Department of Intercollegiate Athletics Award Recipients

M Club Hy Popuch Memorial Service Award

Christine Kennedy Blonski, Arts ’95
Franklin, Wis.

As a student-athlete from 1992 to 1995, Christine helped advance the Marquette University women’s basketball team to its first-ever NCAA tournament. As an alumna, Christine continues to help advance Marquette women’s sports on several levels: through her leadership and involvement on the M Club board, by mentoring individual women’s basketball players and in cheering on her former team from the stands as an 18-year season-ticket holder.

Marquette recruited Christine to play basketball, but she also selected the school because “I knew when I left Marquette, I would have a great degree from a great university.” When she officially visited the campus, she says, “I just knew I was home.”

As dedicated as she was to basketball — she was a four-year letter winner and all-conference performer who still ranks ninth in program history for points scored, third for rebounds and fourth for blocks — Christine was also a strong student. Her scholarship, leadership and athletic accomplishments were recognized her senior year with the highest honor for a Marquette student-athlete, the McCahill Award, named for two brothers who attended Marquette as student-athletes and served in the U.S. military.

Christine has served as a director of the M Club since 2002 with two terms as president. In 2017 she helped create and co-chair a new event, the Veterans McCahill Patriots Classic, a women’s basketball showdown between Marquette and Army. The event highlights Marquette women’s athletics, past recipients of the McCahill Award, the McCahill brothers and the U.S. military.

A former math teacher who is now a happy stay-at-home mom of two (Christine’s husband is Marquette alumnus Michael Blonski, Bus Ad ’91), Christine volunteers extensively at her children’s school in Franklin, Wis., and coaches both of her kids’ basketball teams.

“To be included in the list of past recipients of the Hy Popuch Award is very humbling,” she says. “I can only keep trying to live up to their standards.”

Fun fact: Christine’s favorite memory is crowding into a teammate’s living room with her fellow players and loudly celebrating when they saw Marquette’s name pop up among NCAA tournament teams.