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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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A power in the NHL, Bill Wirtz dies at 77

William W. Wirtz was one of Chicago’s most successful businessmen but never saw the crown jewel of his family-owned empire, the Blackhawks, win hockey’s Stanley Cup after he and his family took full control of the franchise in the mid-1960s. Instead, he saw the team fall from perennial playoff contender to also-ran.

Wirtz, who anguished over losses on the ice as much as or more than he did losses at the box office, died early Wednesday morning. He was 77. The team announced he died at Evanston Hospital after a short battle with cancer.

Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976 as a builder, Wirtz was a persuasive voice in the National Hockey League boardroom for decades. As chairman of the NHL’s board of governors for 18 years, he had at least as much power as president John Ziegler or players’ association chief Alan Eagleson, both of whom were close friends.

While remaining a member of the league’s executive committee, he was less visible in league affairs after suffering a massive stroke in February 1995. Close to death for a few days, he fought back and made a nearly complete recovery, but he began to delegate day-to-day authority of his businesses to his sons.

Still, Wirtz never relinquished the final say on any matter, whether it concerned the Hawks, the family’s lucrative liquor distributorships or its vast real estate holdings.

Nor did he lose his penchant for speaking from the heart. In September 1999, Wirtz, incensed that Washington general manager George McPhee had sucker-punched Lorne Molleken, then the Hawks’ head coach, after a preseason game, jumped on the phone to reporters. He challenged McPhee and Capitals head coach Ron Wilson to a fight.

“I was an amateur boxer, and I’ve had a stroke,” Wirtz barked. “If either one of those gentlemen want to come in and go in a room and turn the light out. ... I’d be only too happy to see them.”

It was vintage Wirtz, chin out and fists clenched, confident in the belief that men should settle their differences as men and let the chips fall where they may, even at age 70.

“Bill Wirtz was a giant presence in a giant city, his beloved Chicago, and an even greater presence in the National Hockey League,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.“His 41 years as president of the Blackhawks and 18 years as Chairman of the Board leave an incomparable legacy of contributions to the game and to the League. His strength, intelligence, character and passion have been ingrained indelibly in the Blackhawks, in the League and in me. Bill was a true icon and a great competitor.”

Wirtz’s last appearance at a Blackhawks function was in June, at the signing of top draft choice Patrick Kane. He was jovial, posing with Kane’s family and believing his hockey team was about to rebound.

In business, Wirtz expected to get his way, going to extremes to shift the balance in his favor as often as possible. The most outlandish recent example came in 1999, when he convinced the state Legislature to pass a bill guaranteeing contract renewals between liquor makers and wholesale distributors, including Judge & Dolph, a major holding of the family-owned Wirtz Corp. It once controlled half the liquor contracts in Nevada, but suffered setbacks, and Wirtz didn’t want that duplicated in Illinois.

Wirtz had hired more than a dozen lobbyists, including former Gov. James Thompson, to strong-arm lawmakers to see his side of the issue. Distributors contributed about $700,000 to campaign chests while the bill was being considered.

The bill passed, and liquor prices went up soon after. The law was challenged early in 2000, and Gov. George Ryan withdrew his support shortly before it was declared unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court judge.

The scrap was the most public for a non-sports business Wirtz had seen in years. Most of the time, when he was in the news, it had been because of the family’s hockey team.

“The Wirtzes feel you pay to keep your name out of the paper, not in the paper,” he said during an extensive interview in 1991. “Some people, they own a restaurant or a coal company, they buy a club to get notoriety. We’re the old-fashioned kind of owner.”

As such, criticism didn’t bother him in the least.

“You’re fair game all the time,” Wirtz said. “Fans are not in the business of loving owners. We’re prepared to take criticism.”

It generally came in two areas: failing to spend enough to make the Hawks a winner, and barring telecasts of Hawks home games in an era when everything else was televised.

He certainly can be faulted on the latter charge. Like his father, Arthur, before him, Wirtz believed that home television was giving away the product. Only when network contracts forced a local broadcast or when special circumstances made it worthwhile, such as the final regular-season game at Chicago Stadium, did Wirtz allow Hawks home games on free or basic cable TV.

Otherwise, they were either not seen at all, or televised on a pay-TV basis, either via theater TV in the 1960s and 1970s or on pay-cable in recent years. Wirtz’s belief was in protecting the gate.

“It’s season reservations first, season reservations second, season reservations third,” Wirtz said more than once. “Never compromise your season reservations. They pay for everything.”

The other argument, that Wirtz pinched pennies, was incorrect. Once player salaries became public knowledge in the late 1980s, Wirtz spent more freely than his harshest critics believed, though he refused to participate in free agency to any great degree, and the team’s fortunes suffered as a result.

Beginning in 1994, the salaries were bankrolled in part by the team’s move into the United Center, an arena co-owned by his family and the Bulls’ ownership, led by Jerry Reinsdorf, even though Wirtz was the largest shareholder, with 18 percent of the team.

The new building replaced Chicago Stadium, something of a Wirtz family heirloom, only because Wirtz saw the skybox-driven future of professional sports in 1988, when the Palace of Auburn Hills opened near Detroit.

“It obsoletes every other arena,” Wirtz said of the Palace, considering the bottom line more than the sight lines.

The prospect of more revenue didn’t make it easy for Wirtz to see the Stadium go. He grew up in the building and didn’t want to come to the Feb. 3, 1995, ceremony that marked the beginning of the end of “the old barn.” He showed up only because CNN wanted an interview during the demolition. His stroke occurred within the month.

