‘Team chemistry’: Blackhawks brass waited until after Stanley Cup win to address assault allegationsBen Popeon October 27, 2021 at 2:30 am

John McDonough, president of the Chicago Blackhawks, holds the Stanley Cup over his head at a rally in 2010. A report released by the team found that McDonough stalled an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against a Hawks coach until after the playoffs. | Sun-Times file photo

Team officials allowed assistant coach Bradley Aldrich to resign without conducting an investigation of allegations he assaulted a player or alerting authorities.

The morning of May 23, 2010, Blackhawks then-Vice President of Hockey Operations Al MacIsaac was in his office at the United Center, waiting for the start of the Hawks’ Western Conference finals game against the San Jose Sharks when he got the news from a distressed team employee: A Hawks assistant coach, Brad Aldrich, had allegedly texted a picture of a penis to a player in the team’s minor league system and may have had a sexual encounter with another young player.

And so began an internal saga that unfolded alongside the Blackhawks’ trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, a sordid story of Aldrich’s alleged sexual harassment of players that would– more than a decade later — come to tarnish that championship season and end the run of the front office leaders that built the team into a dynasty.

A 107-page report released by the team on Tuesday details how, after getting initial information about Aldrich’s allegedly coerced sexual encounter with a player, Hawks then-President and CEO John McDonough and other top executives ignored the allegations during the playoffs in the interest of “team chemistry,” then let Aldrich quietly resign without conducting an investigation or alerting authorities.

Three weeks after the front office first learned of the allegations, the Blackhawks would win their first Stanley Cup since 1961. The night after the final game, Aldrich allegedly groped a Blackhawks intern. In the weeks that followed, Aldrich would go on to participate in team celebrations, even after he quit his job.

Aldrich received a championship ring and a $15,000 playoff bonus, had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup and even got to bring the trophy to his hometown of Houghton, Michigan, where, three years later, Aldrich would plead guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old player on the Houghton high school hockey team.

McDonough was fired in 2020, and Bowman announced his resignation Tuesday at a team news conference for the release of the report. McDonough did not report the allegations against Aldrich to the team’s human resources department until June 14, five days after the championship-clinching game.

“What is clear is that, after being informed of Aldrich’s alleged sexual harassment and misconduct with a player, no action was taken for three weeks,” states the report, which was drafted after a four-month investigation by former federal prosecutor Reid Schar of the Jenner & Block law firm.

The report is based on interviews with 139 team staff, players and other witnesses– including Aldrich, Bowman, McDonough, the alleged victim — identified as “John Doe” — and others. Investigators also scoured call records from team-issued cellphones, some 49 boxes of documents and computer files that were turned over by the team as part of an investigation that started this summer, after the player allegedly assaulted by Aldrich filed a lawsuit against the team.

Low-ranking coach was popular with players

According to players interviewed by Schar’s team, Aldrich was a “video coach,” a member of the coaching staff who spliced video of games for players and other coaches. Despite his relatively low rank on the coaching staff, Aldrich was popular with players because of his willingness to describe other coaches’ conversations in meetings, which allowed him to tip players about their roles with the team.

As the playoffs were underway in May 2010, rumors were circulating among players and staff about Aldrich and a 20-year-old player who was one of several Hawks prospects that traveled with the team but were unlikely to ever see the ice during a game. The player, identified as “John Doe,” was alleged to have had a sexual encounter with Aldrich in Aldrich’s Chicago apartment the night of May 9 or 10 — investigators were unable to confirm the exact date and noted “wildly divergent recollections” of what happened in the accounts offered by Aldrich and the player.

The player apparently gave varying versions when talking to teammates, team staff and an unnamed confidant in the days after the alleged assault, but described Aldrich as instigating a coerced sexual encounter and threatening to derail his career if he told anyone. Aldrich told investigators the player was a willing participant, though the player apparently was upset in conversations with a confidant back home and others in the days afterward.

Skating coach Paul Vincent, who no longer is with the team, told investigators that he noticed the player was listless and distracted, and Vincent heard rumors about the player and Aldrich.

