Mike Ilitch has died, and the first thing you’ll hear about him was that he wanted to win. Well, we all want to win. What separated Ilitch was how much he wanted to win, and how hard he tried to do it. It was like nothing else mattered. He ran the Red Wings and Tigers the way he lived his life: without a net.
If Ilitch ever worried about risk in his 87 years, he didn’t show it. He was one of the least pragmatic owners in sports history. Marian Ilitch would tell people that when she and her husband started Little Caesar’s Pizza, she worked in the back, in the kitchen, while he was in the front with the customers.