Born Oct. 4, 1929, Wirtz grew up the oldest son of Arthur M. Wirtz, a real estate and liquor tycoon who made much of his fortune by buying properties for pennies on the dollar during the Great Depression. That’s how Chicago Stadium, built in 1929 for $6 million, came into the hands of Wirtz and partner James Norris in 1935 for $300,000.

In 1950, Wirtz graduated from Brown University and joined the family business, which at that time included the International Boxing Club, in earnest. The Wirtz family was, with Norris, a power in the NHL already, including a minority interest in the Hawks that became controlling ownership in 1954.

Critics dubbed the NHL the Norris House League, and with reason. Over the years, they bought the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers, the buildings they played in, arenas in St. Louis, Minneapolis and Omaha, and held the mortgage on Boston Garden.

When the Hawks won the Stanley Cup in 1961, they did so by beating the co-owned Red Wings.

Only in 1966, when James Norris Jr. died, dissolving the partnership and giving the Wirtzes complete control in Chicago, did Bill Wirtz come into the public eye as president of the Hawks. Since then, the Hawks are 0-for-3 in the championship round, their most recent trip to the Stanley Cup Final coming in 1992.

“We think about that a lot,” Wirtz once said of the close calls. “We could have won three or four in the  ’60s, outside of ’61. We had dynamite clubs. One year, we had five of six first-team All-Stars. We might have had an attitude that we were a little better than what we were.”

In recent years, the team fell on hard times, missing the playoffs eight times in nine seasons across 10 years, the extra year the lockout of players by the owners in a to-the-death fight over control of revenue. A bottom-liner whose nickname of “Dollar Bill” was apt, Wirtz was in favor of the lockout from the start, noting before last season the team lost $19 million in 2003-04, the final season before the lockout; lost as much in 2005-06, when the NHL resumed play; and expected to lose at least $20 million in 2006-07.

“In spite of the last decade, he was upbeat and positive and caring, the same way he was when we were successful,” Hawks general manager Dale Tallon said. “He never changed, and that tells you what kind of a man he was. I loved him like a father.”

“He took a lot of heat here over the years,” said Denis Savard, a former Hawks star and now the team’s coach. “But people don’t know him like I do. He’s just a family guy, and he loves his players and loves the people that work for him.”

Wirtz quickly rose to power within the close-knit NHL. He was elected chairman of the league’s board of governors for nine two-year terms, the last seven served consecutively. Often, NHL meetings were held in Palm Beach, Fla., in the winter, and Wirtz would entertain his fellow owners on his massive yacht, the “Blackhawk.”

Wirtz’s 18 years covered the culmination of the battle with the upstart World Hockey Association, in which four WHA teams joined the NHL; and the 1980s, when the league was at low ebb in part because of a policy that turned its back on network TV.

Despite the lack of a Stanley Cup winner, Wirtz saw the Hawks fill the Stadium most of the time, except for a fallow period that extended from the mid-1970s until the arrival of Savard, a flashy center drafted in the summer of 1980. Savard’s arrival helped fill the void created by Bobby Hull’s jump to the WHA.

Wirtz, echoing his father, always argued that Hull could not be kept from going, because the WHA pooled money from its 12 teams to sign Hull to a million-dollar bonus. He always neglected to note that he or his father, who died in 1983, could have written a similar check personally.

The failure to keep Hull cost the Hawks dearly and contributed to skyrocketing salaries around the NHL, but Wirtz was always held in high regard by the league’s old guard. In 1978, two years after his Hall of Fame induction, he was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the United States.

Less well known was his charitable side. For years, Wirtz was active in the affairs of Maryville Academy, the state’s largest private residential facility for wayward and disadvantaged children. He was also personally supportive of the wheelchair sports program at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (named after Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz, his mother), and the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, which has held its state championships in his arenas since 1990. Additionally, Blackhawks Charities, which he started in 1993, has donated over $7.5 million to various causes.

“Bill Wirtz was a giant of a man whose passing leaves a tremendous void in Chicago,” Reinsdorf said in a statement Wednesday. “It was an honor to have been his partner for over 25 years. He was a person of great integrity, loyalty and generosity.”

“I think that was a great name, ‘Dollar Bill.’ But they forgot to put the 100,000 or million in front of it, because that’s what he gave out,” Hall of Famer Stan Mikita said. “I can honestly say from my experience, because of the hockey camp that I run, every year, I got a nice check from him.”

While the family’s extensive holdings also include real estate, including the 333 N. Michigan Ave. office building, a large number of apartment buildings on the north side, an equipment rental firm, a travel agency and two banks, not everything Wirtz touched turned to gold.

Despite its location in the heart of the Loop, the Bismarck Hotel lost money for years until Wirtz sold it to a group that remodeled it. Wirtz’s father shuttered the adjoining Bismarck Theatre in the 1960s, displeased by the movies Hollywood was producing, and Bill Wirtz kept the doors closed, save an occasional boxing event.

Likewise, the family sold the American Furniture Mart, a mammoth building on Lake Shore Drive, after losing a long battle with the Kennedy family’s Merchandise Mart for dominance in that realm. The Wirtz Corp.’s main offices remain in the building.

Wirtz is survived by his wife, Alice, five grown children, W. Rockwell, Gail, Karey, Peter and Alyson, and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Donnellan Family Funeral Home, 10045 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie. The funeral service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., Chicago. Interment will be at Ivanhoe Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Chicago Blackhawk Charities, 1901 W. Madison St., Chicago, IL 60612, or Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America Foundation, Inc., 805 15th St. NW, Suite 430, Washington, D.C. 20005.

