John McDonough (born May 19, 1953) is an American sports executive who spent two decades with the
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
. In 2007, he left the presidency of the Cubs to become president of the
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...
. On June 1, 2011, McDonough was promoted to President and CEO of the Blackhawks. He specialized in the area of marketing. On April 27, 2020, he was released from his job with the Blackhawks.
Personal life
McDonough is a lifelong Chicago area resident, graduating from
Notre Dame High School in
Niles, Illinois
Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located in the townships of Maine and Niles, directly neighboring the City of Chicago's far northwest border. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,912. The current mayor of Niles ...
before matriculating to
Saint Mary's University in
Winona, Minnesota
Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the state of Minnesota. Located in bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf. The city is named after legendary figure Winona, who ...
.
Professional career
Chicago Sting
McDonough's first work as a sports executive was with the
Chicago Sting
The Chicago Sting (1974–1988) was an American professional soccer team representing Chicago. The Sting played in the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1984 and in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the 1982–83 season and again from 1 ...
, Chicago's franchise in the
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to:
*North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league
*North American Soccer League (2011–2017)
The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...
(NASL). He served as General Sales Manager, and later as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. McDonough was also a member of the front office when the Sting won the 1981 NASL
Soccer Bowl
The Soccer Bowl was the annual championship game of the North American Soccer League, which ran from 1968 to 1984. The two top teams from the playoffs faced off in the final to determine the winner of the NASL Trophy. From the league's founding ...
Championship.
Chicago Cubs
McDonough spent 25 years with the Cubs (1983–2007). During his tenure with the team, the Cubs set numerous attendance records, setting an all-time mark in 2007, when McDonough was team president. In McDonough's time as Cubs president, the franchise saw success off the field, but not on the field, as the team only made the playoffs 5 times, winning one postseason series, and finishing 125 games under .500.
One of the major innovations McDonough is credited with is the annual "Cubs Convention" which gives fans a chance to meet and interact with coaches, players and licensed vendors. Debuting in 1985, this was the first event of its kind in sports and is now viewed as a prototype for professional team and league fan festivals.
He also is credited with creating the role of "guest conductor", where celebrities, local heroes, and local high school sports champions are given the chance to lead the singing of "
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is a 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer which has become the unofficial anthem of North American baseball, although neither of its authors had attended a game prior to writing the song ...
" during the seventh-inning stretch at Cubs home games. The promotion started in the wake of the death of broadcaster
Harry Caray
Harry Christopher Caray (; March 1, 1914 – February 18, 1998) was an American radio and television Sports commentator, sportscaster. During his career he called the play-by-play for five Major League Baseball teams, beginning with 25 years of ...
in 1998, and continues as a tradition today.
Chicago Blackhawks
On November 20, 2007, McDonough left the Cubs and became president of the Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago's
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
franchise. The Hawks future stars had already been drafted. In 2006,
Jonathan Toews
Jonathan Bryan Toews ( ; born April 29, 1988) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre and captain of the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). Nicknamed "Captain Serious", Toews was selected by the Blackhawks with the t ...
was the #3 pick and in June 2007
Patrick Kane
Patrick Timothy Kane II (born November 19, 1988) is an American professional ice hockey right winger and alternate captain for the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Blackhawks selected him with the first overall pick ...
was selected #1. In his tenure with the team, the Blackhawks have moved quickly to revitalize the team's profile and fan base, in what Forbes Magazine called "The Greatest Sports-Business Turnaround Ever." Since McDonough joined the Blackhawks, the team has won Stanley Cup titles in 2010, 2013 and 2015, becoming the first organization in the NHL's salary cap era to capture three championships.
Upon his arrival to the Blackhawks, McDonough welcomed back Hall of Famers
Bobby Hull
Robert Marvin Hull OC (born January 3, 1939) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. His blonde hair, skating speed, end-to-end rushes, and ability to shoot the puck at very high veloc ...
