doing on a personal level? That's just not a reasonable assumption, and I doubt he either noticed or cared that the assistant video coach left the team afterwards - low level employees move around all the time. Maybe he noticed that Beach, a first round pick, didn't pan out, but so did the fans, and nobody thought anything of it except that that kind of player, who gets drafted on the basis of size and grit, often doesn't make it in the NHL.
something he was not a part of or aware of
Do you really believe this?
Yes because not doing so would just be believing in a conspiracy theory. Especially not gonna start entertaining this one on the day the dude died for the sake of joining on the dogpile. What the fuck kind of question is this?
If he didn't know, which I can't believe, that is his largest failure and is far worse than any good he's done.
only an idiot conspiracy theorist wouldn't. why would a reputable firm like jenner and block sacrifice/risk their credibility by covering up for him while burying everyone else?
LOL
You can appreciate what he did for the organization and also recognize that he was an asshole. Honestly, not to be overly callous about it, but his death is probably a good thing for the future of the organization, at least from a PR standpoint. I think most of us wanted him gone after that town hall.
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Stunning. Godspeed rocky
Thank you for reviving hockey & the 3 cups for our city.
Some of the greatest memories of my family's life has been thru the hawks
Got a direct link to source????
Edit: RIP Rocky
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RIP
The guy made the Blackhawks the team we all love and cherish
Very often progress is made by virtue of one generation dying off and another taking its place. That doesn't mean we should shit on previous generations, though, for they too made progress by replacing their forefathers. Rocky was a marked improvement over his father Bill. Unlike Bill, Rocky understood that being the owner of a franchise doesn't mean that the franchise belongs to you. That change in mentality brought Chicago three Stanley Cups. But Rocky couldn't wrap his head around the social and cultural changes that were happening in hockey. Bill Wirtz probably would have seen nothing wrong with John McDonough's cover-up of the now-infamous 2010 sexual abuse scandal. Rocky Wirtz (and may I remind you, there his no evidence he knew anything about it at the time) acknowledged the wrongness of the cover-up but wanted to simply move on. Danny Wirtz has not moved on, and continues to implement changes in culture and transparency within the Blackhawks organization to make sure nothing like that ever happens again. We can mourn the death of Rocky and celebrate the positive changes he made to the Blackhawks while at the same time recognizing that his time has passed and the franchise is currently in better hands.
Well said
Thanks!
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Can r/hockey let go of the scandal now? Literally every single person involved is now either gone or dead.
I wouldn't hold your breath. Canucks fans are still perpetually angry about the 2009 Western Conference Semis.
No, they like beating dead, pulpy horses over there, especially when it's easy karma and strokes their egos.
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Nope.
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Who cares what those people think? Let them furiously jerk each other off with their nonsense, then they'll eventually get tired out and go back to whatever life they pretend to have.
Will throw this in as a confirmation by ben pope who I respect as a journalist. Link is to his sun times article via twitter.
https://twitter.com/BenPopeCST/status/1683980541455106049?t=JfVNuh70HYJW1CIg5F4BWg&s=19
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Thank you Rocky for making the hakws relevant again in the city. He brought fresh life into an organization, that led to home games being televised regardless of whether the game was a sell-out or not, this also led to the team being serious about contending and ultimately acquiring great talent and winning cups as a modern-day salary cap era NHL dynasty. Thank you.
despite his flaws, there was a lot of good in him too
I feel sad for his children and grandchildren
RIP
there was a lot of good in him too
Yeah real good at turning a blind eye
The Reddit comedians are all out on the hockey sub. Sad little people.
Just reported on WGN news.
I am sad to hear this. May he rest in peace.
Complicated is right. But to be honest I think it uncomplicates the future of the organization considerably.
Doesn't feel nice to think it but you're probably right. Everyone else from the scandal was let go and punished except him. The team can finally put complete distance from it.
Yeah precisely. Feels like a true watershed moment here now, the franchise can move ahead with the Bedard era and hopefully many lessons learned.
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This has been my thought the whole time. I just wished he would have stepped down and given Danny the reins. Not happy it happened this way but it will be good for the org going forward
Danny has been full operating for like a year and a half.
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I know what you mean, but he was punished financially. The settlement from that deal was likely ginormous, along with the small fine the league gave him. Also gotta think ticket sales took a dive. So financially he was penalized in a few different ways.
Yes, Danny Wirtz will let Kyle Davidson cook
From what I've seen and heard, Danny seems like he's got a decent head on his shoulders, and I'm excited to see what direction he takes the team in. And now I'm not exactly glad the man is dead, but I am glad we can fully move on from everyone involved with the whole scandal.
Never wished harm to him but I also can’t really bring myself to mourn. Thinking of his family during this time and anyone who cared for him.
Imma be honest, I just saw this and the first thing that come to mind was "well, that solves that, I guess". Gonna have a drink for the Wirtz family right now, but I definitely won't shed any tears over Rocky's passing, and that's about the nicest thing I can come up with right now.
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No doubt, I just wish we could have been able to part ways with him entirely without him having to literally die.
I am not going to mourn him personally, but it sucks for the Wirtz family to see him go like this, especially with it all being eerily similar to how Bill went with the social circumstances.
It sucks because he really was a godsend for this organization after Bill Wirtz died. He had home games on TV within a month or two of his passing, he mended the relationships with all of the greats who were alienated from the organization towards the end of Bill's ownership and welcomed them back into the fold as ambassadors. He totally revamped how the franchise was run from the inside out and turned it into a first-class organization in many ways.
But obviously you cant talk about his legacy without talking about what happened with Brad Aldrich and the years of coverup, regardless of how much he was involved in it. And the last major memory people will have of him is snapping back at a reporter at a town hall they invited the media to join who dared to ask about how the organization is addressing the scandal complaining that everyone needs to move on mere months after the report was released.
Look everyone has their skeletons. His are particularly bad and as a public figure his were magnified. We have to bring up this situation when talking about his legacy but I think its also fair to recognize the good things he did as well to get a full picture of his impact on the organization.
I personally can go back to wearing Hawks gear, so there's that.