From the Archive: Illitch's Purchase Signals "Motor City Turnaround"
From 1982: On the "Renaissance Red Wings" following pizza mogul Mike Illitch's purchase of the team
On the cover of the October 15th, 1982 issue of The Hockey News, Mike Illitch—new owner of the Detroit Red Wings—stood beside his general manager Jimmy Devellano and behind his captain Danny Gare along with defenseman Reed Larson (who would eventually wear the "C" himself). In the background was Hart Plaza and the General Motors Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. The headline read "The Renaissance Red Wings: A Special Edition."
Illitch bought the team from Bruce Norris (whose family had owned it for 50 years) for $8 million.
His purpose in purchasing the team was much simpler to name than to execute: Pull the franchise out of a decade's long malaise and restore it to the glory days of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s—long since distant memories by '82.
“I think this is the best franchise in the world," declared Illitch to THN's Joe Falls in the accompanying story, titled "Motor City Turnaround Starts with Class." "It’s a sleeping giant, waiting for someone to do something about it. I’ve sponsored amateur hockey since 1964 and I love this game.”
“I’ll do whatever I have to do to have a winner,” Illitch continued, leaving no doubt to as to his willingness to bankroll his ambitions. “I’m going to spend the money and do whatever it takes to get myself a winner. If it takes losing money, I’ll lose money.”
It might not have happened quite as quickly as the pizza mogul would have liked, but under Illitch's leadership, the Red Wings enjoyed a second golden age, winning four Stanley Cups between 1997 and 2008.
The '02 Cup winner offered definitive proof that his big talk of big spending had been more than bluster. That squad accounted for a payroll of $66, 293, 750. When the NHL introduced a salary cap ahead of the '05-06 season, it was just $39 million per team.
In a testament to the salary cap's success in suppressing player wages, Nicklas Lidstrom (that team's highest earner at $8 million per season) would be the second-highest paid Red Wing today (trailing only Dylan Larkin's $8.7 million AAV), and that's without accounting for inflation.
Illitch passed away in February of 2017. He owned the Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers, which his son Chris took over. Five months later, the Red Wings would play their first ever game in a downtown arena that bore the name of the pizza chain that had sold enough $5 Hot-N-Ready's for its owner to own multiple professional sports franchises.
To read Falls' full story on Illitch's takeover in the THN archive, click here.
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