Contributing: AP

The history behind the NHL’s ubiquitous sound…

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The history behind the NHL’s ubiquitous sound for scoring: the goal horn

He shoots! He scores!

Cue the goal horn.

Hockey is loaded with unique traditions like playoff beards and handshake lines and putting team logos on the locker room floor, where they are never, under any circumstances, to be tread upon.

But in the grab bag of hockey quirks, often overlooked is the ear-splitting goal horn that sounds after the home team puts the puck in the net.

In other sports there are celebrations, too. After touchdowns, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers blast a pirate ship cannon and after home runs, the Mets raise their iconic apple. But the NHL is unique in that there is a uniform celebration that carries across all 30 teams in the league after goals. That celebration begins with the sounding of some type or horn or siren.

Goal horns, if you’re looking, are everywhere. And they matter to hockey fans.

The phenomenon and infatuation with NHL goal horns has inspired hopeful mashups like this one, which imagines a glorious world in which MLB homers are celebrated with a goal horn. There are websites like WeJustScored.com that let you play the goal horn of your choice. There are goal horn rankings , goal horn profiles , or if you’re just looking for 15 straight minutes of the NHL’s 30 goal horns and celebration songs, the Internet has that, too.

The Islanders realized how much goal horns matter last year when Barclays Center, after working with the MTA, came up with a new horn for the team’s new home in Brooklyn. It was not well received.

After getting an earful from fans, Barclays went back to the familiar horn that sounded for Islander goals like the Shawn Bates penalty shot in 2001. It was the same horn that sounded when John Tavares won Game 6 in double-overtime Sunday night to advance the Isles to the second round for the first time since 1993. But even that fan-favorite sound has taken years to evolve.

In 1978 when Bobby Nystrom scored in overtime against Toronto, the horn was actually a siren.

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And keeping with the Gorton’s fisherman theme of the Fish Sticks years, the Isles sounded a fog horn after goals.

The Islanders and hockey fans everywhere can thank the Chicago Blackhawks for pioneering the now-ubiquitous trend during the 1973 Stanley Cup Final against Montreal. Hawks owner Bill Wirtz liked the sound of the horn on his yacht and had it installed at Chicago Stadium.

“(He) decided it would be a great thing to have in his arena,” Erick Kahlenberg, vice president of Kahlenberg Industries told the Daily News.

Kahlenberg’s uncle Karl sold Wirtz the yacht horn and now the company supplies more than a dozen NHL teams with their own goal horns, which are the same devices you find on boats, trains, trucks and in one case, an aircraft carrier. When the Blackhawks moved from Chicago Stadium to the United Center in 1994, they took the goal horn with them. By then, goal horns had become a staple of NHL games around the league.

According to the Society of International Hockey Research, goal horns were used in Chicago for nearly a decade before the Minnesota North Stars started using one during the conference finals in 1984. The Buffalo Memorial Auditorium foghorn was installed in 1987. By 1992, the sound of a foghorn replaced playing “When the Saints Come Marching In” to improve the atmosphere and rattle opponents at St. Louis Blues games.

“It’s one of those things that, like the national anthems, seems to have just been introduced and become ubiquitous and no one really paid much attention to it,” said past SIHR secretary Lloyd Davis.

A LOOK AT THE TOP NHL GOALIE FIGHTS

Depending on the model, goal horns cost between $700 and $2,000. The horn the Islanders sound at Barclays Center is the Kahlenberg T-3A Arena Air Horn , a three-horn device that is also used on marine vessels. Each of the three horns delivers a different tone, which come together to give the Islanders their unique sound.

“There are no louder horns on earth used in any sort of commercial service,” Kahlenberg said. “Their placement within the building is fairly specific, in order to prevent excessive sound levels at any of the fan locations or on the ice.”

Kahlenberg said the sound of a goal horn is determined by the shape of the horn, which is why every NHL team seems to have a different horn. The longer they are, the lower in tone they are. As an example, the San Jose Sharks’ horn produces a different sound than the one used by the Dallas Stars .

No matter the tone they produce, the horns’ blast is ear-shattering.

“Every team wants their own signature sound, and that did get more difficult as more teams started using them over the years,” Kahlenberg said. “Most of these horns operate on air pressure between 100 and 200 psi, or pounds per square inch, of compressed air, supplied to them by air compressors.”

While each NHL team looks for a unique and very big sound for their goal horn, some teams look to incorporate a special meaning in their horns.

The Winnipeg Jets’ horn dates back to their “Jets 1.0 days at the old Winnipeg Arena,” according to the team. Their horn is the same used on Canadian Pacific Railways trains. The Edmonton Oilers have been using a large-truck air horn since 2000 as a shout-out to Edmonton being a transportation hub and the role trucking plays in the local oil industry. During the Oilers’ 2006 Stanley Cup playoff run, fans were so loud the team added extra horns to the system so it could be heard above the crowd noise.

The Ottawa Senators use a train horn from Via Rail, Canada’s rail service line. The Los Angeles Kings have used a train horn for the last decade “as a means to try and have something that was loud and that no one was using at the time,” according to the team.

The Vancouver Canucks’ horn is the same one used on local BC Ferries. The boats are a main form of transportation for locals and commuters.

