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50 Years of Family Memories Aboard ‘Blackhawk’

• By Kristin Baird Rattini
• Updated: August 27, 2021

Before Arthur Wirtz died in 1983, the owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and founder of the Wirtz Corporation made his final wishes clear to his family: Don’t sell Ivanhoe Farm, the family’s original land grant in Mundelein, Illinois, dating back to 1857. Don’t sell his wife’s 1961 Rolls-Royce. And don’t sell the boat.

The boat is Blackhawk , a 123-foot Feadship launched in 1971. It was Arthur’s pride and joy.

“He literally designed every inch of that boat, including the hull,” says William Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz, Arthur’s grandson and president of the Wirtz Corporation. Fifty years later, the family has gone to great lengths to keep Blackhawk in pristine condition and preserve it as Arthur concieved it, to provide a comfortable and consistent setting as five generations have made lasting memories on board.

Rocky was a teenager when his grandfather was building Blackhawk . “If you happened to be in his office around 5:30 p.m. or 6 p.m., then you would stay there until 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. because he would clear everything off his desk and take the plans out,” he recalls.

His grandfather was upgrading from a 94-foot sport-fisherman, and Arthur envisioned his Feadship as the ultimate luxury fishing yacht with a cockpit and flybridge, despite the fact that Feadship’s naval architects said it wasn’t possible. “They’d tell him what he couldn’t do, and he’d say, ‘No, I can do it,’” Rocky says.

It wasn’t Arthur but Rocky who had the privilege of taking Blackhawk’s maiden voyage. “I had just graduated from high school,” Rocky says, “and my parents brought all five of us kids over to Europe. We met the boat in Lisbon and sailed around the Mediterranean.”

Departing from Portugal, they visited Cannes, France, and Gibraltar, among other ports of call, before disembarking in Portofino, Italy, where Arthur and his wife, Virginia, arrived for their inaugural sailing. They cruised the Mediterranean before a captain handled the Atlantic crossing, via the Azores and Bermuda. Finally, Blackhawk arrived in South Florida, which has been the boat’s home port ever since.

It takes tremendous time, effort and expense to keep a 50-year-old yacht as close to original as possible. “With a newer boat, once you’re up and running, you’re mostly just provisioning for the next trip,” Capt. Richard Freeberg says. “But we are perpetually going from shipyard mode to guest mode.”

At Bradford Marine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Freeberg and crew varnish the original teak interiors and fair one section of the hull at a time. When they replaced the cockpit electronics, they hid the new instrumentation behind the original control panel and restored the original woodwork and wheel. When they renovated the galley with a Lang range and two MiraCool refrigerators, the crew tracked down the same delft pattern of hand-painted backsplash kitchen tiles from Royal Tichelaar Makkum that had been installed 50 years earlier.

“It has to be in mint condition—or not at all,” Rocky says. “With all of the improvements we’ve done over the years, the boat is really in better shape now than the day it was launched.”

The living spaces remain largely as Arthur envisioned them. The Sherle Wagner sea-serpent fixtures he chose are still in the four stateroom heads. The floral works by French artist Michel-Henry he selected still adorn the stateroom walls.

“It’s like walking into my great-grandparents’ living room when you walk on the boat,” says Danny, Rocky’s son, the current CEO of the Chicago Blackhawks and part of the fourth generation on board. “There have been plenty of updates, but it still very much feels like their taste and aesthetic across the board.”

Over the years, many Wirtz family members and friends have flown to South Florida around Easter and Christmas to cruise there and in the Bahamas. Bill Wirtz, Rocky’s father, used to take charge of the itinerary, which often revolved around excursions in Power Play and Slap Shot, two 21-foot Boston Whaler Outrages built in 1971.

“We would end up on some wild adventure that could involve going through some major storm, getting lost, getting stranded or having the engine go out,” Danny says. “But that was the nature of my grandpa [Bill]; he was as stubborn as he was adventurous. We’d go find a hidden beach and explore a new area. We’d come back sandy, sun-drenched and salty.”

The evening’s entertainment was often predicated on whether the Blackhawks were playing.

