One stood up to a man who later would dismantle the Detroit Red Wings at a successful time, one played a key role in hockey players being recognized as the entertainers they are, and one steadied the franchise through a turbulent time.
The impacts of Marguerite Norris, Colleen Howe and Marian Ilitch on the franchise span decades and include multiple Stanley Cup championships. To use hockey parlance, they created time and space for themselves in a business that remains overwhelmingly male and forged lasting legacies.
March is Women’s History Month, an opportune time to celebrate how Norris, Howe and Ilitch helped shaped the NHL’s most successful U.S.-based franchise.
Marguerite Norris
On April 14, 1955, the Wings won the Stanley Cup for the second time in three years. On Dec. 4, James E Norris, who purchased the franchise in 1932 and changed the name from the Falcons, died of a heart attack. His will revealed he wanted his youngest child to succeed him as president of the Wings and Olympia Stadium. Marguerite, a graduate of Smith College, was 25 when she became the first female chief executive in the NHL. Unlike her father, she moved to Detroit to carry out her duties. Under her leadership, the Wings finished first three times and won the Stanley Cup twice. She was the first woman to have her named inscribed on the Cup, and the only one until Calgary Flames co-owner Sonia Scurfield in 1989. Norris was known for her sense of humor and her strength.
Years later, Gordie Howe in his book, “Mr. Hockey: My Story,” lauded Norris for how deftly she handled Jack Adams, the ornery, trade-happy veteran general manager who had been appointed to the NHL Board of Governors upon James Norris’ death. “I don’t know how Mr. Adams felt about his new team president, but I’m sure he wasn’t thrilled about a woman in her 20s handing down his marching orders, ” Howe wrote in 2014. “I found her to be both smart and capable. Others I talked to felt the same way. She was good for the club, but unfortunately she didn’t stick around for as long as anyone would have liked. A few years into the job, she was ousted by her older brother, Bruce.
“In retrospect, it’s easy to see how bad the family infighting was for the team. Marguerite was a much more thoughtful owner than her brother, who could be something of a bully. I don’t think it’s coincidence that Marguerite’s time in charge coincided with some of the greatest years in franchise history. As president, she had enough juice to check Trader Jack’s instincts to upset the apple cart. It’s hard to say how many Stanley Cups we might have won if she had stuck around longer.”
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Shortly after the Wings won their second consecutive Cup in 1955, Bruce Norris replaced Marguerite as president. That offseason, Adams traded numerous players, including goalie Terry Sawchuk. “Bruce’s hockey acumen was no match for his sister’s, which was good for Mr. Adams but bad for the rest of us,” Howe wrote. “The dismantling of the Red Wings juggernaut cleared the way for Montreal, who went on to win five Cups in a row. … It’s easy to see how those trades sapped us of the firepower we needed to win another championship.”
Though the Wings went into a decline under Bruce Norris, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1969. In 1982, after being booed at Joe Louis Arena during an event to celebrate 50 years of Norris ownership of the Wings, Bruce sold the team to Mike and Marian Ilitch.
Marguerite Norris died in 1994. Despite being a pioneer in her field, she has not been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Colleen Howe
Colleen Joffa was 20 years old when she married Gordie Howe in 1953, two years after meeting him at a bowling alley near Olympia Stadium. She was his wife for more than five decades — and she was also an integral part of Howe’s success, as his agent and business partner. She oversaw much of Howe’s remarkable 32-year career and later that of their sons, Marty and Mark, and in doing so became the first female agent in pro hockey.
Colleen Howe fought for her husband to be recognized as the superstar entertainer that he was, but her sense of fairness extended beyond her own family. She fought for fellow hockey wives, who in the 1950s were “treated like second-class citizens,” Mark said in 2019. “She wanted them to be recognized. When she believed in something, she went at it 100%. When she had an idea, it was very hard to deter her. And generally all her ideas were about making the quality of life better in hockey.”
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Known as a tough negotiator, Colleen handled Gordie’s first promotional contract with Easton Corp., a major maker of hockey equipment, in 1958. Through stonewalling and bluffing, she executed a 12-year contract that paid Howe $20,000 annually. In 1969, the year Gordie turned 41, she encouraged him to demand a higher salary from Bruce Norris. Norris capitulated and raised Howe’s salary from $45,000 to $100,000 — and privately blamed Colleen.
It was Colleen who orchestrated Gordie’s return at age 45, after a two-year retirement, to play with Mark and Marty for the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. It was Colleen who founded the first Junior A team in the United States, the Detroit Junior Wings; who developed the first private indoor rink in Michigan, Gordie Howe Hockeyland in St. Clair Shores; who created the Howe Foundation, a charity to bring hockey to the less fortunate; and it was Colleen who trademarked Gordie as “Mr. Hockey” and herself as “Mrs. Hockey.” She knew poverty as a child, then spent her adult life fighting for others to be recognized and enriched for their value.
Marian Ilitch
Marian Ilitch wanted her husband to be the public face of the Wings when they expanded their empire from pizza in 1982 and bought the Wings for $8 million, but those who worked closely with the Ilitches describe Marian as having had a crucial effect on the team’s resurgence.
“She was a stabilizing force for the team and for her husband,” executive vice president Jimmy Devellano said in 2019. “She was a very steadying influence on Mike. She was a great sounding board.”
Devellano was hired by the Ilitches to be general manager in July 1982. When they bought the team, there were 2,100 season ticket holders. Marian Ilitch set to work answering the phones at the box office at Joe Louis Arena, and as a working mother, she brought her older children with her. Together they set up tables near the Alumni Row and worked the phones trying to sell tickets.
“We wanted to emphasize to the kids that it is a business, and that the bottom line is that you must get customers in the door,” Marian said in a 1988 interview. “By working the box office, we talked to our customers. It’s basically the same in all business. You have to know what you’re selling and what the customer is telling you.”
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Marian was also a firm believer in stability and patience. As the Wings grew more successful, the lack of a Stanley Cup through the first decade of ownership and beyond created tension as fans demanded change.
“She’s been a rock for the franchise,” Devellano said. “Mike, of course, was the driver, but there were many, many times we would get Marian involved because we had important decisions to make, and she was rock solid. In the early years, when I had problems — whether it be players or the media or what have you, we weren’t doing very good — she really had my back. She was for stability.”
Mike Ilitch had courted Marian Bayoff by taking her to Wings games at Olympia Stadium. As owner, she watched games at The Joe from her seat among fans in Section 218 or in her suite.
“She was so friendly to me, to most everybody,” Bruce Martyn, the radio voice of the Wings from 1964-95, said in 2019. “She really nursed everything back to order. Mike would lose his temper sometimes and she would temper him.”
In June, it will have been 40 years since Mike and Marian Ilitch bought the Wings. The franchise has four Stanley Cups during their ownership.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.