,
Stan Mikita
Stanley Mikita (born Stanislav Guoth; May 20, 1940 – August 7, 2018) was a Slovak-born Canadian ice hockey player for the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League, generally regarded as the best centre of the 1960s. In 2017, he was n ...
and
Tony Esposito
Anthony James "Tony O" Esposito (April 23, 1943 – August 10, 2021) was a Canadian-American professional ice hockey goaltender, who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), 15 of those for the Chicago Black Hawks. He was one of t ...
as team ambassadors, and helped foster a landmark partnership with WGN Television and Comcast SportsNet which allowed all 82 regular-season games to be broadcast on television for the first time in team history. The Blackhawks also announced a partnership with Chicago's WGN Radio 720 to become the team's new radio broadcast rightsholder.
McDonough was also instrumental in bringing the
NHL Winter Classic 2009 to Chicago, a contest which matched up the Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings in front of 40,818 at Wrigley Field on January 1, 2009. The game drew an 11.8 overnight rating and a 21 share on NBC in Chicago, making it the most-watched NHL game in almost 34 years.
The Blackhawks franchise has undergone an enormous transformation under McDonough's leadership; since 2007, the team's season ticketholder base has more than tripled, and the Blackhawks have sold out 340 straight home contests and counting, leading the league in average attendance each season since 2008-09. In less than two years since McDonough's arrival, the Blackhawks organization jumped from 118th (2007) to 16th (2010) in ESPN Magazine's Ultimate Standings. The organization's ranking marked the best among Chicago's professional sports teams. In 2012, a survey of
SportsBusiness Journal
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, a ...
readers voted the Blackhawks the NHL team for which they'd most like to work. In the 2015 SportsBusiness Journal survey, the Blackhawks were the highest-ranked NHL team in the category "Team that represents the ‘model franchise’ in all of North American sports."
On November 11, 2018, he fired coach Joel Quenneville after a 6–6–3 start. Quenneville ended his 10+ seasons with the Blackhawks with a 452–249–96 regular-season record, a 76–52 record in the postseason, and as the second winningest coach in NHL history with 890 wins.
On April 27, 2020, McDonough was released from his role with the Blackhawks.
In October 2021, an independent investigation into how the Blackhawks responded to claims that video coach Brad Aldrich had sexually assaulted a player revealed that just days before the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals, McDonough convened a meeting with several other team officials at which it was decided that any further action would be deferred until after the Finals. Aldrich was allowed to quietly resign after the Finals, and subsequently pleaded guilty to assaulting a high school hockey player in Michigan. The investigation found that McDonough took responsibility for handling the matter, but did not inform human resources until three weeks after the Finals. In response, NHL Commissioner
Gary Bettman
Gary Bruce Bettman (born June 2, 1952) is an American sports executive who serves as the commissioner of the National Hockey League (NHL), a post he has held since February 1, 1993. Previously, Bettman was a senior vice president and general cou ...
decreed that McDonough and others who took part in the meeting would have to meet with him before they could be allowed to work in the NHL again.
Other work
*
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
JDRF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, provides a broad array of community and activist services to the T1D population and actively advocates for regulation favorable to medical research and approval o ...
International: Advisory Board of Directors (Illinois Chapter)
*
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
: Master of Arts in Sports Administration Faculty Advisory Board
Awards
*
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
Marketing Excellence Award
* Chicago Baseball Veteran's Committee Man of the Year
*
Promo Magazine: America's Top Ten Marketing Executives
* St. Mary's University of Minnesota Presidential Award For Outstanding Merit (2010)
* Notre Dame High School Hall of Fame
*
Public Relations Society of America
The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is a nonprofit trade association for public relations professionals. It was founded in 1947 by combining the American Council on Public Relations and the National Association of Public Relations Coun ...
(Chicago Chapter): Executive of the Year
*
Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame The Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, located in the Hawthorne Race Course, in Stickney/Cicero, near Chicago, honors sports greats associated with the Chicago metropolitan area. It was founded in 1979 as a trailer owned by the Olympia Brewing Compan ...
: Inducted in 2008
References
External links
John McDonough biography at Blackhawks website (archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonough, John
1953 births
Living people
American sports businesspeople
Chicago Blackhawks executives
Chicago Cubs executives
Major League Baseball executives
Major League Baseball team presidents
National Hockey League executives
Stanley Cup champions
Businesspeople from Chicago
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota alumni