“We would move hell and high water to catch the game,” Danny says. “In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it was much harder to get satellite access to a hockey game at sea or in the Bahamas, so it was kind of this comical attempt to get the satellite to work. But when you got that game, we loved it. Everyone huddled around. If the game was during dinnertime, I would watch it and then run into the dining room to tell the adults if the score changed.”

Nowadays, Danny is among the adults in the Blackhawk dining room. For his 40th birthday in 2017, he brought his daughters, Juniper and Rosemary, for their first cruise. They were 6 and 7—about same age that Danny was when he first stepped on board.

“They were running all around, checking things out, claiming a room and having the best time with the crew,” he says. “It was great to see their exuberance.

“It’s a tremendous privilege to share this boat with them,” he adds. “It’s such a special thing that is so connected to my childhood. Now they get to experience it their own way.”

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The Story of 4 Yachts That Became the Ultimate Heirloom for These Seafaring Families

In some families, it's a watch. in others, a coin collection or a trove of old masters. but for a few, the most prized inheritance is the boat they’ve spent a lifetime of summers sailing., by michael verdon.

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M arina Garghetti recalls many idyllic summer days aboard her family’s Baglietto , Solimar, but one in particular from the early 1970s stands out. “The sea of Tigullio was teeming with tuna,” she says. “My sporty mom had equipped the boat for deep-sea fishing, even though it wasn’t a fishing boat.” Garghetti, then in her early teens, and her two younger sisters headed out with their mom and the boat’s captain, while her father, Franco, was stuck in the office in Milan .

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The captain piloted toward an off-shore fishing hole, so active the ocean’s surface boiled with the tunas’ feeding frenzy. “We caught fish after fish,” Garghetti says. “The tuna leaped out of the water when they took the bait, and we fought and fought to pull them in. It was such a thrilling day.”

The mother and daughters landed so many tuna that seagulls followed them back to port, mistaking Solimar for a fishing trawler. At sunset, in a scene right out of a Fellini film, the family gave away the haul to local schools, restaurants and friends. “It was still a small seaside village then,” she says, “and we all knew each other.”

Solimar has been a fixture in the Santa Margherita Ligure port outside Genoa since the 59-foot vessel was delivered in 1973. The family took yearly summer-vacation cruises on the Mediterranean to Corsica , Sardinia , Elba and the Aeolian Islands. Garghetti, now in her sixties, recalls anchoring in coves, where the family slept onboard, visiting small fishing villages and enjoying sunsets all over Italy . “They were some of the happiest days of my life,” she says. “They brought a sense of cohesion to our family.”

Marina Garghetti’s Solimar in Varazze, Italy, 1973.  Courtesy of Alessandro Mazzoni

So much so that Garghetti has kept the 49-year-old yacht in pristine condition, partly as a memory bank, partly because of her love of the sea, but mostly as a shrine to her parents, who instilled that love in her. Today it looks out of sync, almost like a relic, beside more modern vessels, but it’s as shipshape as when it was brand-new. Garghetti still goes out on Solimar nearly every summer day, and her daughter and her sisters’ children and grandchildren have all enjoyed vacations aboard. “The scent of the wood on the boat’s interior, the layout of the cabin, the cockpit where we’ve shared so many meals—they allow me to pass the experiences I had with my parents to my daughter,” she says. “Our story has been handed down from father to daughter, and I hope my daughter will love the boat as much as I do and pass it to her daughter.”

Yacht owners typically focus on the latest innovation, the next best thing, upgrading to ever-newer, larger vessels. But there are others—a tiny but passionate minority—who view their boats as heirlooms, similar to multigenerational summer homes, where the walls preserve precious memories. “These boats are not toys,” says Anselmo Vigani, a partner at RAM , a refit center on Italy’s Lake Iseo that maintains almost 100 vintage Rivas for owners. “It’s an object that reminds you of fun, happy moments. It’s the same boat you went on with your parents. It gives you the same feelings, even though it might be 50 years later. Most of our owners will never sell them.”