The Minnesota Wild use a four-trumpet air horn at Xcel Energy Center provided by Daktronics that’s consistent with the arena’s lighthouse theme. The Toronto Maple Leafs use the same kind of horn that’s found on Canadian Navy ships.

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The soundtrack of sports is made up of many familiar tones and auditory effects, but nothing is as distinctive and ubiquitous as the sound of a goal being scored in hockey. Compared to other unique pieces of hockey culture like playoff beards and lids on the ice after a hat trick, goal horns are often overlooked.

But while they may be overshadowed by other quirks of the sport, goal horns will never go unnoticed.

“The Colorado Avalanche use an electric piston horn,” Kahlenberg said. “This is pretty serious stuff. You would find the same model horn on an aircraft carrier, and you can hear it from more than seven miles away in open air.”

Fixed inside a closed building, that’s a powerful sound. And in hockey lore, it’s a sound that’s lingered for more than 40 years.

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Chicago Blackhawks | Column: Rocky Wirtz’s hostility — and…

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Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago blackhawks | column: rocky wirtz’s hostility — and refusal to answer questions about the 2010 scandal — shows the chicago blackhawks chairman is a chip off the old block.

Jose More / Chicago Tribune

Mike Keenan is announced as the new general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks. Owner Bill Wirtz, left, and other Wirtz family members, Michael and Rocky sit during the press conference on June 5, 1990. Former GM, Tommy Ivan sits at far right.

Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune

Bobby Hull, left, faces off with Cicero president Larry Dominick as Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz drops the puck during the dedication of Cicero's new Bobby Hull Community Ice Rink at Cicero Community Park on 34th and Laramie. The rink was built as part of a deal between Cicero and the Wirtz family who built a distribution center for their liquor business nearby.

Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune

Blackhawks team president Rocky Wirtz has a big smile after watching promotional video of commercials began airing on Nov. 5, 2007. At the news conference, the Chicago Blackhawks and Comcast SportsNet announced a seven game home broadcast schedule for 2007-08 season.

Charles Cherney / Chicago Tribune

Fans stand in line to chat and get an autograph from Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz in the hallways of the United Center before a game on March 19, 2008, in Chicago.

E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz welcomes forward Kirby Dach, the Chicago Blackhawks third overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, to Chicago, June 24, 2019.

Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune

Mayor Richard M. Daley gets a hockey jersey from Blackhawks President Rocky Wirtz after a visit to Wrigley Field to check out the set-up for the Bridgestone NHL Classic to be played on New Years Day between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 22, 2008.

Rocky Wirtz greets fans and signs autographs near the Blackhawks bench before the game on March 19, 2008.

Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune

Blackhawks forward Kyle Beach, right, sits on the bench on Sept. 12, 2013, at Notre Dame's Compton Family Ice Arena in South Bend, Ind.

John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz watches a video recap during the Blackhawks Convention at the Chicago Hilton on July 27, 2018.

Blackhawks first-round draft pick Kyle Beach skates during the second day of rookie camp on July 8, 2008, in Bensenville.

Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, left, and Chicago Blackhawks President and CEO John McDonough have a laugh during the opening ceremony at the annual Blackhawks Convention at the Hilton Chicago on July 26, 2019.

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz during their Stanley Cup victory rally on Thursday, June 18, 2015, at Soldier Field.

Scott Strazzante/Chicago Tribune

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz smiles as John McDonough is named Chicago Blackhawks' President by Wirtz at the United Center in Chicago on Nov. 20, 2007.

Michael Noble Jr., Chicago Tribune

Winnetka fire Chief Alan Berkowsky, from left, Winnetka police Chief Patrick Kreis and Rocky Wirtz at a Winnetka fire station with the Stanley Cup on Aug. 9, 2015.

Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz joined other owners of the six Chicago professional sports teams at a luncheon at the Marriott Hotel on Michigan Avenue on Oct. 16, 2014.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have a laugh with Blackhawks President and CEO John McDonough and Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz after a press conference announcing their new contracts.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, from left, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz and Blackhawks team President John McDonough gather at the United Center on Feb. 11, 2016, to announce that the 2017 NHL draft will take place in Chicago.

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz hoists the Stanley Cup during the Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Victory Rally at Wacker and Michigan on June 11, 2010.

Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz hoists the Stanley Cup during the victory rally on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago.

Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune

Rocky Wirtz and other Blackhawks upper management ride with the Stanley Cup near the front of the victory parade moving south on Columbus Drive.

Rocky Wirtz and Rahm Emanuel during the Chicago Blackhawks championship rally, June 18, 2015, at Soldier Field.

Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz, second from right, poses for a picture with fans during a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets at the United Center on March 31, 2017.

Courtney Pedroza / Chicago Tribune

Rocky Wirtz, chairman of the Chicago Blackhawks, poses for a portrait in the Blackhawks Store on July 16, 2018.

Rocky Wirtz, center, talks with Winnetka firefigthers during his day with the Cup at the Winnetka fire station Aug. 9, 2015.

José M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz, right, and Chicago Bears Chairman George H. McCaskey participate in a discussion at the Chicago Sports Alliance luncheon held at MB Ice Arena in Chicago on Nov. 16, 2018. The Chicago Sports Alliance hosted a gathering of local civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders for a conversation about some of the innovative programs in Chicago that are addressing the issue of violence.

Charles Cherney, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz chats with 2006 first-round pick Jonathan Toews.

Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, left, and John McDonough, right, hold a Blackhawks sweater as McDonough is named Chicago Blackhawks President by Wirtz at the United Center on Nov. 20, 2007.

