Mike Ilitch dies at age 87

Photo: The Canadian Press

Billionaire businessman Mike Ilitch, who founded the Little Caesars pizza empire before buying the Detroit Red Wings and the Detroit Tigers, and won praise for keeping the professional sports teams in the city as others relocated to new suburban stadiums, has died. He was 87.

His family released a statement saying Ilitch died Friday at a local hospital. They called him a visionary who set the tone for his company and his family.

City leaders heaped praise on the man known simply as "Mr. I" to most in Michigan for all that he put into Detroit.

"Mike Ilitch was more than just a shrewd, successful businessman. He was a Detroiter through-and-through," Mayor Mike Duggan said Friday night in a statement. "Whether he was making pizza, building successful sports and entertainment franchises or supporting youth organizations in our city, Mr. I helped to bring thousands of jobs and opportunities to our city and attract millions of dollars of investment."

Family spokesman Doug Kuiper confirmed the death, but no other details were provided.

Ilitch and his wife, Marian, founded Little Caesars — later known for its "Pizza! Pizza!" ads featuring an animated "Little Caesar" — in suburban Detroit in 1959. They eventually grew the business into one of the world's largest carry-out pizza chains with several spin-off companies that now employ 23,000 people worldwide and posted revenues last year of $3.4 billion.

His investments in Detroit spearheaded the current flurry of development from downtown to Midtown.

"Mike Ilitch saw the bright possibilities of Detroit's Woodward Corridor at a time that other investors had fully turned their backs on the city," said Rip Rapson, president and chief executive of the Troy, Michigan-based Kresge Foundation.

"Revitalizing the historic Fox Theatre and relocating his business headquarters to the city were bold moves, but ones that ultimately set downtown on a course for incredible investment and remarkable transformation," Rapson said.

Ilitch was as much a fan of the often-struggling Detroit as he was of sports. When approached in 2009 by organizers of the Motor City Bowl in Detroit, Ilitch agreed to sponsor the annual college football bowl game despite a poor local economy. The game was renamed the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.