Larry Aurie's #6

[Greatness=PavelDatsyuk 65]

Anyone know why Ilitch wont let his number hang in the rafters. I have even saw that he had it unlisted as a retired number, so any info would be helpful

[up2here 41]

Anyone know why Ilitch wont let his number hang in the rafters. I have even saw that he had it unlisted as a retired number, so any info would be helpful

This has been mentioned on these boards many times but to my knowledge no one has a real definitive answer. He has at the very least taken the number out of circulation.

Edited October 15, 2008 by UP2HERE

[egroen 384]

Essentially because Aurie is not in the Hall of Fame, and it somehow "lessened" the other names up there.... this is the best reason I can come up with.

Aurie lead the Wings to their first two Cups (back-to-back in '36 and '37). He lead the team in points and as a Captain and was the first Red Wing to have his number retired. Mike Illitch simply had it taken down and erased from all official records. The Aurie family has never received an explanation and it is a great blight in what has otherwise been a wonderful ownership by Illitch.

[joshy207 156]

I didn't know you can "un-retire" a guy's number. It took Ilitch FOREVER to retire Sid Abel's number too. I understand it's the highest honor a club can give, but Abel put in a lot of years here and was a pretty good player.

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Ilitch should at least have the guts to explain why he did it, but for some reason he hasn't.

[eva unit zero 271]

I didn't know you can "un-retire" a guy's number. It took Ilitch FOREVER to retire Sid Abel's number too. I understand it's the highest honor a club can give, but Abel put in a lot of years here and was a pretty good player.

Ilitch has retired Sawchuk, Lindsay, Abel, Yzerman, as well as re-retiring Delvecchio's number during his ownership. From when Ilitch took over in 1982 to 1995, there were four jersey retirement ceremonies for the Wings. 4 in the first 13 years of ownership for Ilitch. Since then, Yzerman's number has been retired, and Aurie's number has been removed from official listings.

So let's compare the first 13 years of Ilitch, with the three new retired numbers, to the previous 56 years of team history, with 3 retired numbers.

Yep, Ilitch clearly is completely against retiring numbers given that in his first 13 years, the number of total retired jersey numbers went from 2 to 6, an increase of 4, one of which (Delvecchio's 10) had been unretired and was being re-retired.

[egroen 384]

Here's a great in-depth article about it and one that really celebrates Aurie's career:

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hock...secrates_aurie/

Armed with my Aurie file of documentation, I met on separate occasions with Marian Ilitch and Denise Ilitch to possibly enlighten them to the omission of Aurie from the JLA rafters. When handed the documentation, both Marian and Denise seemed impressed and each expressed interest in looking into the matter more closely. Each mentioned taking the information back to discuss with other family members. But that’s where things ended with them, as they never took any further action - at least in a positive direction...I’ll get to that later.

I also spoke to Wings senior vice president Jim Devellano in 1997, who said that the team was reluctant to hang the jersey because Aurie was not a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. I explained to Devellano that many NHL retired numbers are of players not in the Hall of Fame, and the fact remained that Aurie’s number was already retired, and should join the other retired numbers in the JLA rafters, regardless of whether or not he was a Hall of Fame member. Devellano listened intently, but repeated his “company line” and stated that the jersey would only be kept out of circulation, not hung in the rafters.

Devellano’s response did present a challenge to the family, which involved attempting at get Aurie nominated to the Hockey Hall of Fame ballot. In 1997, the Hall inducted only Mario Lemieux upon his retirement after that season. In 1998, however, Aurie was successfully nominated for Hall of Fame consideration, and were confident that the committee would select Aurie. After much debate, Aurie finished a close second to Charlie Conacher in the voting.

The following year, the Hockey Hall of Fame inducted Wayne Gretzky in the same solo fashion as was extended to Lemieux in 1997, and then took an unfortunate step backwards by declaring that no other “old-time” candidates would ever be allowed to be nominated again. Thus, another door was slammed on the Aurie family’s noble efforts.

Troubled by the Ilitch family’s cold response toward the Aurie situation, I and a handful of “Friends of Larry Aurie” - including Aurie’s grand niece and other family members - took to Woodward Avenue in Dec. 1999, busily distributing Aurie literature in the freezing cold in front of the Hockeytown Cafe… on a public sidewalk… with police permission.

Sadly and surprisingly, Ilitch tried to have us arrested, while we were very simply exercising our right to free speech. His security people continuously harassed us, and finally succeeded in convincing the police to ask us to leave.