Chuck Myers / McClatchy-Tribune

Capitals right wing Tom Wilson, right and Blackhawks center Kyle Beach fight as a linesman watches in the second period of a preseason game on Sept. 20, 2013, at the Verizon Center in Washington.

The Stanley Cup gets a ride in the back seat to the Winnetka fire station during Rocky Wirtz's day with the trophy Aug. 9, 2015.

Rocky Wirtz holds the Stanley Cup after the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers' in Game 6 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on June 9, 2010.

Blackhawks first-round draft pick Kyle Beach, right, battles rookie Shawn Lalonde during a scrimmage on the second day of rookie camp on July 8, 2021, in Bensenville.

Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune

Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Rocky Wirtz in his Chicago office on Jan. 10, 2017.

When former Tribune columnist Bob Verdi in 1972 tagged Chicago Blackhawks Chairman Bill Wirtz with the nickname “Dollar Bill,” a legend was born.

All the philanthropic endeavors in the world couldn’t help Wirtz escape his reputation as a cheapskate owner of a beloved team. When Verdi suggested in 2007 that the Hawks stage an outdoor game, he sarcastically noted: “If it’s really freezing, think of all the booze Dollar Bill will sell. Then, he could spring an outdoor surprise on his fans. Pay toilets!!”

Hawks fans never warmed up to the old man, who refused to televise home games and even neglected to televise those games in high-definition early on, preferring the standard view even after the Cubs, White Sox and Bulls had switched to high-def.

“For 30 years, people ask the same question,” Wirtz said in 2005 about the team’s stance on televising home games. “Everyone has their own point of view and we have ours.”

Dollar Bill was instrumental in the NHL lockout that canceled the 2004-05 season and, along with longtime general manager Bob Pulford, was seen as an impediment to the team’s chances of winning a Stanley Cup. But Hawks fans could do nothing about it, so they suffered year after year.

But when Wirtz died in 2007 and son Rocky took over, it was almost like the moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when the film abruptly switches from black and white to color. A new day had dawned for the Blackhawks, and Rocky finally had an opportunity to right the wrongs made by his father and grandfather, Arthur Wirtz, who blacked out the home games so season ticket holders wouldn’t be paying for a product others could watch for free.

The first major move Rocky Wirtz made was to put some home games on Comcast SportsNet in 2007, opening the door for a full slate thereafter. He followed by hiring John McDonough from the Cubs to run the team as president and reassigned Pulford to a non-hockey position. McDonough persuaded Hawks greats Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita to rejoin the organization, ending an estrangement that had lasted for decades.

“It means after all the sweat and blood and operations we’ve put in for the Indian head, you’re welcomed back in the fold, no longer ostracized the way we have been for the last 28 years,” Mikita said. “We weren’t really wanted there, according to some people.”

Capping off the renaissance, the Hawks in 2008 brought back former play-by-play man Pat Foley two years after he was fired for an alleged “lack of loyalty.”

Everything was falling into place, and when the Hawks ended their Stanley Cup drought in 2010, fans feted Wirtz for changing the perception of an organization that had been stuck in a time warp since his grandfather ran the team.

But all the goodwill Wirtz built up ended in 2021 with the revelation that former Hawks player Kyle Beach alleged he was sexually abused by a video coach in 2010 and that management had hushed it up. The Blackhawks initially denied Beach’s claims had “merit” but eventually apologized and settled with Beach after an independent investigation concluded the team mishandled the situation .

It was then up to Wirtz to convince Hawks fans that lessons were learned and changes would be made.

The team last week announced a town hall meeting at the United Center in which Wirtz would be available to answer questions publicly for the first time since the independent investigation by law firm Jenner & Block was released.

The results proved disastrous .

“Ranting Rocky” went on a tirade after The Athletic reporter Mark Lazerus asked a question relating to the incident, telling Lazerus the team’s response to the Beach incident was “none of your business.” Wirtz further embarrassed himself when Tribune reporter Phil Thompson tried again to get an answer, launching into another tirade.

The rant was “Elia-esque,” as we say in the press box in reference to the famous 1983 tirade by former Cubs manager Lee Elia, though without the profanities. Though Wirtz issued a written apology a couple of hours later, it was deemed by most as damage control.

Too little and too late.

So what now?

The easy way out for Wirtz would be to step down as chairman and hand it over to son Danny Wirtz, the current CEO. At the very least, Danny Wirtz seems more even-tempered and understanding of the need for the Hawks to be transparent after the Beach incident.

Rocky could go down to Florida and relax on the family’s 123-foot yacht, Blackhawk, while studying the spread sheets of CannTrust, a Canadian marijuana producer his company invested $9.2 million in .

But that seems unlikely. Handing over the Hawks after the town hall tirade would give the impression Wirtz is capitulating to fans and the media. He still is his father’s son and apparently inherited a stubborn streak that was part of Dollar Bill’s DNA.

Rocky likely will fade into the background again, maintaining control while declining to speak publicly and letting Danny and president of business operations Jaime Faulkner serve as the voices of the organization.

It’s the prudent move, considering how much criticism he has received over the last 24 hours. Even Wayne Gretzky criticized Wirtz for refusing to answer questions , saying on TNT on Wednesday that any parent whose child was about to be drafted by the Hawks would have concerns that needed to be addressed.

“I want to know my 18-year-old son is going to be protected,” Gretzky said.

You can’t change what happened Wednesday night. But you can change the way you talk to people — even those you disagree with.