Summers on the Riviera

Jonathan Showering’s first memories of his family boat, La Mouette, remain as vivid now as when he was four years old in 1966. It was a gleaming mahogany Aquarama Super with burnt-sienna upholstery—a boat his parents bought to occupy their six children during summer holidays in Monaco. “It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen,” he recalls. “The lights in front were set into the hull like eyes, and the chrome bowsprit had a crocodile smile. You could always spot our Riva as it came around the headland.”

La Mouette, or “the Seagull” in English, was a standout, according to Showering, even among the beautiful wooden boats that filled the floating docks of Monte Carlo ’s Port Hercules. The Aquarama was the icon of highly sought-after Rivas—floating fashion statements owned by Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot and King Hussein of Jordan, among other movie stars and royals—but the Showerings used it as a family runabout for waterskiing, day tripping to Saint-Tropez or just noodling around empty coves. “We have a picture of five of the six us waterskiing together behind the boat,” he says. “I think it bent the ski pole.”

Jonathan Showering (second from right) waterskiing with four of his siblings in the late ’60s.  Courtesy of Jonathan Showering

“Joe the Boatman” was the family’s hired captain who took them on the day trips, with balmy nights on the water watching fireworks explode over the harbor. “When I was five, I was allowed to sit on Joe’s lap and steer the boat on my own for hours,” he says. “For years, I studied his every move like a hawk. I was 16 before my father let me drive.”

For Showering, whose family spent most of the year in the UK, where his father, Keith, served as chairman of the drinks company Allied Domecq, the summers became a blur of blissful, halcyon days that stretched into decades, a bonding—though he’d be loath to use that word—between siblings and parents. That’s quite a trick with six kids on a 27-foot boat, with a cockpit measuring 49 square feet. “I don’t recall any issues between us when we were on the boat,” he says. “We loved every second.”

Fifty-six years after embarking for the first time, Showering, 59, has not missed a summer aboard La Mouette. After his father died in 1982, the family held on to the vessel, and Showering, its most frequent captain, later gifted the Monaco experience to his wife, Emily, and four children. “We brought each child on the boat like Moses’s basket, soon after they were born,” he says. “They fell asleep immediately with the water’s motion and noise of the engines.” The kids have since grown up doing the same things he and his siblings did a half-century earlier.

The eldest, Eleanor, 29, has photos of herself onboard in her dad’s arms at about three months old, but her most vivid memories are of standing side by side with her siblings, Lily, Grace and James, on the passenger seat, holding on to the windshield, while her dad drove. “We’d do that everywhere we went,” she says. “We really used to enjoy it, jostling for position, until we got too big to stand next to each other. It’s what my father used to do as a child with Joe the Boatman.”

La Mouette in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, 2017.  Courtesy of Jonathan Showering

Eleanor says part of La Mouette ’s allure was connected to her father. “It was a special part of his childhood, so it felt special to us doing what he did on the boat and visiting the same places,” she says. “The boat almost feels like a living thing. We all have the same reverence for it.”

The kids all learned a routine to tie up the craft whenever they docked, a choreography that they follow to this day. Showering taught each child to pilot the boat when they came of driving age. They share his love for the boat’s tactile qualities—the smooth mahogany, the soft upholstery—as well as the throaty rumble of the V-8 engines.

“The days on La Mouette are my most special memories,” Eleanor says. “We never got bored. We’d go to Italy and France for lunch, arriving on this beautiful, glamorous boat. We were always very proud of it.” On other days, each child selected their favorite pastime. Eleanor enjoyed being the first boat in the Bay of Roquebrune, where the children would eat croissants and swim with fish. Grace reveled in waterskiing, Lily liked being pulled on the inflatable water toy, and James just loved to be at the helm. “My mother liked it best when we were lying and sunbathing quietly,” Eleanor adds.

There were also adventures: Four years ago, Showering, Emily, Eleanor and Lily took a wild ride from Monaco to Saint-Tropez in a race that is part of the Riva Trophy, the annual owners’ rally—against larger, modern, fiberglass Rivas. “My dad thought we had the best boat and wanted to win,” she says. The waves were so high La Mouette repeatedly went airborne. Eleanor was next to her father, reading the charts, while her sister and mother sat in the back. “We arrived completely soaked, salty and exhausted,” she says. “We managed to win but only got the prize for ‘Oldest Boat’ because our race number had fallen off the side. None of the other boats had any idea what we’d been through. They were just cruising along, sipping Champagne.”

