Re: Michigan Hockey 2010 - Delivery or Take Out?
This is a little off-topic now but....
Scions of Detroit Families Share Hockey Passion
By JOANNE C. GERSTNER
Published: March 31, 2010
DETROIT — Since birth, William Clay Ford Jr. and Christopher Ilitch have been judged by their last names and their families’ businesses. It comes with being the great-grandson of Henry Ford and, for Ilitch, being the son of the founder of Little Caesars Pizza.
If it happens on ice and it involves hitting and scoring, The Times's Slap Shot blog is on it.
Ilitch’s family made its fortune in the pizza business.
As children, they both found an escape from the pressure of their famous names on a hockey rink. Skates laced tight, a stick in their hands, they could blend in on a hockey team. Years later, bearing responsibility for billions of dollars of business, they still do.
“Once you’re out on the ice, nobody cares about who you are or what you do,” said Ford, who is known as Bill. “It’s all washed away the moment the game begins, and I love that.”
Ford, whose great-grandfather launched the modern auto industry, is executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company. The Ford family also owns the N.F.L.’s Detroit Lions and Ford Field. But at 52, he also plays defense on his company’s pond hockey team.
Ilitch, 44, is the president and chief executive of Ilitch Holdings, the management company for his family’s businesses. His father, Mike, the founder of Little Caesars Pizza, owns the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Red Wings and an entertainment empire, and his mother, Marian, owns the Motor City Casino and helped build the businesses. Christopher Ilitch was a star player in high school and now plays forward for the Liquidators, an adult team in suburban Detroit.
“I’ve never run across too many hockey players that I haven’t liked,” Ilitch said. “It’s funny, the sport has a way of weeding out the particular type of person. The ones who are left are like Bill and me — we’ve played hockey for most of our lives and you are around great guys.
“Some of my best friends, from all walks of life, are from hockey. That’s kind of the great equalizer. We’re all the same on the ice.”
Their love of hockey moved both to help bring the N.C.A.A. Frozen Four men’s hockey championship to Ford Field this year, with Ford and Ilitch serving as co-chairmen. The event, to be held April 8-10, is expected to draw record crowds, with a seating configuration of 30,000 in the football stadium.
Ilitch and Ford say they plan to skate with their friends on the Frozen Four rink before the tournament.
Ford and his buddies have won four USA Hockey pond hockey titles, including the 2010 over-50 championship, with Ford as their stalwart on defense.
“He plays with a lot of emotion and a big heart,” said Ralph Booth, a teammate, lifelong friend and private investment entrepreneur. “He really anchors our defense. I can say that if they gave the Lady Byng award for pond hockey, Bill would get it.”
Ford, sportsmanship awards or no, gladly suffers the bumps and bruises of hockey. He recounts how a bigger player once knocked him to his knees — twice — and then refused to shake his hand after Ford’s team won. The player came back an hour later, looking for him.
“He asked me for my autograph,” Ford said. “And this was after he tried to kill me. That was kind of humorous.”
Jim Kwilos, another member of the Ford team, says he enjoys its casual atmosphere.
“You’d never know you have a member of one of the greatest industrial families in our country on your team; he’s just Bill to everybody,” said Kwilos, an industrial sales representative. “People do know Bill, though. He signs autographs and talks to people about cars. He never says no.”
Ford has loved hockey since childhood, playing on organized teams and in pickup games on the frozen shoreline of Lake St. Clair near his family’s historic Grosse Pointe Shores home. He played prep hockey at the Hotchkiss School, and carries the souvenir of a scar on his upper lip from a slap shot from his days there.
Ford said one of his happiest childhood memories was attending a summer camp led by the hockey great Gordie Howe in suburban Detroit. Ford, then 8, wanted to show Howe — his hockey idol — his work ethic and toughness.
He spotted Howe and put his head down to skate hard.
“My heart just jumped,” Ford said of first seeing Howe. “The next thing I know, I was slammed. I’ve never been hit so hard in my life. I’m lying in this heap, and it’s Gordie looking down at me.
“He says, ‘Son, always skate with your head up.’ I was so honored to have been checked by Gordie Howe. That was the coolest thing that ever happened to me.”
The Ford hockey tradition has continued. Ford’s son Will, 17, plays junior hockey in Marquette, Mich., and has signed to play at Princeton, his father’s alma mater, next season.
Ilitch has his own family hockey dynasty brewing. His son Travis, 6, recently scored his first hat trick for the mini-mite Troy Red Wings.
As a teenager, Ilitch helped the Cranbrook School win the Michigan state title in 1983. He was an all-state forward and also served as the Cranes’ co-captain.
His parents bought the Red Wings during his senior year, but Ilitch realized that playing hockey would not be his role in the family business.
“I knew the Wings didn’t need a 5-9 winger,” Ilitch said. “That was obvious.”
He has been playing with the Liquidators, a team made up of former college and minor league players as well as weekend warriors, for nearly two decades. His teammates call Ilitch a hard worker with a decent scoring touch.
He is also known for his intensity and his willingness to get under the skin of opponents.
Steve Walton, a Detroit police officer who plays on Ilitch’s team, said: “I don’t think 95 percent of the teams we’re playing against have an idea that an Ilitch is out there; he’s in a full cage, can’t see his face, no name. He’s blending in and just another player who thinks he’s better and younger than he is.
“I can’t even imagine the pressure he has on him. The only stress he has with us if he can get the puck out of the zone or in the net. Or who gets to the beer first after the game.”
His Liquidators teammate A. J. Plaskey, a commercial painter, said he loved playing with Ilitch and wanted to keep him on the team — and at work — for years to come.
“I won’t lie, when Chris became more prominent in the family business, more of us looked after him because we didn’t want the guy running the Tigers and Wings to go down on our watch,” Plaskey said. “We’ve got his back because we realize he’s got a pretty important day job too.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/sports/hockey/01frozen.html?th&emc=th#
