Rocky Wirtz, the team chairman who oversaw the revitalization of the Chicago Blackhawks from a laughingstock into a Stanley Cup power, died Tuesday, the team announced. He was 70.

       “It is with deep sadness that the Chicago Blackhawks organization joins the Wirtz Family in mourning the sudden passing of our Chairman W. Rockwell ‘Rocky’ Wirtz today,” the Hawks said in a statement.

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       Wirtz took over the team after his father, Bill, died in September 2007. It came as a surprise that Rocky took over the Hawks instead of his brother Peter, who had served as team vice president and worked for the franchise for about two decades.