The Showerings’ La Mouette at the end of the 2018 Riva Trophy race.  Courtesy of Jonathan Showering

Now that everyone has a career, the summer holidays in Monaco are shorter, but the clan still spends three weeks there engaged in their beloved marine outings. Nobody has outgrown the La Mouette experience, and nobody expects to. “My children all want the boat,” says Showering. “They’ve never known a summer without it. They’d be devastated if it ever left the family.”

Arthur’s Boat

For the Wirtzes, a prominent name in Chicago, the 123-foot Feadship Blackhawk symbolizes the clan’s history. It’s also a 51-year-old living monument to the family patriarch, Arthur Wirtz, a real-estate and liquor mogul who bought the Chicago Blackhawks in 1954 and an ownership stake in the Bulls in 1972.

Virginia and Arthur Wirtz during Blackhawk ’s build in Aalsmeer, Netherlands.  Courtesy of Feadship

While the sports teams brought Arthur fame, and the liquor business a fortune, the Feadship was his magnum opus. “He spent many hours designing that yacht after the office closed,” says William Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz, Arthur’s grandson, president of the Wirtz Corp. and chairman of the Blackhawks. “He drew every square inch. When it launched in 1971, it changed the Feadship look for nearly a decade.”

Arthur’s last wishes specified that his heirs keep the boat, his wife Virginia’s 1961 Rolls-Royce and the family’s original land-grant farm from 1875 in Mundelein, Ill. “No mention of the Blackhawks or any of the other businesses,” says Wirtz. “Those three things he identified as his legacy. To him, they represented a man of humble means who was able to show he did well in the world.”

Aboard Blackhawk .  Courtesy of Feadship

Blackhawk was a novel design and, at the time, the world’s largest sportfishing boat. Arthur wanted to fish from the cockpit but have a formal dining room in the saloon for family time and business entertainment. (Arthur and Virginia befriended former President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, taking them on tours of South Florida.) That combination of luxury and sportiness, though common in yachts now, was decades ahead of its time.

Today the interior looks almost the same as in 1983, when Arthur passed away: parquet floor in the dining room, mahogany paneling, sea-serpent fixtures in the head, floral artwork by Lê Pho personally chosen by Arthur for the four staterooms.

“He was a big man, six feet, five inches tall, who loved his air-conditioning,” says Wirtz, 69. “It still gets cold enough in there to hang meat.” The family has modernized many systems and employs a full-time crew of four to look after it in South Florida, but it remains Arthur’s boat.

A fashion shoot aboard the Wirtz family’s Blackhawk .  Courtesy of Feadship

“It’s a time capsule—almost like walking into my great-grandparents’ home,” says Danny Wirtz, Rocky’s son and CEO of the Blackhawks. “We try to be unassuming, so even talking about us having a yacht makes me uncomfortable. We see it more as a family heirloom.”

Danny, 44, recalls the first time he was on the boat, in the early 1980s, when his grandfather Bill Wirtz took his children and grandchildren on a weeklong trip to the Exumas. “I was in complete awe, being able to eat, sleep and play on that amazing vessel,” he says. “Grandpa Bill would take us on these big adventures in the Whaler tenders, Power Play and Slap Shot— to diving holes, secret beaches, coral reefs. He was fearless—we’d go through storms, broken engines, getting lost.” But mostly he remembers Bill—Arthur’s son—adopting a new, happier persona on the boat. “He always wore a suit in Chicago,” Danny says. “But on the boat he was relaxed in his bathing suit—really in his element.”

Danny and his kids, Juniper and Rosemary, along with his sisters and their children, have continued the trips to the Exumas on Blackhawk and, more recently, cruised to Harbor Isle in the Bahamas. “It’s special that the fifth generation is able to experience it,” he says. “It’s the last touchpoint we have of Arthur.”

