Jim Cornelison performs the national anthem before a Chicago Blackhawks game. (Jim Cornelison photo)

If not for an Indiana University professor, Chicago Blackhawks games wouldn’t be the same.

Jim Cornelison had every intention of a career behind a piano, until an IU music professor said maybe he should think about another career option.

“It drove me over to singing,” said Cornelison, the singer of the national anthem at Hawks game for the past 11 years.

He found success with choirs at Indiana and it led to an opportunity in 1995 with the Lyric Opera in Chicago.

Cornelison laughs when people say it must be nice to get paid for two minutes of work. Little do they know the amount of networking and marketing the singer does in order to get those anthem gigs. His connection with veterans through his work with the Hawks has led to him becoming an advocate for those who have served our country.

He loves being able to make a connection with military families because of his work singing the anthem. The singer said it is common for a military family member to stop him at an event or game and talk to him about their son or daughter.

“I was at a Cubs game and a woman stopped me on the way to my seat and thanked me for what I do,” the singer said. “Then she told me about her son who was shot in the face. I have developed a relationship with a lot of the families.”

Cornelison really likes being out on the ice with the service veterans, especially those who served in World War II.

“The Blackhawks just started doing that this year,” he said of WW II vets joining him on the ice. “I love it.”

Besides Hawks games, Cornelison has performed the anthem for the Chicagoland NASCAR Sprint Cup Series for nine years. He did Chicago Bears home openers for eight years, has performed on ESPN’s College Game Day and at the Arlington Million.

He has sung on “The Colbert Report,” at the Ryder Cup, the National Hockey League Winter Classic, for many Division I universities, and for the Chicago Bulls, White Sox, Cubs and Fire. He even performed the anthem for the start of a Smashing Pumpkins concert.

Cornelison said he still gets a thrill stepping out onto the United Center ice to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“It’s great,” he said of the opportunity he gets to sing before thousands of screaming fans,

He says the arena may never have been louder than Game 7 of the Western Conference Stanley Cup Semifinals against Detroit in 2013.

“The Hawks were down (3 games to 1) and they were able to fight back and get the series back to the United Center,” Cornelison said.

While few things top the rush of the crowd’s roar at the first organ note of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Cornelison has a few things on his bucket list.

“I’d like to sing the anthem at a Super Bowl,” he said. “That’s the standard for the anthem. Everybody is watching. I think that would be really cool.”

He would also like to do the anthem for the Indianapolis 500.

“You have a 300,000-person live audience, all sitting and listening to you,” Cornelison said.

The singer said he feels some anxiety before taking to ice to perform the anthem.
“I always try to be respectful,” Cornelison said. “I know the service members are going to be out there with me.”

As for periodic complaints that clapping and cheering during the anthem is disrespectful, Cornelison brushes those aside, saying he sees the cheers as patriotic.

“Those people don’t know what they’re talking about,” Cornelison said. “They must be Red Wings fans.”

kbeese@chronicleillinois.com