Owner’s wife loved Panthers, right down to the rats
The NHL wasn’t exactly thrilled at how long it took for Florida Panthers home g a me s t o b e c o mpl e t e d during the 1996 playoffffs.
Every time the Panthers s c ore d, hundreds — a nd sometimes thousands — of rubber rats would flfly down from the stands and pile up onto the ice.
A l t h o u g h f a n s w e r e warned not to throw things onto the playing surface, few took notice or took the warnings seriously.
After all, the wife of the H. Wayne Huizenga’s wife, team’s owner brought her own supply of toy rodents to games and was often shown on television chucking them over the glass to celebrate her team’s goals.
Marti Huizenga, the South Florida philanthropist who helped bring the Marlins and Panthers to life alongside her billionaire husband, Wayne Huizenga, died Tuesday at age 74.
The Panthers, perhaps the team Marti Huizenga loved most, honored her spirit and life with a moment of silence before Wednesday’s game against the Winnipeg Jets at BB&T Center in Sunrise.
“She hardly ever missed a game,” said an emotional Bill Torrey, who was the fifirst hockey-related hire of the Huizengas after South Florida was awarded an NHL expansion team in 1992. “She loved the game. The rats were right up Marti’s alley. She would come to the game with a shopping bag full of rats. And she could throw. Everyone was throwing them and she was an involved player.”
The Huizengas are known f o r t h e i r p h i l a n t h r o p y throughout South Florida b ut b e c a me b e s t k nown through their sports teams.
H. Wayne Huizenga at one point owned three of Miami’s pro teams, with rumors he was interested in buying the Heat as well.
Two of the teams — the Panthers and Marlins — were expansion cousins playing t h e i r f i r s t g a mes wi t h i n months of each other.
Marti Huizenga became a fan favorite as she and Wayne did the hokey-pokey on the infifield at Joe Robbie Stadium during the Marlins’ inaugural season and later joined fans in the stands at Miami Arena for hockey games.
T h e H u i z e n g a s w e r e beloved by the players and employees, team broadcaster and former player Randy Moller said, because they were genuine people.
“I will always remember her throwing those rats onto the ice, but I have many more personal memories of her,” Moller said. “She was more than that. Every year, she had all the wives — players, broadcasters, employees — to her home in Fort Lauderdale for lunch. And it wasn’t some fancy catered deal.
“What impressed my wife so much was the house was so homey, so welcoming. And then there’s Marti, pulling the cookies and muffiffins out of the oven herself with stacks of mail on the counter. It’s a sad day. But I have great memories.”
A d d e d T o r r e y : “S h e e n j o y e d t h e g a m e a n d enjoyed the team very much. She enjoyed being involved with the wives, with all the charities.
She had a great heart. She was always smiling, was always upbeat, had a great personality. It is a sad day.”