‘He helped push me to trust my gut.’ Danny Wirtz on how Rocky prepared him to lead the Blackhawks.
CHICAGO — Late Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz had planned for years for his son, Danny, to carry on the various family businesses without him. But when Rocky died from an illness on July 25, it felt no less jarring and devastating.
“We didn’t think it was life-threatening, but it turned into three or four days of a real tough battle for his life,” Danny Wirtz told the Chicago Tribune in an interview Friday to discuss his ascension to the head of the team’s organizational chart.
Danny had worked alongside Rocky since spring 2020 when the Hawks named him interim president and then CEO later that year. With Rocky’s death, Danny’s official title has been updated to chairman and CEO.
Danny, 46, didn’t want to discuss the exact nature of Rocky’s illness but did open up about the impact of those final days.
“One minute, we’re talking on the phone, rescheduling some things because he had some stomach issues, and fast forward and he’s passed,” he said. “It’s a traumatic experience when you’re dealing with something so sudden, almost like disbelief: ‘What just happened?’
“You say, ‘Oh, my gosh, a week ago, we were just chatting about something, and now he’s gone.’ ”
Danny said he’s grateful several loved ones — including his daughters Hillary and Kendall, wife Marilyn and closes friends — “were all able to be there and be able to say our goodbyes, which is a terrible thing to have to do. But it does provide some closure and our chance to assure him that we’re going to be OK.”
Still, Danny was in a “state of shock.” But as heir to the Hawks franchise — as well as the Wirtz Corp., a company with holdings in real estate, banking and alcohol distribution — reality set in that grief had to be set aside temporarily.
