Wayne Huizenga was born at Little Company of Mary Hospital, in Evergreen Park, Illinois, on December 29,1937, the first child in a family of garbage haulers.
29 Facts About Wayne Huizenga
2.
In 1940 when Wayne was 2, the Huizenga family were listed as living in an apartment building in Berwyn, Illinois.
3.
Wayne Huizenga had one sister, Bonnie, who was five years younger.
4.
Wayne Huizenga attended Chicago Christian High School in his sophomore year.
5.
In 1953, the Wayne Huizenga family moved to Florida and settled in the Fort Lauderdale area.
6.
Wayne Huizenga's father became a building contractor in a booming real estate market.
7.
The remainder of Wayne Huizenga's high school years were spent at Pine Crest School, where he was a member of the football team and senior class treasurer.
8.
In Fort Lauderdale, Wayne Huizenga started a garbage hauling business, as his grandfather had done in Chicago in 1894.
9.
Wayne Huizenga purchased many independent garbage hauling companies; by the time he took the company public in 1972, he had completed the acquisition of 133 small-time haulers.
10.
Wayne Huizenga repeated the process with Blockbuster Video, acquiring a handful of stores in 1987, with the company becoming the leading movie-rental chain in the US by 1994.
11.
Wayne Huizenga was notable for introducing both baseball and ice hockey to the South Florida area as the creator and initial owner of the Florida Marlins and Florida Panthers.
12.
Wayne Huizenga was criticized for naming the two teams for the state of Florida rather than the city of Miami.
13.
In 1994, Wayne Huizenga's brother-in-law attempted to purchase the NBA's Miami Heat, but was unsuccessful.
14.
In turn, Wayne Huizenga bought the remaining shares of the team for $115 million to obtain full ownership in 1994.
15.
Wayne Huizenga changed the name of Joe Robbie Stadium, selling the naming rights to Fruit of the Loom brand Pro Player for $2 million per year for 10 years.
16.
Wayne Huizenga operated the Florida Panthers as a public holding company, buying numerous real estate properties in the name of his Panthers Holding Group.
17.
Wayne Huizenga used the hockey team's stock as currency to begin building yet another diversified enterprise, buying two resort hotels owned partly by Wayne Huizenga and other Panthers officials.
18.
Wayne Huizenga donated to Pine Crest School, a private preparatory school, which named its science building Huizenga Science Building.
19.
In 1991, Wayne Huizenga received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
20.
In 1992, Wayne Huizenga was named a "Distinguished American" by the Horatio Alger Association in 1992 for his funding of scholarships throughout Florida.
21.
Wayne Huizenga was named its 2008 Norman Vincent Peale Award recipient.
22.
Wayne Huizenga's donations help fund the association's annual National Scholar awards.
23.
Wayne Huizenga had known Joyce since his early school years in Evergreen Park.
24.
Wayne Huizenga married his second wife, Martha Jean "Marti" Goldsby, a native of San Antonio, Florida, in April 1972.
25.
Wayne Huizenga was a secretary, who had done billing and clerical work in one of his businesses.
26.
Wayne Huizenga later adopted her son, Robert Ray, and daughter Pamela.
27.
In 2004, Wayne Huizenga purchased a private luxury yacht from the Australian professional golfer Greg Norman.
28.
Wayne Huizenga renamed his yacht Floridian, before selling the Floridian club and estate to Texas entrepreneur Jim Crane in 2010.
29.
Wayne Huizenga died of cancer at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on the night of March 22,2018.