RIP H. Wayne Huizenga

[BTExpress]

No, not a shameless attempt to get my RIP batting average up.

Former Marlins, Dolphins, Panthers owner. Garbage magnate. Video magnate. Auto magnate.

H. Wayne Huizenga, South Florida business titan, dead at 80

 

[DanielSimpsonDay]

I think the headstone is a bit much.

 

[User 149557]

A fantastic idea man, he missed out on one biggie: I always wished he'd have combined Waste Management and Blockbuster back in the 1990s.

Could've picked up your garbage and left you a copy of Die Hard 2: Die Harder in one trip.

Dumpbuster would've been huge.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

According to stories from my friends in the Miami media, his home phone number was listed in the phone book up until the late 1990s and if you called after hours, he would pick up.

 

[BTExpress]

His business philosophy (in the early days, at least): Provide a product at a fixed cost that keeps getting used over and over. Boom. Garbage pickup and video rentals. Like printing money.

But ruthless, as they all are.

Many years ago some pizza joint owner in downtown Fort Lauderdale decided to name his business "Clockbuster Pizza", with the usual promise of guaranteed speedy delivery.

Blockbuster Video, which had its headquarters just down the street, filed suit for trademark infringement.

 

[User 149557]

His business philosophy (in the early days, at least): Provide a product at a fixed cost that keeps getting used over and over. Boom. Garbage pickup and video rentals. Like printing money.

Makes me wonder if he'd still been in charge at Blockbuster he wouldn't have squashed Netflix in its infancy using that very philosophy. I don't know how much he would've known about streaming technology to make that call.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Terrible baseball owner, but good NFL owner by all accounts.

 

[Webster]

He bought the baseball and hockey teams to have his amusement park built. Once that fell through, he didn't care about those teams.

 

[Batman]

In tribute, five minutes after the funeral his pallbearers were traded to the Schwartzman funeral down the hall for a tray of Chick-fil-A nuggets and six packets of sauce.

 

[Slacker]

H. Wayne Huizenga, South Florida business titan, dead at 80

JFC, someone on the desk fix the damn lede. ... Hello? ... Hello?

H. Wayne Huizenga, whose restless entrepreneurial spirit led him to become the only U.S. businessman to three Fortune 500 companies, has died.

 

[User 149557]

In tribute, five minutes after the funeral his pallbearers were traded to the Schwartzman funeral down the hall for a tray of Chick-fil-A nuggets and six packets of sauce.

There will be a ceremonial "Jim Leyland gets his meal stolen from his plate and replaced with saltines" at the post-funeral reception.

 

[typefitter]

His last words were, "Be Kind. Rewind."

 

[BTExpress]

JFC, someone on the desk fix the damn lede. ... Hello? ... Hello?

H. Wayne Huizenga, whose restless entrepreneurial spirit led him to become the only U.S. businessman to three Fortune 500 companies, has died.

They can't hear you if they don't exist.

 

[Liut]

Made a heck of a hire in Bill Torrey. RIP

 

[Bronco77]

Made a heck of a hire in Bill Torrey. RIP

Same with Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland. Did OK with Jimmy Johnson, though not as well as most Dolphins fans hoped.

Unfortunately, he whiffed on Dave Wannstedt (should have fired him after he failed to make the playoffs in '02 with Ricky Williams running for 1,800-plus yards), Nick Saban (whose wife hated South Florida) and especially Cam (1-15) Cameron.

 

[HanSenSE]

Are we sure there won't be a replacement body at the funeral?

 

[Slacker]

They can't hear you if they don't exist.

Somebody here must have called the publisher ...

H. Wayne Huizenga, whose restless entrepreneurial spirit led him to become the only U.S. businessman to found three Fortune 500 companies, has died.

 

[BTExpress]

Well, I did message a former colleague who still works there and who posted the obit on my Facebook feed.

So I'll take the credit.

 

[Monday Morning Sportswriter]

He and I dropped out of the same college. He would have been considered by many to be the most successful graduate had he, you know, graduated.

 

[Slacker]

Well, I did message a former colleague who still works there and who posted the obit on my Facebook feed.

So I'll take the credit.

No, no, no, it was all me. You were just mopping up, shame on you.