Marti Huizenga, the wife of team founder and former owner H. Wayne Huizenga, was one of the most dedicated Panthers fans of all time. During the 1996 postseason, Mrs. Huizenga reportedly smuggled dozens of toy rats like this one into games so that she could express her approval after key plays.

Watch out — those kitties bite! A real-life Florida panther joined Bill Torrey, H. Wayne Huizenga and others on the ice to officially welcome fans to the beginning of Panthers hockey. When Huizenga announced the team’s name, he pledged that for every save made by a Panthers goalie on home ice, an unspecified amount would […]

Hockey was just a gleam in South Florida’s eye until Wayne Huizenga was awarded an NHL expansion franchise in 1992. Within four months, Huizenga had hired Bobby Clarke as Vice President and General Manager and Bill Torrey as President; the dream of hockey in South Florida was becoming a reality.

H. Wayne Huizenga dropped the puck at the official uniform unveiling event at Miami Arena in front of 1,500 new fans. “I’m very prejudiced, but I don’t think any uniform in the league looks better than the one we showed today,” said Panthers President Bill Torrey. Note the claws on the gloves. While sleek, they […]

Nearly a quarter-century after the Florida Panthers were born, Bill Torrey (center) stood by as the Panthers raised a retired jersey to the rafters in honor of their founder and original owner, H. Wayne Huizenga. Torrey and Huizenga had built the team in the early 1990s through a combination of determination and skill  

Groundbreaking (icebreaking?) Zamboni driver Mary Rasenberg looked on while owner H. Wayne Huizenga proudly displayed a custom Florida Panthers license plate before a game in 1995. Rasenberg was one of the first female Zamboni drivers in the NHL, and the team’s lone ice-care expert in its first years. “If there’s something wrong with the ice, […]

Panthers founder and original owner H. Wayne Huizenga acknowledged the crowd at BB&T Center (now Amerant Bank Arena) as his no. 37 jersey was retired to the rafters. The 80-year-old businessman had willed the Panthers into existence in the early 1990s, successfully petitioning the NHL for an expansion franchise that was finally awarded to him […]

Team founder H. Wayne Huizenga and wife Marti Huizenga frequently attended games and got into the spirit of celebrating the Panthers. Huizenga owned the Panthers from 1993 to 2001.

H. Wayne Huizenga had launched two major corporations before he delved into ice hockey: Waste Management and Blockbuster Entertainment. In homage to his second entrepreneurial success, he was originally interested in calling his new South Florida hockey team the Block Busters.

H. Wayne Huizenga: original CEO of three Fortune 500 companies, original Panthers owner, and all-around original man. Just months before he was awarded the Panthers franchise, he received the Horatio Alger Award for succeeding in spite of adversity and emphasizing the importance of higher education. Like heroes in the novels of 19th-century writer Horatio Alger, […]