Mike Ilitch looked at a downtown core of burned-out buildings, abandoned factories, vacant weed-clogged lots and crime-infested neighbourhoods, and imagined a day when an entire city would be vibrant again.
He saw a once-legendary NHL team mockingly referred to as the Dead Things because of its state of mediocrity, and restored it to its rightful place as one of the powerhouses of the league.
Mike Ilitch took a place known as Motown and helped transform it into Hockeytown, not just by purchasing the Detroit Red Wings for the now-modest price of $8 million US back in 1982, but also for opening the doors to the sport for hundreds of kids through his establishment of the Little Caesars minor hockey system, a program that produced, among others, Hall of Famer Mike Modano.