The First of a Famed Fleet

In the 1970s, Serafino Ferruzzi commissioned a yacht that would come to inspire one of the most storied pedigrees in racing. The Italian industrialist couldn’t even sail, but he wanted a fast boat for his son, Arturo, and son-in-law Raul Gardini. Il Moro di Venezia I, designed by Germán Frers , was one of the world’s most inventive racing sloops when it launched in 1976. It was a clever disrupter in the Italian Maxi Yacht class and progenitor of eight successive Il Moro di Venezias, including five America’s Cup competitors, each dreamed up for the clan by Frers to be ever faster and technically more sophisticated.

Serafino made a deal with the two younger men: If he bought the boat, they could race two weekends a month but would have to run the family’s agro-empire, Ferruzzi Finanziaria, for the other two. When it launched, Il Moro di Venezia I quickly morphed from a snappy reference both to Shakespeare’s Othello and two 15th-century giant bronze statues in Venice into a sailing legend: The yacht’s 92-foot mast towered high above others in the racing fleet. And it was fast, very fast, even in light winds.

“The boat was an experiment,” says Massimiliano “Max” Ferruzzi, Serafino’s grandson and the current owner. “It was long and elegant for its day, with that unusually large mast. It looked like a racing Ferrari in the harbor.”

Six years old when the boat was delivered, Ferruzzi, now 51, recalls its first, highly unusual shakedown cruise, a vessel’s first extended outing. “It was 10 p.m. and we were at dinner, and my father and his 20 friends decided to try the boat for the first time,” he says. “My cousin and I came with them, but we soon fell asleep in the cabin.”

Max Ferruzzi (at the helm) and his crew on Il Moro di Venezia I during a regatta, 2018.  Courtesy of Max Ferruzzi

Come morning, instead of waking up in the harbor, they found themselves hundreds of miles away, sailing off the coast of Yugoslavia. “It became a 20-hour adventure—made more so because the captain, Angelo Vianello, had only stocked wine, no water,” Ferruzzi recalls. “There were no phones at that time, so my mother and aunt were worried sick. But we got home safely.”

Il Moro di Venezia I went on to win the 1977 Channel Race in the UK and the Miami-Nassau race the following year. In 1980, the brothers-in-law sold Il Moro di Venezia I after Il Moro di Venezia II was race-ready. That next-gen yacht soon began to win, too. “My uncle Raul always said never put too much passion into a boat, since a better one would always come along,” says Ferruzzi. “But my father was sentimental and felt like it was the family boat.” (Gardini later fell out with most of the clan and, amid a bribery investigation, died in 1993 in what was ruled a suicide.)

In all, Il Moro di Venezia had nine versions, each more modern and technical than the last, creating a legendary name in yacht racing. Angelo Vianello, whom Ferruzzi describes as a “naval genius,” was in charge of each one, up to the time of his death six years ago. The boats always used the most sophisticated materials available, constantly pushing the tech envelope for racing. One of the team’s legacies from the 1992 America’s Cup campaign was fast-tracking the growth of a number of suppliers, including B&G, Lewmar, Barient, Sparcraft, Navtec, and All Spars, which are now name brands in yachting.

In 1985, Arturo repurchased Il Moro di Venezia I and converted it into a cruiser. “He was done with racing,” says Ferruzzi. “It was too extreme for him.”

Ferruzzi himself had often crewed on the racing yachts but had never skippered one—that was a job, he thought, only for professional sailors. That attitude changed after Arturo gave him the vessel in 1996. Ferruzzi restored the boat to its former racing glory, with a new jib and rigging enhancements that made it even faster. In 2013, he began to compete in Maxi events and classic challenges, relying on 20 sailing friends as crew, rather than pros. Now at the helm, he loves the adrenaline surge of race starts, jockeying for position, reading the wind and figuring optimal strategies. “The situation’s always in flux, and you’re looking for solutions,” he says. “It’s intense and exciting, and I learn something new with every race.” While Max is the boat’s helmsman, longtime racing sailor Carlo Sessa is the captain who oversees every facet of the yacht. 