If Rocky Wirtz wants to regain the respect of the fans and media, it’s on him to prove that transparency is not a word to throw around whenever it’s convenient for the organization. The incident can’t be buried just because you don’t care to discuss it.

Until that happens, Ranting Rocky simply will be following in the footsteps of Dollar Bill.

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Blackhawks principal owner, chairperson Rocky Wirtz, dies at 70

Wirtz became an owner in the hawks in 2007 after the passing of his father, bill wirtz.

CHICAGO (WIFR) - Blackhawks principal owner and three-time Stanley Cup Champion Rocky Wirtz has died at the age of 70.

Wirtz became a part of the Hawks ownership group back in 2007 after inheriting ownership from his father, Bill Wirtz. The Wirtz name and the history of the Blackhawks are intertwined when Rocky’s grandfather, Arthur Wirtz, bought a stake in the team in 1950.

The team’s fifth principal owner saw numerous changes over his 15-year tenure in Chicago. Soon after taking over in 2007, Wirtz overturned his late father’s views on televising rights in Chicago as Wirtz negotiated a deal to televise all home games.

Along with the change in tv, he oversaw the rise in popularity of the team as they went on to win three Stanley Cup titles in 2010, 2013, and 2015.

Wirtz’s time wasn’t without controversy though. In 2021, former prospect Kyle Beach alleged he was sexually assaulted by the team’s video coach at the time. While Wirtz was not aware of the allegations at the time, the NHL would fine the Blackhawks $2 million for “inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response”.

“Our hearts are very heavy today,” Rocky Wirtz’s son and Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said, “Our dad was a passionate businessman committed to making Chicago a great place to live, work and visit, but his true love for his family and close friends. He was a loving father, a devoted husband to Marilyn, a brother, a nephew, an uncle and a doting grandfather to his six remarkable grandchildren. His passing leaves a huge hole in the hearts of many and we will miss him terribly.”

A cause of death has not been revealed at this time.

Copyright 2023 WIFR. All rights reserved.

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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

Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz dies at 70

Rocky Wirtz, the Blackhawks owner who lifted the franchise to its greatest heights and then presided over its lowest low, has died at the age of 70, the team announced Tuesday.

“Our hearts are very heavy today,” Wirtz’s son and Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said in a statement. “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.

“He was a loving father, a devoted husband to Marilyn, a brother, a nephew, an uncle and a doting grandfather to his six remarkable grandchildren. His passing leaves a huge hole in the hearts of many and we will miss him terribly.”

We are deeply saddened to join the Wirtz Family in mourning the sudden passing of our Chairman W. Rockwell “Rocky” Wirtz today at the age of 70. pic.twitter.com/WA58pXWl9M — Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) July 26, 2023

After inheriting the team upon the death of his father, Bill, in 2007, Rocky Wirtz almost immediately transformed the sad-sack, penny-pinching afterthought franchise into a championship powerhouse, the gold standard in both the city of Chicago and the NHL as a whole. Wirtz’s ascendance came just as Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews arrived on the scene, and Wirtz poured money into the team, hired president John McDonough, put home games on local television (a longtime sticking point with Bill Wirtz), re-established relations with alienated alumni and was lionized for his efforts. He often sat among the fans during games, shaking hands and receiving plaudits for resurrecting the moribund franchise.

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But the revelations over the past two years, that the Blackhawks failed to act on the alleged sexual assault of prospect Kyle Beach by video coach Brad Aldrich in May 2010, during the Blackhawks’ run to their first Stanley Cup championship in 49 years, cast a pall on all those giddy memories. The last time Wirtz faced questions from reporters, he berated two of them for daring to bring up Beach. Wirtz, who had been a very public figure as the owner of the Blackhawks and a prominent Chicago businessman, retreated from public life, only making a couple of appearances during scripted, tightly run team events.

For nearly 15 years before that, however, Wirtz had developed a sterling reputation as the ideal sports owner — he had deep pockets, and he wasn’t shy about using them.

Lazerus: Wirtz's legacy framed by Blackhawks' highest, lowest moments

When he took over principal ownership from his father, the front office was threadbare and players were shoving their equipment into trash bags at the end of the season, because the team was too cheap to buy them team-branded hockey bags. After lobbying McDonough to leave the Cubs for the Blackhawks, he gave McDonough carte blanche to remake the team. Money was poured into staffing, equipment, nutrition, team facilities and travel. The Blackhawks quickly became known among players as a destination franchise, because of the five-star amenities and the up-and-coming roster. It took just three years for the Blackhawks to become champions, and they’d win the Stanley Cup twice more in 2013 and 2015.

“Rocky’s focus on connecting with the club’s fans and improving the team’s performance on the ice rekindled Chicago fans’ love affair with their hockey team and built a modern dynasty — the Blackhawks won Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement. “On a personal level, Rocky was a dear friend whose counsel I consistently sought. He was a highly respected member of the Executive Committee of the League’s Board of Governors whose wisdom and camaraderie were valued by his fellow owners.

“The NHL sends its sincere condolences to Rocky’s wife, Marilyn; his children, Danny, Kendall and Hillary; Marilyn’s daughter, Elizabeth; and their six grandchildren. He will be missed terribly.”

pic.twitter.com/MG0XwDUMaQ — Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) July 26, 2023

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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Mark Lazerus is a senior NHL writer for The Athletic based out of Chicago. He has covered the Blackhawks for 11 seasons for The Athletic and the Chicago Sun-Times after covering Notre Dame’s run to the BCS championship game in 2012-13. Before that, he was the sports editor of the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana. Follow Mark on Twitter @ MarkLazerus

'A great man': Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz dies at age 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, and it said it was a “sudden passing.” But no further details were provided.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a release that the league was “deeply saddened” by Wirtz's death.

