Blackhawks' Exec Pursues the Best of Both Worlds

Yeah, it's the same guy.

The friendly fella with the hint of a downstate Illinois twang seen coaching his sons’ youth baseball games around Wilmette is the same man who oversees the business and marketing operations of the Chicago Blackhawks.

Earlier:

Jay Blunk, now the executive vice president of business operations for the Blackhawks, takes pride in having the best of both worlds. After 21 years of all-consuming work for the Cubs, where he worked his way up from a media relations intern in 1986 to marketing department mainstay, he finally shares part of the summer with his family.

“I still coach baseball,” said Blunk, a 13-year Wilmette resident. “One advantage is when you overlay the baseball season and the hockey season, there are some openings in the summer that weren’t there before. I take advantage of that with my kids."

"I give my wife (Marci) a lot of credit. She puts a lot of miles on the mini-van taking those kids around Wilmette and the North Shore."

A Busy Blunk family

Blunk is assistant baseball coach for youngest son Cameron, 8, a third-grader who is now dabbling in hockey as winter beckons. Oldest son Brandon, a sophomore, is one of the captains on the school’s junior-varsity hockey team.

Taking on a position with the Blackhawks in 2008 was a welcomed change in the Blunk household.

“I was fortunate when I had to sit down with my oldest to say we were making this change (from the Cubs to the Hawks), he was a hockey player already,” Blunk said.

And while all the kids enjoyed their first sports memories at Wrigley Field, they've adapted to the new routines of hockey. Today Jay Blunk has comparative lightning at his fingertips as the Hawks have parlayed their post-Stanley Cup popularity into the mainstream of Chicago sports.

Hawks owner Rocky Wirtz won the fans over even before the 2010 championship by lifting his late father Bill’s longtime TV blackout of home games and boosting both the hockey and business operations. Wirtz named John McDonough team president and CEO in 2007, persuading him to move over from the same job with the Cubs and take Blunk along.

Reviving the Blackhawks Fans

"Hockey went away for a certain period of time professionally in the city. Hockey is certainly gaining ground by leaps and bounds, on the youth-hockey level, on the young-adult 20-to-30 level," said Blunk. "We’re also seeing a resurgence of people who were big fans in the golden era (Bobby Hull’s prime in the 1960s and early 1970s) – we’re seeing those people return. It’s a perfect storm."

One of the reasons for the resurgence is people can believe in the management and ownership of the Blackhawks now, he added.

"I think people have great faith in John McDonough and Rocky Wirtz to do the right thing, to make sure the right free agents are signed. From the National Anthem on, we’re trying to be the best organization that we can be," he said.

Meanwhile Bunk and staff are always pushing the envelope to take advantage of burgeoning interest. The Hawks sold-out the team’s Training Camp Festival in September with the first practice open to the public. Blunk even suggested practices could be streamed on-line in the future.

And that connection to fans bleeds over into the season.

“Rocky Wirtz sits with the fans every game,” Blunk said. “John and I talk on almost a daily basis on trends in the arena, about TV ratings, about how our players are connecting with the community."

“When you watch someone discover hockey for the first time at the United Center, then talk to them two or three months later and they haven’t missed a game on TV, and they can’t wait to get back. A Blackhawks experience is very powerful, from the anthem on.”

As the team tries to revive enthusiasim, Blunk’s own job has changed. During his Cubs days he was often point man in securing six- or seven-figure sponsorships. Now he has a top-of-the-food chain supervisory role in an environment where McDonough has eliminated the typical divide between business and hockey operations.

“The best part of my job is connecting with John McDonough and Stan Bowman [Blackhawks' Vice President and General Manager], and working together on a daily basis,” he said. “In a market like this, one thing we have an advantage in is … a synergistic approach, where players and management work closely together."

And while Blunk enjoys sharing summer breaks with the family, he hopes this upcoming June might be intruded upon again by passing around the Stanley up in celebration amongst the players and executives.

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