Well, no, but Chicago should be celebrating just as much. Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz passed away early this morning.
The unkindly-named blog Kill Bill Wirtz has yet to update, maybe silently passing away as the former owner did, but the guys at Fanhouse already jumped on the story and have a ton of good links (man they wake up early over there) and even Deadspin spoke of it ...
While he did some wonderful things for hockey -- he was on the committee for the Miracle on Ice team (which wasn't as ignored as the movie Miracle implied) and he was the primary force behind the merger of the WHA into the NHL -- he basically drove one of the Original Six franchises into obscurity. Apparently he did a ton of work for charity and I know for a fact he was a great family man, but "Dollar Bill" will likely be remembered as a bitter, old man who refused to televise his team locally or pay to keep his top talent or to lure new talent to what had been a great hockey town.
Here is an interesting business profile of him ... but who cares? Hopefully his family will listen to the fans and turn the Hawks around and bring them back to the place of honour an Original Six franchise holds.
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