Meanwhile, Aldrich also was reaching out to another young player, identified as “Black Ace 1,” and just days after Aldrich’s alleged encounter with Doe, arranged for Black Ace 1 to have a sexual encounter with a female masseuse at Aldrich’s apartment. A team employee saw sexually explicit messages — including a picture of a penis — that Aldrich allegedly sent to Black Ace 1 and went to MacIsaac. MacIsaac asked Jim Gary, the team’s mental skills coach, to reach out to John Doe and Black Ace 1.

Gary’s interview with Doe took place the same day, in a closet off a hallway at the United Center where the team stored promotional items, between periods of the Hawks Game 4 win against San Jose. According to Gary’s interview with investigators, during a 10-minute conversation, Doe told Gary the story of his night at Aldrich’s, and that Aldrich had allegedly threatened to hurt Doe’s hockey career if he resisted him or spoke out.

As the game resumed, Gary went back to the executive game suite and told MacIsaac there were allegations of serious misconduct against Aldrich. Bowman recalled that MacIsaac approached him immediately after the game, and called for a meeting with McDonough.

‘… Concerned about upsetting team chemistry’

What executives learned in the meeting and what they decided to do varied, according to the report.

Present were McDonough, Bowman, MacIsaac, coach Joel Quenneville, executives Kevin Cheveldayoff and Jay Blunk, along with Gary. Gary reported the assembled executives were stunned by what he told them, and in another interview, he noted in a later conversation with the team’s director of human resources Quenneville “appeared angry and was concerned about upsetting team chemistry,” and that it was decided nothing would be done until after the season.

Bowman told investigators he remembered only that Gary said that Aldrich tried to climb into bed with a player at his apartment, an allegation he said “did not involve a sexual assault as having occurred.” McDonough, Bowman recalled, talked about his time as president of the Chicago Cubs, and that the Hawks might “never make it this far in the playoffs ever again, and that they needed to think about when to handle the issue.”

“Bowman further recalled that he asked McDonough what McDonough wanted to do, and McDonough responded that Bowman should leave it to McDonough … when the meeting ended, Bowman believed the issue was in McDonough’s hands and everyone else should focus on the upcoming Stanley Cup Finals.”

MacIsaac said Gary told the group Aldrich had tried to “get under the sheets” with a player. An unnamed Hawks employee told investigators that several years after the meeting, MacIsaac described what happened in greater detail and that Aldrich tried to “force himself” onto a player. MacIsaac told the employee that “McDonough did not want any negative publicity during the Stanley Cup Finals” and waited until after the playoffs to fire Aldrich. MacIsaac told investigators he could not recall ever talking about Aldrich with the employee.

In his interview with investigators, McDonough said he could only recall that Gary said he was “aware of an incident” and that “Doe was embarrassed about the incident.” In a second interview, McDonough said Gary “was going to address the issue with (Doe) again following the meeting.”

“McDonough stated that this was the first and last time he recalled discussing this issue,” the report states.

McDonough called the team’s director of human resources into his office on June 14, and had said that the incident “involved drinking and Aldrich ‘hitting on’ or making a sexual advance” on Doe. McDonough also described the May 23 meeting, and that he and the top brass decided not to alert HR or outside counsel “so as not to ‘disturb team chemistry.'”

The HR director also said McDonough had noted that it was hard for him to believe the 130-pound Aldrich could have had a non-consensual sexual encounter with a hockey player who was nearly a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier. McDonough told investigators he did not recall the conversation.

The director of HR would hold a meeting the next day with Aldrich and an outside attorney, and told Aldrich he could either take a leave of absence while the team investigated the allegations, or resign. Aldrich resigned.

The report does clear Hawks executives of providing help when Aldrich sought out work after leaving Chicago. Aldrich said he did not list any Hawks staff as references when he got a job at University of Notre Dame, nor when he got a job as director of hockey operations for Miami University in Ohio, where he was fired after school officials learned he had sexually assaulted a summer intern, and later, an undergraduate.

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