Remembering Mr. Ilitch – Part Three: The Legacy of The Man Who Bled Detroit
By Cam Lewis
7 years ago
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports
This is part of a three-part series recognizing and reminiscing on the impact that Mike Ilitch had on both the Detroit Red Wings and the city of Detroit as a whole.
The Red Wings’ dynasty may be winding down, as the team is likely to miss the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, but owner Mike Ilitch’s legacy will live on in the city of Detroit for years to come.
Depending on who you ask, you’ll probably get a different interpretation of what Ilitch meant to the city. Many will say they’ll remember him for building those great Red Wings teams, others for bringing to life the Tigers, and some will simply say he was the self-made representation of the American Dream who started up that pizza place.
But there’s one sentiment not lost on anybody in Detroit, it’s that Mr. Ilitch was consistently a champion for the city, and when the lights were turned off and everybody left, he stuck around. He bled Detroit. It’s something you can physically see when you take a stroll from the Fox Theatre all the way down to the Grand River.
“Everyone deserted downtown except for Mike Ilitch,” said Mark Howe, Hockey Hall of Famer and son of Red Wings legend Gordie Howe said shortly after Ilitch’s death. “I know what he did for the hockey club. The hockey club turned pretty successful after about eight years or so.
“He stuck it out in the city all those years and more. Honestly, for me, the last three years, I’m really starting to see the lifeblood of the city.”
In the 1960s and 70s, a global energy crisis, decline in the American automobile industry, and middle class cultural shift towards the suburbs left Detroit’s downtown core completely desolate. Businesses packed up, following the lead of the middle class to the ‘burbs, and shortly after, the working class, struggling to find employment in the unpredictable, shirking economy, were forced out of the city’s core.
That’s when Ilitch stepped in and made his first major move. Having found success in the food industry with his ground-up, start-from-scratch pizza company, Little Caesars, Ilitch purchased the historic Fox Theatre and multiple surrounding buildings.
Back in the 1920s, five theatres, all called Fox Theatre, were constructed in the United States. Detroit, Atlanta, San Fransisco, New York, and St. Louis were all cites in which the lavish performing arts centres were constructed.
For decades, Fox was Detroit’s premier destination for movies, concerts, plays, and entertainment, but economic decline coupled with the decay of time dissolved the relevance of the once proud theatre that, when illuminated at night, could be seen from miles away. Ilitch moved Little Caesar’s headquarters to the Fox, and subsequently invested millions of dollars in restoring the theatre back to a state-of-the-art facility with beauty it hasn’t seen in over half a century.
The Fox was just the beginning, though. Ilitch had a plan to build Detroit’s downtown core back up, to energize the city, and to bring business and swagger back to the areas surrounding Fox Theatre.
“It’s always been my dream to once again see a vibrant downtown Detroit,” Ilitch said in 2012. “From the time we bought the Fox Theatre, I could envision a downtown where the streets are bustling and people were energized.
“It’s going to happen, and I want to keep us moving toward that vision.”
In 1982, Ilitch purchased the Red Wings. He built the organization up from nothing to something, and then from something into one of the greatest dynasties seen in North American professional sport. a Decade later, he purchased the Tigers, and transformed their relevance from a middling club into a perennial competitor with a top-ten budget.
Now, thirty years after making his first move with Fox, Ilitch’s vision is coming into fruition.
From Comerica Park, where the Tigers play, you can sit back and watch a baseball game with a vision of a bright city that’s full of life in the background. And, come September, Little Caesars arena, a state-of-the-art facility that’ll house the Red Wings and the Pistons of the NBA, will open up, and surrounding it will be a completely revitalized entertainment district.
All of it right in the core of Detroit. The place that, not too many years ago, virtually everybody had given up on. It was the passion and vision of Mr. Ilitch that helped bring Detroit back to life, and as a result, his spirit will live on in the city forever.
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