“Devoted to family and the Chicago Blackhawks, Rocky was a native son of Chicago and an accomplished businessman," Bettman said. “Rocky took over control of the Blackhawks in 2007 and almost immediately restored the passion and following of this storied, Original Six franchise.”

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 while playing in front of small crowds in its early years at the United Center, 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 fans returned to the United Center during a lengthy sellout streak that ended in 2021.

With Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane leading the way on the ice, the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Chicago Bulls, White Sox's send condolences

Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and MLB's Chicago White Sox, said he's "personally devastated" over the "shocking news" of Wirtz's death in a statement released Tuesday evening.

"Rocky truly was a great man. We were far more than partners at the United Center," Reinsdorf said. "We were very close; he was a dear friend and our trust, our bond, was unbreakable. We never had a disagreement or argument during all out many years together."

Reinsdorf continued: "His passing came far too soon as he had so very much to live for."

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Chicago blackhawks owner rocky wirtz dies at age 70.

• Associated Press

Feb 11, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz during a press conference to announce that Chicago will host the 2017 NHL Draft at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

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.

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Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago blackhawks owner rocky wirtz dies at age 70 after short illness.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Chicago Blackhawks owner W. Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz has died at age 70, the team confirmed Tuesday evening.

Wirtz died at NorthShore Evanston Hospital after a brief illness, according to a statement released by the Blackhawks. His wife Marilyn and his four children were with him at the time. He is also survived by six grandchildren.

"Our hearts are very heavy today," said son Danny Wirtz. "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. He was a loving father, a devoted husband to Marilyn, a brother, a nephew, an uncle and a doting grandfather to his six remarkable grandchildren. His passing leaves a huge hole in the hearts of many and we will miss him terribly."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman released a statement on Wirtz's passing, saying in part, "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 the storied, Original Six, franchise...The NHL sends its sincere condolences to Rocky's wife Marilyn, his children Danny, Kendall and Hillary, Marilyn's daughter Elizabeth, and their six grandchildren. He will be missed terribly."

"Rocky Wirtz was a champion in every sense of the word - in family, in business, in sports ownership, and most important, in life," said Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in a statement. "From his stalwart leadership of the Wirtz Corporation and multitude of corporate ventures, to the Blackhawks' miracle run of three Stanley Cup champions in six seasons, he exemplified class and excellence at every turn."

Wirtz's grandfather, Arthur Wirtz, purchased the Blackhawks in 1954, when Wirtz was just two years old. 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 while playing in front of small crowds in its early years at the United Center, making only one playoff appearance from 1998-2008.

Wirtz rebuilt the Blackhawks and oversaw their three Stanley Cup championships. 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 an epic seven-game series.

At the Billy Goat Tavern on Madison, where photos of Blackhawks legends grace the walls, fans learned the news.

"He got a legacy. He got a big legacy. He won three championships, and he brought excitement back to the fans of Chicago," said Rodney Fox, fan.

"I definitely think of the Stanley Cups that we've won and all of the spirit and positivity that it's brought to the city," said fan Tara Walsh.

Wirtz reinvigorated a franchise that, in some sense, had lost its way.

"You had the most iconic players in team history all estranged from the franchise, from the late Tony Esposito to Bobby Hull, and when Rocky took over," said David Kaplan, co-host of "Kap and J Hood" on ESPN 1000. "It was an overnight change from doormat of the NHL to the model franchise."

"He changed everything. The Blackhawks were on TV. They, for better or worse, he basically gutted the interior of the workings of the Blackhawks," said Rick Telander, Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist.

"When Rocky took over, there were probably about 5,000 people showing up to the Blackhawk games. And since he took over the Blackhawks, he brought Chicago three Stanley Cups," said Steve Demitro, community hockey organizer.

He also oversaw the Wirtz Corporation family holdings, the team said, and oversaw the multimillion dollar United Center campus expansion and development of Fifth Third Arena on the West Side.

Wirtz's tenure was not without controversy. Last year, he apologized for comments related to the team's handling of sexual misconduct allegations. But fans say that controversy does not overshadow a brilliant career.

"He brought the Hawks back into our living rooms and introduced the Blackhawks to a lot of new fans," said Shane Carnithan, fan.

White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf released a statement, saying in part, "This is just shocking news, and I am personally devastated. Rocky truly was 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."

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker released a statement, saying in part, "Rocky epitomized what it means to be an Illinoisan -- always ready to lend a hand to a stranger. His absence leaves a gaping hole in our state and nation, but Rocky's extraordinary legacy will carry on in thousands of lives that he touched and the hundreds of thousands of fans whose hopes he helped fulfill."

He also ran the family's beverage business since 1980, and developed properties along Chicago's lakefront and in the suburbs. He was also a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, board chair of the Field Museum, and a trustee at Northwestern University where he earned his degree in 1975.

The team said he will be remembered for his sharp wit, enduring loyalty and humility, the Blackhawks said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Chicago Blackhawks Owner Rocky Wirtz Dies After Short Illness

Wirtz, who took over ownership of the team in 2007, was 70 at the time of his death which came after a short illness..

Jeff Arnold , Patch Staff

CHICAGO — Rocky Wirtz, the principal owner of the Chicago Blackhawks who propelled the franchise into a three-time Stanley Cup winner over a six-year span, died on Tuesday after a short illness. He was 70.