The first Il Moro di Venezia was the season champion of the Panerai Classic Yachts Challenge for the Mediterranean circuit in 2013, 2015 and 2018 and has won 14 other Maxi races. “My father told me we’ve won more now than when Il Moro di Venezia I first launched,” says Ferruzzi.

His 18-year-old daughter, Emma, also loves the boat, serving as crew during races and going on month-long cruises with her father and her friends during the summer. “I always want this boat to stay in the family,” says Max. “At some point we may build Il Moro di Venezia X, but at this point, the original Il Moro di Venezia is enough.”

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Rocky Wirtz leaves lasting legacy with Blackhawks

Blackhawks owner ROCKY WIRTZ , who “helped turn the Hawks into one of the great success stories in Chicago sports history,” passed away yesterday at 70 , according to Paul Sullivan of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Former Blackhawks broadcaster PAT FOLEY said that when Wirtz took over, “the Hawks were irrelevant in Chicago,” which “might be an understatement.” Wirtz “stood out as an owner who thought about the little people in the organization.” During the early days of the pandemic in 2020, he announced a plan to “pay about 1,200 of the arena’s workers for the remainder" of the NHL season. Wirtz was "accountable and friendly to Hawks fans" and "often sat in the seats behind one of the goals during home games, kibitzing with anyone who cared to talk." Foley: “Approachable is the perfect word. He was all of that. He was a very personable guy, had a good sense of humor. People knew where to find him” ( CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/25 ).

TURNING THINGS AROUND : The CHICAGO TRIBUNE noted Wirtz “took over the team after his father, BILL , died in September 2007," and he “wasted little time in remaking the Hawks on and off the ice.” Bill, known “derisively as ‘Dollar Bill’ for his penny-pinching ways,” did “not allow Hawks games to be broadcast on local television and attendance plummeted, resulting in the team having the second-lowest average ticket price in the league upon his death.” In 2004, the team was named “The Worst Franchise in Professional Sports.” But Rocky “changed the franchise’s image in a hurry.” Wirtz “lured JOHN MCDONOUGH away from the Cubs” to become president and CEO and “overhaul the Hawks’ marketing efforts to help increase attendance.” Wirtz also “reached out to several Hawks alumni who had been out of touch with the organization during Bill Wirtz’s tenure.” Wirtz and McDonough “immediately put Hawks games on local television,” and McDonough also “secured radio broadcasting rights” ( CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/25 ).

ERA OF WINNING : NBC SPORTS CHICAGO’s Taylor & Roumeliotis wrote shortly after Wirtz took over, the Blackhawks' popularity “exploded.” They became a “staple in outdoor games, and put together a dynastic run in the salary cap era by winning three Stanley Cups in six years.” During Wirtz's tenure as Chair, the Blackhawks made the postseason 10 times, won 17 rounds, reached five Conference Finals and won three Stanley Cups ( NBC SPORTS CHICAGO, 7/25 ).

REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES : In Chicago, John Dietz wrote “let's hope” Wirtz “isn't remembered solely for losing his cool and berating reporters at a town-hall meeting in February 2022.” He was “generous with his time and money,” with one example being his “dedication to the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation.” Wirtz “kept the community in mind when the organization decided to build” a $65M practice arena. So much "good came from Wirtz's 16 years as owner,” but “sadly, there was one big black eye -- and that was the KYLE BEACH  sexual abuse scandal that erupted in 2021 ” ( Chicago DAILY HERALD, 7/25 ).

POLITICAL BATTLES : In Chicago, Roeder, Spielman & Sneed notes former mayor RAHM EMANUEL “spent years at loggerheads" with Wirtz. Emanuel’s political battles with Wirtz “started with Emanuel’s 2015 refusal to extend an expiring United Center property tax break, killing plans” for a $95M “retail-and-entertainment complex in the shadows of the stadium.” After “forcing the Cubs to renovate Wrigley Field at their own expense with an influx of outfield-sign revenue,” Emanuel was “not about to extend the property tax break granted to the United Center at a time when the Bulls and Blackhawks were ‘pioneers’ on the Near West Side” ( CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7/26 ).

