Mike Ilitch
FameRank: 4

"Michael "Mike" Ilitch, Sr." is an American entrepreneur, founder and owner of the international fast food franchise Little Caesars Pizza. He owns the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League and Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball.

Ilitch has been at the center of Detroit's downtown redevelopment efforts; he purchased and renovated the Fox Theatre (Detroit)/Fox Theatre and relocated his business headquarters (Ilitch Holdings) there. He also owns Olympia Entertainment.

A first generation American of Macedonians (ethnic group)/Macedonian descent, he is married to Marian Ilitch/Marian Bayoff Ilitch.

More Mike Ilitch on Wikipedia.

He said, 'I'll do a good job for you,' ... I've never had anyone be introduced to me and have that come so naturally from his mouth: 'I'll do a good job for you.'

I hope Alan stays with us.

When we hired Scotty Bowman, everything changed.

I've said it over and over -- when you get that one guy, you can win. A lot of times, one person can have a tremendous effect on a team.

He reminded me of Scotty when I met him for the first time last night, ... and the first words that came out of his mouth were: 'I'm going to do a good job for you.' I've never had anybody who I was introduced to immediately say that.

When I met [Leyland], the first words he said were, 'I'm going to do a good job for you,'? ... I've never been introduced to anybody and immediately it just came natural out of his mouth: `I'm going to do a good job for you.'?

I stepped into the Tigers situation with no farm system and no general manager, ... I had to work with scouts as GM's and not being connected in the sport. I'm not trying to make any alibis, but it's tough. I didn't make any good decisions on hiring.

When he told me about Jim, he was like a schoolboy.

When we hired Scotty Bowman, everything changed. A lot of times one person can have a tremendous effect on an organization. You know, Jim addressed right away you've got to have all your veterans on board. Ironically, the first thing Scotty told me was getting your veterans on the same page. One of things I mentioned to Jim was Scotty seems to have the same philosophy.