The police threatened to arrest the grand niece near the Hockeytown Café’s front door, and she left the scene sobbing, visibly shaken with her spirit all but broken by the surprising and disturbing intimidation exhibited by Ilitch that night.

One Olympia Entertainment security person confided to me that Ilitch was indeed trying to have us arrested, saying that he felt we were hurting his business and bothering Hockeytown and Fox Theatre patrons.

That night, Mike Ilitch failed to have us arrested. But the Ilitch family decided to act the following season - in a very unfortunate way.

Before the 2000-01 NHL season, during the launching of the Wings’ “Heroes of Hockeytown” campaign for the team’s 75th anniversary, the Ilitches authorized the removal of Aurie’s No. 6 from the list of Wings’ retired numbers in the 2000-01 NHL Guide. They acted in direct defiance of the wishes of former owner James Norris and, in their minds, un-retired the number! What they accomplished with the desecration of the Aurie name and his proud Detroit hockey legacy.

Edited October 16, 2008 by egroen

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Here's a great in-depth article about it and one that really celebrates Aurie's career:

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hock...secrates_aurie/

Wow, that article makes Ilitch out to be a major *******.

That's exactly why he needs to give his side of the story on this, because it really is weird that he has acted so secretively about the whole matter. It's hard to defend his actions, and the fact that Aurie is not in the HOF is not a good enough reason to remove his number if you ask me.

[egroen 384]

Wow, that article makes Ilitch out to be a major *******.

That's exactly why he needs to give his side of the story on this, because it really is weird that he has acted so secretively about the whole matter. It's hard to defend his actions, and the fact that Aurie is not in the HOF is not a good enough reason to remove his number if you ask me.

Yeah, it really is weird.... and a pretty awful blight of an otherwise classy owner. I keep thinking the Auries somehow had bad tiding with the Illitches, but there is nothing to suggest this. Larry Aurie died young, before Mike Illitch was anything.

Could be as simple as an old man being stubborn... the Aurie family annoyed him and there is no chance in hell he is going to give them what they want.

Edited October 16, 2008 by egroen

[GMRwings1983 8,794]

Yeah, it really is weird.... and a pretty awful blight of an otherwise classy owner. I keep thinking the Auries somehow had bad tiding with the Illitches, but there is nothing to suggest this. Larry Aurie died young, before Mike Illitch was anything.

Could be as simple as an old man being stubborn... the Aurie family annoyed him and there is no chance in hell he is going to give them what they want.

Ilitch is like "Old Man Potter" in "It's A Wonderful Life".

[egroen 384]

Ilitch retired Willie Horton’s Detroit Tigers No. 23 in July 2000, and Horton is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

[Echolalia 2,961]

There has to be some grudge or feud or something that happened behind the scenes regarding someone from either family. I can't think of any other rational explanation.

[egroen 384]

There has to be some grudge or feud or something that happened behind the scenes regarding someone from either family. I can't think of any other rational explanation.

I think ultimately it is not a "good" or "logical" reason, or it would have been addressed at some point by the Illitches.

[betterREDthandead 58]

I think ultimately it is not a "good" or "logical" reason, or it would have been addressed at some point by the Illitches.

I've always thought there might be the possibility that there's a really, really good reason Aurie's number isn't hanging and that the Ilitches are keeping it quiet so as not to tarnish Aurie's legacy and taking the blame as the bad guys for the sake of the family. That's real, real slim, but you never know. Anyway, I wouldn't want to see Aurie's number hung in the rafters. I think there were players more deserving from that era. Of the six numbers (seven with #6) Aurie would be far, far away the weakest one, and really nobody would consider it worth retiring if it hadn't been sort of done once upon a time. Nobody crusades for Ebbie Goodfellow, for example.

[egroen 384]

Of the six numbers (seven with #6) Aurie would be far, far away the weakest one, and really nobody would consider it worth retiring if it hadn't been sort of done once upon a time. Nobody crusades for Ebbie Goodfellow, for example.

We've been posting on Goodfellow in the other thread, actually.

There is something to be said for the first Red Wings All Star who lead them to their first Stanley Cup. I do think these early teams should be represented, and the fact Aurie's number actually was retired for decades and is not up there now is nothing short of shameful.

[MississippiWing 14]

I think it doesn't matter whether you think it belongs there or not. The fact of the matter is that at one point someone felt it was worth being retired and did so. Thus it should hang with the others.

