Chicago radio Hall of Famer Larry Lujack has passed away at the age of 73, after a battle with esophageal cancer. Lujack was known as “Superjock” and “Uncle Lar” in the Windy City, and was heard on a number of stations from the late ’60s into the late ’80s, then returned to the air in 2000.
Lujack was born Larry Lee Blankenburg and took his radio last name from Notre Dame quarterback Johnny Lujack. He got his start on KCID-AM/Caldwell, ID while in college and made it to Chicago in 1967, after stints in Spokane, Seattle and Boston. Lujack was heard on WLS-AM/FM (his radio home in the Windy City for almost two decades) and for a few years on WCFL-AM, until his retirement to Santa Fe, NM in 1987. He returned to the Chicago airwaves in 2000 at WUBT, and later WRLL.
His wife Judith “Jude” Lujack told the Chicago Tribune, “He wasn’t defined by being a Hall of Famer or a superjock, he was defined by being the man that he was, and he was an amazing human being.”
Over the years, Lujack was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, the NAB Hall of Fame and the Illinois Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame, among others.