CHICAGO STAPLE : THE ATHLETIC’s Mark Lazerus wrote the Blackhawks are a “profitable and popular business because of Wirtz.” But they also are “one of the most reviled teams among fans outside Chicago.” Months of “incremental progress and smart management by” son DANNY WIRTZ and President JAIME FAULKNER  was “undone by a shocking display of callousness that made it all too easy to understand how a team under such a thumb could so cynically prioritize winning over the safety of its players.” Wirtz brought the Blackhawks “back from the dead and made millions of people happy.” That will "always be true," but it "just won’t be the full story” ( THE ATHLETIC, 7/25 ).

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Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz dies at 70

CHICAGO — Rocky Wirtz, who won three Stanley Cup titles as owner of the Chicago Blackhawks and presided over the team during one of the NHL’s biggest scandals, has died. He was 70.

The Blackhawks  said in a release  that Wirtz died on Tuesday, calling it a “sudden passing.” No further details were provided.

“Our hearts are very heavy today,” Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz, Rocky’s son, said on  Twitter . “Our dad was a passionate businessman committed to making Chicago a great place to live, work and visit, but his true love was for his family and close friends. ... His passing leaves a huge hole in the hearts of many and we will miss him terribly.”

Rocky Wirtz was 2 years old when his grandfather, Arthur Wirtz, purchased the Blackhawks in 1954. Rocky Wirtz took over the team after his father, William, died in September 2007.

William Wirtz was nicknamed “Dollar Bill” for his frugality when it came to acquiring the services of the game’s best players. And the team struggled, making only one playoff appearance from 1998-2008.

Everything changed when Rocky Wirtz became the team chairman. He helped re-establish the franchise’s connection to some of its best players from the past. He put the team’s games back on local TV, and the Blackhawks had a lengthy sellout streak that ended in 2021.

“The National Hockey League family is deeply saddened by the sudden passing of W. Rockwell ‘Rocky’ Wirtz,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a release. “Devoted to family and the Chicago Blackhawks, Rocky was a native son of Chicago and an accomplished businessman. Rocky took over control of the Blackhawks in 2007 and almost immediately restored the passion and following of this storied, Original Six franchise.”

With Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane leading the way, the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The team also made it to the 2014 Western Conference Final, losing to the Los Angeles Kings in seven games.

With the Blackhawks’ success on and off the ice, Wirtz became a beloved figure in his native Chicago. He also was lauded by the NHL for his leadership.

Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and baseball’s White Sox, called Wirtz a great man.

“We were far more than partners at the United Center. We were very close; he was a dear friend and our trust, our bond, was unbreakable,” Reinsdorf said in a release. “We never had a disagreement or argument during all of our many years together.

“Everyone liked Rocky. He was smart, passionate, generous, personable and friendly. He cared deeply about the Blackhawks, the people who worked for the team and at the United Center, Blackhawks fans and the city of Chicago.”

However, Wirtz’s tenure as owner was forever tarnished by the organization’s response when a player said he was sexually assaulted by an assistant coach during the team’s run to the 2010 Stanley Cup title.

A review by an outside law firm, commissioned by the team in response to two lawsuits and released in October 2021, found that the franchise badly mishandled  Kyle Beach ’s allegations that he was assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich.

The investigation by Jenner & Block found no evidence that either Rocky or Danny Wirtz was aware of the allegations before Beach’s lawsuit was brought to their attention ahead of its filing.

The Blackhawks reached a confidential settlement with Beach. Aldrich told investigators for the team’s report that his encounter with the player was consensual.

A second suit filed by a former high school student whom Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in Michigan was quietly dismissed “by stipulation or agreement.”

The NHL fined the Blackhawks $2 million for “the organization’s inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response,” and longtime general manager Stan Bowman resigned. Rocky Wirtz also successfully petitioned the Hockey Hall of Fame to have Aldrich’s name removed from the Stanley Cup.

At a town hall in February 2022, Wirtz angrily rejected any conversation connected to the franchise’s response to Beach’s allegations. Wirtz apologized for his remarks that same night.

