Mike Perricone dead: Sun-Times Blackhawks reporter who gave it up to be a stay-at-home dad was 72

Mike Perricone was a Sun-Times Blackhawks beat reporter during the Denis Savard era before swapping his press pass for a diaper bag when he became a stay-at-home dad — an experience he chronicled in a humorous and touching column for this newspaper.

But the most important thing he ever wrote was an off-the-cuff letter on yellow legal paper.

It was in response to an ad placed placed in Chicago Magazine by a printing company executive who, out of concern that his top employee’s relentless work life came at the expense of her personal life, decided to play matchmaker via the personals section.

The ad asked suitors to write a letter, and be sure to mention a favorite book.

Joan Vanderbeck wasn’t aware her boss had placed the ad, but went along with it because she knew he had her best intentions at heart.

She wasn’t impressed with responses until she opened Mr. Perricone’s letter.

“He sent me an entire page of favorite books. I thought, ‘Hmmm. This is interesting,’ ” she said.

Their first date was at the Music Box Theatre to catch the Japanese flick “The Ballad of Narayama.”

As she crossed the street to get to the theater, the two somehow recognized each other, though they’d never met.

“We got together, said hello, and started into the theater and he asked me if I was hungry and I said, ‘Actually I was kind of nervous and had some cherry juice before I came,’ and I think about that in retrospect, how comfortable I was to say such thing — usually you try to be your coolest self, but I just said that and we both laughed,” she said.

“She’s way out of my league,” Mr. Perricone marveled for years at the woman he later married.

She marveled at his comment: “That’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Perricone died Dec. 9 from multiple systems atrophy. He was 72.

He covered the Blackhawks for 12 years beginning in 1977.

“We were in a totally different world back then,” said former Blackhawk and Hockey Hall of Famer Denis Savard. “In those days we were pretty close to the reporters. They were actually out with us some nights. Mike was a quiet guy who went about his business, very fair and honest. And he was one of us, that’s how I’d put it. He wanted us to win, too. It makes it a lot easier to write a better story.”

Neil Milbert, a friend and former Blackhawks beat reporter for the Chicago Tribune, said they worked in a era that allowed for unfiltered access to players and coaches.

“We shared many a laugh,” he said. “Mike and I were rivals — we both worked hard and tried to beat one another — but it never got in the way of our friendship. Never did we ever have a cross word. And he became the epitome of an ideal father.”

Mr. Perricone and his wife lived on Morgan Street across from the University of Illinois at Chicago when they had their daughter, Jenny.

In 1989 Mr. Perricone gave up his gig covering pro hockey to stay home with the baby. His wife had become president of her printing firm and her job offered more work-life leeway, they figured.

But he didn’t give up writing completely. He began a parenting column for the Sun-Times called “Jenny’s Dad.”

“When I was a sportswriter, I was at home in a world as totally male-dominated as any world can be,” he wrote of his contrasting worlds.

He reveled in the support he got from other moms, and took note of his early days as the only dad at the park: “It’s a uniquely intimate experience for a man to discuss breast-feeding with a woman he has just met.”

A father staying at home was less common than it is today, his wife said.

“I think when you consider when he did this, it was a brave move. To be a successful reporter and to give it up to be home with this new baby, that’s just who he was, a wonderful human,” she said.

Mr. Perricone’s column, though lighthearted, was candid and honest. He wrote his last one in December of 1990 when his daughter turned 1.

“New parents can often feel they have given up their life when a baby arrives. And it’s true: That old life is left at the bottom of a pile of used diapers. But if you want an education in life, if you want to discover who you are, then have a child — and try to understand that child.

“But you must learn about yourself, first. I’ve spent the last year uncovering who I am and reinventing myself. Altering the pattern of half a lifetime, when work and travel were full-time escapes, I’ve found strength in giving and nurturing. Changing my life has not been easy, but I’ve never lived every moment so intensely, because I’ve never examined every moment so closely.”

Mr. Perricone’s daughter, Jenny, 34, works at the Happy Apple Pie Shop in Oak Park.

After 12 years covering the Hawks and one year as a regular columnist, Mr. Perricone later went on to work on the communications staff at Fermilab in Batavia for 10 years before his retirement in 2007.

His work there alongside many of the world’s leading scientists inspired him to write “The Big Bang,” a 2009 book for young adults that explores the early history of the universe. 

In his final years, he was working on a novel for young adults called “Caged” that was about a prep-school hockey player struggling with recovery from depression.

A memorial is being planned.