Blue Jackets Majority Owner McConnell Dies At Age Of 84
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Blue Jackets Owner John
McConnell Dies At Age Of 84 |
Blue Jackets Majority Owner JOHN MCCONNELL Friday died at the age of 84, and his death has "hit home like that of a family member" in Columbus, according to Aaron Portzline of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Blue Jackets President MIKE PRIEST Friday informed staffers of McConnell's death at a 4:00pm ET meeting. Blue Jackets coach KEN HITCHCOCK: "We knew he'd been sick for a while, but it's still a shock. ... You're not going to meet a more genuine man. His word was his bond." Blue Jackets GM SCOTT HOWSON: "Everybody is a little in shock and saddened. He's responsible for this franchise and so much that's good in this city. It's really painful for a lot of people right now." Former Blue Jackets President & GM DOUG MACLEAN: "He's an icon of the sports world to me, because he's a real sportsman. He loved sports and he got into it for the right reason. To him, it truly wasn't done to make money. It was done because he wanted Columbus to have pro sports." Portzline noted McConnell was a "frequent visitor to the Blue Jackets dressing room, where he addressed players before and after games a few times each season." Former NHLer KEVIN DINEEN, who played three seasons with the Blue Jackets, said, "He was comfortable on the factory floor, in the dressing room and in the board room. He was the same with the stick boy and the captain" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 4/26). In Columbus, Arace & Carter noted McConnell in '97 wrote an $80M check to cover the Blue Jackets' expansion fee, because he "felt that as Columbus expanded, it needed a major-league sport, and did not want the city to miss out on the opportunity." Hitchcock: "I considered him to be everybody's father or everybody's grandfather. He was very wise, very thoughtful and always very supportive. He didn't seem like an owner. He seemed like your best friend" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 4/26). The COLUMBUS DISPATCH's Michael Arace wrote under the header, "McConnell Stayed True To Values Of Upbringing." McConnell's investment in the Blue Jackets "grew into an emotional one for him. He liked the players, and told them to play for one another. He liked the game, the toughness of it, the stress it put on team play'' (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 4/26).
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