The Associated Press

Bar inside United Center pays homage to former Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz

Rocky’s bar, where everything was done in memory of the former blackhawks owner, opens its doors to fans tuesday. the menu features classic cocktails like old fashioneds, manhattans and moscow mules and bar snacks such as black truffle fries, crispy prosciutto and mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastry..

Photos of Rocky Wirtz, former owner and chairman of the Blackhawks, line the wall at the Blackhawks at the newly unveiled Rocky’s Bar in honor of Rocky Wirtz at the United Center, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Rocky Wirtz’s favorite spot to watch Blackhawks games was in section 119 at the United Center.

Now, footsteps from Wirtz’s favorite spot, Rocky’s Bar opens to fans for the first time Tuesday, where everything from the food and drinks to the choice of music — a combination of jazz, Frank Sinatra and Fleetwood Mac — was done in memory of the former Blackhawks owner, who died in July after a brief illness .

The bar is located not far from a singular folding chair placed onto an enlarged hockey puck with a plaque that read “Rocky’s Seat” that was surrounded by red velvet rope in section 119.

Red velvet rope surrounds a singular folding chair in section 119 marking former Blackhawks owner and chairman Rocky Wirtz’s favorite spot to watch games.

Mohammad Samra/Sun-Times

Inside the bar, countless framed tributes to the former Blackhawks chairman and owner line the dark green walls as classics like Tony Bennett’s “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans” play in the background.

“We want everyone to be able to enjoy the warm, welcome and inclusive space that we’ve created,” said Mel Muoio, senior director of design strategy.

The menu will feature cocktails like Old Fashioneds, Manhattans and Moscow mules and bar snacks such as black truffle fries, crispy prosciutto and mini hot dogs wrapped in puff pastries with sweet and spicy mustard on the side.

The softness of the puff pastry and warmth of the beef mini hot dog pairs well with the initial acidic punch of the sweet and spicy mustard.

An array of plates with samplings of the food including (from left) mini hot dogs, rosemary roasted nuts, a cheese board, black truffle fries and crispy prosciutto and house potato chips at Rocky’s Bar on display Tuesday.

“We’re excited to open another new space in the building that pays homage to a great man and someone who’s very special to this organization,” Scott Perez, United Center executive chef, said.

Muoio said the bar’s design pays homage to Wirtz’s impact inside and out of the Blackhawks organization while also celebrating “classic Chicago,” right down to the bar’s Daltile Keystone penny tile in a diamond floor pattern.

“We really wanted to celebrate not just the Blackhawks but the entirety of his life,” Muoio said. “We also wanted to celebrate his impact in the beverage business, his impact in real estate and also his personal love and aspirations.”

Generational photos of Wirtz from when he was a baby to his days with the Blackhawks were hung in oval-shaped frames throughout the bar.

One picture of Wirtz was embroidered with a blue flower pattern to represent his love for gardening. Another showed Wirtz laughing with then-president Barack Obama when he and the Blackhawks visited the White House after the team won the Stanley Cup in 2010 for the first time in 49 years.

• Rocky’s road: Wirtz remembered as fans’ friend in the stands, fierce fighter in the boardroom

Wirtz took control of the Blackhawks in 2007 after the death of his father, Bill Wirtz, and the team won Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015 during his tenure as owner.

“We’ve been thinking about ways to honor his legacy, bring his spirit to life, and you know, no better way than to build out a space that brings people together, that allows for good times, good cheer and very much carries on in the spirit and legacy of my dad,” Blackhawks Chairman Danny Wirtz said.

The bar is set to open for tonight’s game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Contributing: Isabel Funk

Some of the classic cocktails offered at Rocky’s Bar include Old Fashioneds, Manhattans and Moscow mules.

Photos of Rocky Wirtz over the years line the wall at the newly unveiled Rocky’s Bar in honor of Rocky Wirtz at the United Center.

The bar’s design pays homage to Rocky Wirtz’s impact inside and out of the Blackhawks organization while also celebrating “classic Chicago,” Mel Muoio, senior director of design strategy, said.

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