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Detroit’s legacy woven with tales of Mike Ilitch

I doubt we will see a sports team owner like Mike Ilitch come along again. There are very few individuals who combine the love of sports, zeal for winning, devotion to community and the concrete emotional and financial investments to improve that community.

I was struck by the outpouring of respect and admiration for Ilitch last week, after his death at the age of 87, and jotted down some of the accolades. Ilitch was “of Detroit, and ultimately wanted to be in Detroit,” what he did for Detroit “should never be forgotten,” he “touched the lives of most people in Metro Detroit” and he was “practically as large as his city itself.”

But these tributes shouldn’t surprise anyone. When we honored Ilitch with our Champions award in 2014, he told our Chris Botta in a rare interview, “I look at me and Detroit as one. This city is like a family member to me.” That precisely articulated his unyielding devotion to the city, and all you have to do is look at downtown Detroit — from Comerica Park to the Fox Theatre to the new Little Caesars Arena — to see how he improved his city with significant investments.

In thinking about today’s owners, few will be able to leave the mark that Ilitch has; yes, most are developing facilities and surrounding developments that will leave a legacy, but few can do it across two teams and an entertainment facility while rehabilitating a downtrodden city over decades.

It was also during our interview with him that Ilitch made another comment that has stuck with me for its rare, yet honest, point of view: “Everybody’s scared to use the word ‘love.’ But I actually fall in love with many of our people.”

“A win for the [teams] has always been a win for Detroit. Being a champion for Detroit is what makes [him] hungry to win.” — Chris Ilitch
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

While you never find unanimous love for former bosses, the loyalty and appreciation for Ilitch was evident in a number of ways. First, our Champions profile of Ilitch is one of the most widely read stories in the 19-year history of SportsBusiness Journal. It was also clearly evident to me on the spring day in 2014 when Ilitch’s son, Christopher, accepted our Champions award on behalf of his father, and the line of people waiting to offer congratulations or best wishes to him and his parents was longer than any line I’ve seen greet other honorees.

Chris, the sixth of the Ilitches’ seven children, offered remarks that day that perfectly portrayed his father. “If my father was here, he would not be shy at all to tell you that he loves to win. There is definitely no beating around the bush that Mike Ilitch is a competitive guy, with a commitment to success. My father has always done — and still does — what it takes to win. … He’s a competitor down to his core. But what makes my father’s competitive drive to win unique, what sets him apart in my opinion, is he doesn’t just want to win as a feather in his cap. Being successful in sports has always meant a lot bigger things to him.”

He went on to talk about his father’s love of his hometown, saying, “My father sees what pro sports teams and the world-class venues for those teams do for the folks in his town of Detroit. Competitive teams that are title contenders give the fans a sense of community pride. Just like having a child hit a home run or score a goal, for my father, a win for the Detroit Tigers or Red Wings has always been a win for Detroit and its people. Being a champion for Detroit is what makes Mike Ilitch hungry to win.”

Interestingly, he also noted his father’s fondness of the word “love,” and said it applied to him: “More than winning, he loves his family, he loves the people who work for him, he loves his community and he loves his city.”

That, to me, summed it up. Ilitch left a mark on fans, colleagues, co-workers and even hardened journalists. I won’t forget that after SportsBusiness Journal published our tribute to him, the story’s primary editor, Tom Stinson, treated his family that weekend to pizzas, not from his regular pizza house, but from Little Caesars. Stinson acknowledged it was in a sense of appreciation and admiration for the way Ilitch conducted himself and his business.

Ilitch’s death provided me with another reason to read our tribute to him; if you have the time, I’d suggest you call it up and read it as well. You’re likely to have a new appreciation for all that he did, and realize that the sports industry is unlikely to see another owner leave a legacy like his.

■ ■ ■ ■

When we set out to honor Mike Ilitch in 2014, we knew it would be a delicate issue. He’s very private, he didn’t do interviews and he wasn’t in the best of health. But to the credit of the Ilitch Holdings organization, they were interested and engaged, and there was a lot of back and forth. I had numerous exchanges with former employees, like Len Perna, who worked for Ilitch years ago and helped ease any concerns, as well as their longtime media executive, John Hahn. We fully knew that Ilitch would never be at our event in California, but we needed time with him to tell his story.

After weeks of discussions, Mike and Marian Ilitch agreed to allow Botta, our hockey writer at the time, to meet with them at their Florida home. It turned out to be one of Ilitch’s last interviews and, I believe, the best oral history of the couple’s life in sports. Last week, I asked Botta to share a story of his visit and Perna to reminisce about Ilitch’s legacy.

Here are their stories, in their own words:

Chris Botta: “Red Wings players and executives prepared me: ‘Mr. Ilitch treats everyone the same — with class and kindness,’ they said. That’s what I experienced three years ago this month when I traveled to Boca Raton for an afternoon visit with Mike and Marian Ilitch for an SBJ profile. Mr. Ilitch was one of the magazine’s 2014 Champions: Pioneers & Innovators in Sports Business.

“The Ilitches gave me a tour of their home, insisted I eat lunch, asked about my family and background. We talked for two hours straight. Mr. Ilitch was warm, humble, generous in giving credit for his success to others. Yes, he badly wanted that World Series title for Detroit, but he said the greatest gift of his career was the friendships he made along the way.

“I could see that came easily to him.”

Len Perna: “I came to the Red Wings in 1988 and ran sales. No matter who you were, he was interested in what you thought. When we bought the Tigers in ’92, he asked me how many signs we would need to install in the old Tiger Stadium for our sponsors; that relic had almost no signage. I said, ‘Just one.’ His eyes got wide. ‘One?’ ‘Yes sir, one sign behind home plate; it’ll rotate with ALL our sponsors on it!’ Back then there was no on-field signage in baseball and it was way before digital insertion. ‘Mr. I’ got that twinkle in his eyes — he got it — and he lobbied MLB to make it happen. I was a nobody. But ‘Mr. I’ was open to ideas and didn’t care what your title was. I was over the moon. It changed me forever.”

Abraham D. Madkour can be reached at amadkour@sportsbusinessjournal.com.

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