[betterREDthandead 58]

I think it doesn't matter whether you think it belongs there or not. The fact of the matter is that at one point someone felt it was worth being retired and did so. Thus it should hang with the others.

Then again, the Norris family did not see fit to retire numbers like, say, Sid Abel. Why should the decision not to retire Abel and Delvecchio be reversible and this not?

[egroen 384]

Then again, the Norris family did not see fit to retire numbers like, say, Sid Abel. Why should the decision not to retire Abel and Delvecchio be reversible and this not?

Heh... are you employed by Little Ceasers by any chance?

[HomeNugget 2]

Then again, the Norris family did not see fit to retire numbers like, say, Sid Abel. Why should the decision not to retire Abel and Delvecchio be reversible and this not?

Delvecchio's number was retired immediately after he retired. Dale McCourt requested the number after he was drafted and Delvecchio gave his permission. I guess after McCourt left people forgot it was retired.

What if a new owner comes along fifty years from now and unretires Yzerman's number because of some personal grudge? That's essentially what happened to Larry Aurie.

Edited October 17, 2008 by HomeNugget

[scotzman 29]

This guy either pissed off Mike or maybe he has some kind of horrible skeleton's in his closet... there is no way Illitch would just leave this guy out of the rafters because he is not in the HOF. There has to be a good reason for it... Illitch has always done what is best for this team and for the most part, the city of Detroit.

[AtomicPunk 296]

There are plenty of teams who retire players that are not in the Hall of Fame, yet had a part in the team's history. St. Louis (Plager, Gassoff), Buffalo (Gare, Robert, Martin), Pittsburgh (Michel Briere), etc. Are the Red Wings so mighty that every retired number needs to be a Hall of Famer?

To be specific, Stevie Y is NOT a Hall of Famer.....YET.

Edited October 17, 2008 by AtomicPunk

[Hitchhiker 9]

Didn't his Larry's Nephew wear #6 on Detroit after it was retired? Maybe everyone forgot

[betterREDthandead 58]

What if a new owner comes along fifty years from now and unretires Yzerman's number because of some personal grudge? That's essentially what happened to Larry Aurie.

Then I would be angry because Yzerman deserves to have his number retired. Not because "what's done can't be undone" so to speak.

In other words, the mere fact that someone retired it doesn't by itself make it worthy of retirement.

[HomeNugget 2]

Then I would be angry because Yzerman deserves to have his number retired. Not because "what's done can't be undone" so to speak.

In other words, the mere fact that someone retired it doesn't by itself make it worthy of retirement.

I know Aurie's number's aren't great, but at the time he retired he was the Red Wings franchise leader in games played and goals scored, and he was third in assists and second in points. Having your number retired isn't only about numbers though. It's about what they meant to the team and how they were viewed by the fans. At the time someone thought he was important enough to have his number retired. You shouldn't unretire a number because there's no one around who remembers how great he was or what he meant to the team. And maybe he wouldn't be forgotten if the Red Wings chose to honor him in the same way they chose to honor the other 6 players with retired numbers.

[egroen 384]

Didn't his Larry's Nephew wear #6 on Detroit after it was retired? Maybe everyone forgot

Commy Burton - and it was done with the family's blessing.

Conflicting articles have him as Larry's cousin or nephew.

As fruitless as these generally are, there is an online petition to see Aurie's #6 in the rafters:

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/larry-...he-rafters.html

BetterREDthandead,

Aurie toiled with a miserable Red Wings team for years and lead the organization to its first ever Cup. He was the Wings first All-Star and a total heart and soul type player who was not afraid to drop the gloves (despite being 5'6 and 140 lbs) and lead the Wings forwards both offensively and defensively. If the HHoF was around back then, he would be in it for sure (one of the top forwards of his era, leading the league in goals once and top 5 in points several times, with as many first team all star selections as Yzerman and Fedorov)... just what is it about him that does not make his number retirement worthy?

Then I would be angry because Yzerman deserves to have his number retired. Not because "what's done can't be undone" so to speak.

That's just thing -- Larry Aurie certainly deserved it at the time, and it was never questioned for decades.

It is certainly possible a number of Wings players in the future will eclipse Yzerman's accomplishments, and Yzerman could end up looking just like Aurie right now. I would be pretty pissed if a future owner just decided to take it down.

Edited October 17, 2008 by egroen