Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Huizenga’s heart, smarts gave Panthers great start
This is what you must always remember about H. Wayne Huizenga, on the occasion of the Panthers having a ceremony tonight to honor their original owner: As much as building, as much as winning, he loved the big event.
“To success,” Huizenga toasted, a flute of champagne held high, in a Chicago Stadium suite that October night in 1993 when the Panthers played their first game.
That was part of Huizenga bringing the magic carpet ride of sports to much of South Florida. His Marlins had thrown their first pitch that April and he would take majority ownership of the Dolphins early the next year.
It was before Huizenga, now 80, became an example of everything a big sports owner can be, both good and controversial.
Tonight is a thanks for that, even if Huizenga’s health is expected to keep him away.
His family will be represented. Current Panthers owner Vinnie Viola, longtime Panthers executive Bill Torrey and former Panthers stars John Vanbiesbrouck, Bill Lindsay and Ed Jovanovski will be there.
Sometimes you don’t know the good old days were so good until they’re gone. So it was for the Panthers and Huizenga, looking back on that start.
He didn’t know much about hockey, once asking, “How much does a puck weigh?” He knew talent and knew how to build an organization, though. He hired the best people. He spent smart money.
The Panthers tied that first night in Chicago and were a surprise out of the gate that first season, similar to tonight’s expansion opponent, Las Vegas, this year.
By the third season, the magical season, the one where the Panthers made a run through a frozen spring all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, Huizenga was like the rest of South Florida. He was in love.
“Look at this,” he said one night, pointing to the purse of his wife, Marti. A few plastic rats were stuffed inside, ready to be thrown on the ice in the manner that still resonates around this franchise.
He did more. He won a World Series with the Marlins, though he never quite warmed to baseball, once calling a scored run “a transaction.” He got the BB&T Center built in Broward for the Panthers. He hired the best names for the Dolphins — Jimmy Johnson, Nick Saban, Bill Parcells — but the big wins never followed.
His first love was business, of course. He built his teams with the same brains and bloodless brawn he used to take a staggering three businesses to the New York Stock Exchange — Waste Management, Blockbuster Video and AutoNation.
George Steinbrenner once famously said owning the Yankees was like owning the Mona Lisa, and that once you owned the Mona Lisa you never sold it. Huizenga never felt that way. Most owners don’t.
Huizenga not only would sell the Mona Lisa, if it came to that. He’d figure out how to sell at the most opportune time. And on his terms. And those terms were forever changing. The Marlins were losing money despite winning the World Series?
“I’ll lose $10 million next season, if you take $10 million off your contracts, too,” he told Marlins players who tried to talk him into keeping the team together.
His sale of the Marlins looks more understandable with time. No owner has managed to make baseball work in South Florida.
“The price just went up $70 million,’’ Huizenga told Steve Ross the morning after the Dolphins won their only game of the 2007 season.
He sold the Dolphins and the stadium to Ross for $1.2 billion. It was a record price. It’s nearly doubled in value in Ross’s time, too. So good businessmen rubbing against good businessmen — that was Huizenga’s way.
Joe Robbie started the Dolphins. Ted Arison brought the Heat. Huizenga made South Florida a complete sports region by bringing baseball and hockey. He made us major league, even if he was the first to say sports weren’t his best work.
“My business decisions were all very good,’’ he said one day at the Dolphins headquarters. “My sports decisions?” He held out his palm and waggled it back and forth.
There will be memories and applause and thanks tonight when a jersey with No. 37 (he was born in 1937) is retired. Perhaps thanks, most of all. Panthers coach Bob Boughner wasn’t around when Huizenga brought hockey and baseball to South Florida.
He’s a sports lifer, though, so he understands what a man like Huizenga means to a franchise like the Panthers.
“It’s going to be a great night for this organization,” he said. “We’re looking forward to honoring Mr. Huizenga, but when the puck drops it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side of the ice.”
Just as Huizenga always appreciated.