yave1964 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch passed away at 87 today. One of the games great owners, thank you sir for your loyalty to the city and remembering your roots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaFlyerFan Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 The Hockey world has lost another great leader. Sad day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 1 hour ago, yave1964 said: Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch passed away at 87 today. One of the games great owners, thank you sir for your loyalty to the city and remembering your roots. Mike was a man that believed in the City of Detroit FAR before it was cool to do it. He saw hope for that city when anyone who gave a fair assessment of what they saw would see little hope for it. He invested himself in the city, not just the Wings and Tigers. The whole downtown area that has been redone in the last 20 years and the revitalization of those areas and attractions owes a great debt of gratitude to Mike Ilitch. I only wish the Tigers could have got him a championship before he died. He poured so much into trying to make that team a winner. He obviously had more success with the Red Wings. That 2002 team will remain arguably one of the top two, if not the greatest assembly of hockey talent on one NHL team ever. Not a perfect man, by any means. But his legacy will be a city that could have been left to die, but he wouldn't and didn't abandon it, and soon it will have yet another arena to boast about and give Detroit another reason to visit it. He will be missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 So can the Red Wings move back into the Western Conference now... ? r..i.p. Mr Ilitch, I doubt the new model of corporate run teams will have the same influences on the game that the greats of Ilitch and Snider did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J0e Th0rnton Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 One of the great owners. RIP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammer2 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 13 hours ago, yave1964 said: Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch passed away at 87 today. One of the games great owners, thank you sir for your loyalty to the city and remembering your roots. What a sad day. I knew this day was coming, he has not made a public appearance in over a year and a half. In a way, it's a good thing cause I'm pretty sure he was suffering. A SHAME that he never got to see his Tigers win. He sunk millions and millions into that team and always fell just short. Just when you thought he could not spend anymore, he would shell out another 100 million for another star. You could almost hear him say "you can't take it with you". RIP MIke, you will be missed by millions of adoring fans!! Feel so very bad for his wife and companion of over 60 years. Her life must be in shambles right now. Prayers and thoughts go out to the family and many friends. That beautiful new arena in the heart of downtown Detroit will always be a symbol of just how much he gave to Detroit and how much he was loved!! Even though I knew it was coming, my head is spinning. Not ashamed to say some tears are welling up. God I'm gonna miss that man!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 One of the greatest owners in NHL history... When he bought that team, if you looked up the word "struggling" in the dictionary, the Red Wings logo was next to it. He showed how having a smart, dedicated and strong owner can make or break a team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpikeDDS Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 @yave1964 Gosh, that first one still gave me chills. How exciting winning that first Cup after so long was for that one night, only to be dashed by the accident that ended Konstantinov's career. A LOT of high-level and contrasting emotions in the days surrounding that, which really, I think, drove the Wings to repeat as Stanley Cup champs the following season culminated in giving the Cup to Vlady in his wheelchair with that big smile on his face. A lot of emotions come up when I think about that stretch. And to think that Mike had the vision of raising the Cup in his head when he bought the team in 1982 for $8M after they had missed the playoffs for 14 of the previous 16 seasons. What a visionary. No corporate owners would EVER take the chances he did to see this thing through. Too much risk. Where Mike invested his heart into this idea, corporations don't have one to invest to overcome such risk. Passion for an idea is a very powerful investment tool. Mike used it a lot and it served both of his teams and his city well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WingNut722 Posted February 13, 2017 Share Posted February 13, 2017 On 2/10/2017 at 7:08 PM, yave1964 said: Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch passed away at 87 today. One of the games great owners, thank you sir for your loyalty to the city and remembering your roots. I hate to "like" something like this, but there are really no other words to say. He was as much a part of the City of Detroit as the Red Wings or Tigers themselves. I also like the tribute Chevrolet/GM posted: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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