Wirtz, who took over ownership of the Hawks from his father in 2007, died suddenly but was surrounded by his family at NorthShore Evanston Hospital when he passed away. The Blackhawks confirmed the Hawks chairman’s death shortly after 7 p.m. after reports about Wirtz's death began to surface earlier in the evening.

"Our hearts are very heavy today,” Rocky's son, Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said in a statement issued by the family. "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.

Find out what's happening in Chicago with free, real-time updates from Patch.

“He was a loving father, a devoted husband to Marilyn, a brother, a nephew, an uncle, and a doting grandfather to his six remarkable grandchildren. His passing leaves a huge hole in the hearts of many and we will miss him terribly."

However, while Wirtz will be remembered for ushering in championship seasons that began in 2010 after the team added young stars in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and veteran leaders such as Marian Hossa, Wirtz’s legacy of team ownership will also be tainted following his death. The team’s cover-up of the alleged sexual assault of a young prospect, Kyle Beach at the hands of a team video coach, sullied the team’s image under Wirtz’s watch.

An independent review of the cover-up led the team general manager Stan Bowman to resign while other team officials who were part of the organization when the alleged sexual assault took place were fired. Coach Joel Quenneville, who was fired by the Hawks and landed a coaching job with the Florida Panthers, resigned from coaching as part of the scandal's fallout.

The investigation determined that no one in the ownership group, including Wirtz, knew anything about the cover-up. Also named in the cover-up was former team President John McDonough, whom Wirtz had fired at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wirtz said that he did not know of the allegations — which were first made by Beach against Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup run —until Beach, who was identified in the investigation as John Doe, filed a lawsuit against the team in 2021.

Wirtz said at the time of the release of the report by Jenner and Block that had he known about the allegations at the time they were made, "we certainly wouldn't be standing here today."

Wirtz bristled at reporters who continued to ask about the 103-page report that came out of the independent investigation as Danny Wirtz and other team officials pledged more accountability moving forward. When reporters continued to ask about the details of the investigation, Wirtz said, “We’re not here to talk about the past” and said that everyone involved in the cover-up was no longer with the organization.

Wirtz became the fifth principal owner of the Hawks after the death of his father, Bill. The team had been in the Wirtz family since 1954, when Wirtz’s grandfather Arthur, purchased the team.

Wirtz also served as President of Wirtz Corporation since 2007, where his role extended to a vast array of businesses from sports and beverage distribution to entertainment, real estate, agriculture, and banking. He also served as co-chairman of both the United Center Joint Venture and the Executive Committee of the United Center.

Following the team’s announcement of Wirtz’s death, executives from the Chicago Bears, Cubs, White Sox, and Bulls all sent condolences, praising Wirtz for his efforts in building a championship franchise with the Blackhawks.

Jerry Reinsdorf, the chairman of the Sox and Bulls, said in a statement that he personally devastated by the “shocking news.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson issued a statement, referring to Wirtz as a “champion in every sense of the word.”

“Rocky almost immediately restored the passion and following of this storied Original Six franchise,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement Tuesday. “Rocky’s focus on connecting with the club’s fans and improving the team’s performance on the ice rekindled Chicago fans’ love affair with their hockey team and built a modern dynasty.

Wirtz is survived by his wife Marilyn; his children, Danny Wirtz, Kendall Murphy, and Hillary Wirtz, and Elizabeth Queen and their six grandchildren.

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Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia’s capital

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such  option  offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!”  wrote  (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as  this   offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This  website  (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other  website  sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center:  Hotel Ukraine  and  Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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Mayor Lambert Appoints Bill Belknap

Under the direction of the Mayor, the City Supervisor has responsibilities to plan, organize, coordinate and administer the functions and activities of city government and assuring implementation of City Council-established goals and objectives.

Belknap currently serves as Moscow Deputy City Supervisor, Community Planning & Design, and is responsible for administration of land use management, building construction, engineering services and capital construction, and grant and economic development programs for the City. Since 2015, he has also served as the Executive Director of the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency.

Belknap is a graduate of Moscow High School and the University of Idaho and has over 20 years of experience in local, county and state government. Prior to being appointed to the position of Deputy City Supervisor in 2019, Belknap’s professional career included service as Assistant City Supervisor, Community Development Director, and Assistant Community Development Director for the City of Moscow; Associate Planner for Latah County; and Water Quality Analyst with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Belknap has also served on the governing boards of the Idaho City Management Association, Idaho Chapter of the American Planning Association, and the Redevelopment Association of Idaho.

“Bill Belknap is in a unique position to serve as Moscow’s next City Supervisor”, said Lambert. “He has held several key administrative positions for our City and the Moscow Urban Renewal Agency, and has done an excellent job in each. His nearly 20 years of experience will be invaluable to our community. Bill has worked directly with Gary since his second year with the City, and he is very familiar with the demands and expectations of the position. I have every confidence that he will do a fine job as our next City Supervisor.”

Lambert will forward Belknap’s name to the Moscow City Council for confirmation at its July 19 meeting. If confirmed, Belknap will take the position on January 7, 2022 and will be Moscow’s third City Supervisor since the position was created by the City Council in 1977. William A. Smith was City Supervisor for 18 years, and Riedner has served in the position for 27 years.

Moscow Fire Chief Declares Severe Fire Threat and Bans All Fireworks

Executive summary: economic contributions of vandal athletics, change location, find awesome listings near you.