Stoudamire, Red Wings 'Learn, Play, Score' architect, mourned

Marlowe Stoudamire never scored a goal, blocked a shot or logged a minute of ice time in an NHL game. But that didn't stop him from becoming a change agent in the sport.

Stoudamire, a Detroit native, was a driving force in the Detroit Red Wings, NHL and NHL Players' Association launch in February of "Learn, Play, Score," an ambitious $1 million pilot program to bring hockey to more than 30,000 children in the city.
"He never played hockey, but he was always passionate about hockey as a way of bringing communities together," said Kim Davis, NHL Vice President, Social Impact, Growth Initiatives & Legislative Affairs. "He wanted to be the voice of those communities to say that indeed, Detroit is Hockeytown, and there's a rich history of black and brown people playing hockey in the city of Detroit."
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Stoudamire's friendly, booming voice was silenced Tuesday, when he died at the age of 43 after contracting the coronavirus. He is survived by his wife, Valencia, and two young children.
"He was a light here in the city of Detroit. Unfortunately, the city is a little dimmer today with his loss," said Kevin Brown, director of community relations & Red Wings Foundation for the team. "The great thing about Marlowe is that he provided a lot of hope and opportunity to people here in the city of Detroit."

Stoudamire was a devoted husband, father, entrepreneur, businessman, community leader and proud member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. But he was more than that.
He was Detroit. The city of Detroit. Motown.
"When you met Marlowe, you knew within a minute that he was a native and committed Detroiter," Davis said. "He always talked about his city with great excitement and enthusiasm and let people know that the city was on the upswing."
He was a graduate of the city's Cass Technical High School, earned his bachelor's degree at local Wayne State University, his master's degree from Central Michigan University and attended Harvard Business School's Young Leaders program.
Stoudamire worked as a community and diversity manager and then as a project director of international business strategy for the Henry Ford health System; he also worked with the Skillman Foundation, a philanthropic organization that focuses on supporting Detroit's children; led the Detroit Historical Museum's award-winning Detroit 67 project, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the city's 1967 uprising; and founded Butterfly Effect Detroit, a consulting firm.
"It was the intersection of his experience and his passion that allowed him to be almost a larger than life figure in Detroit but also beyond Detroit," Davis said. "But he never abandoned the city."

Stoudamire's entry to working in hockey came through football, when he pitched projects to Rob Wooley, now the NHL's senior director for Legislative Affairs, Public Policy and Partnership Development, when Wooley worked in the community relations and charity offices of the Detroit Lions of the NFL.
"He had an infectious smile, he was so friendly, smart," Wooley said of Stoudamire. "He knew everybody and everybody in the city knew him. He had that natural ability to network and to communicate and to sort of be ingrained into the city. He was an idea generator."
When Wooley joined the NHL, he suggested to Davis that Stoudamire could work with the Red Wings and League on diversity and inclusion efforts in the city.
Stoudamire quickly became a lynchpin in the "Learn, Play, Score" effort. The initiative aims to expose hockey to more than 30,000 youth in the city through street hockey at 79 schools, 12 parks and recreation centers; by using hockey as an educational tool in schools; scholarships for hockey programs and open skate sessions at Little Caesars Arena.
"When we were thinking through how to intentionally engage a community like Detroit that has seen the hockey participation numbers plummet for on ice to less than 150 kids registered with USA Hockey in 2018," Brown said, "we wanted to make sure we were working with individuals in the city of Detroit that could be helpful in making sure that we were talking to the right people and making the right moves to set up Learn, Play, Score to be a sustainable model that could hopefully be used in other communities in the Detroit market and other markets across the NHL.
"Marlowe was key to ensuring that we were well connected and connected to the right people."

Stoudamire took his combined passions for hockey and diversity and inclusion across the border and helped organize the Greater Toronto Hockey League's Transition Game summit, held in November.
He addressed the summit, attended by more than 400 people, and explained how the world's largest minor hockey organization could appeal to a larger and more diverse audience.
"The amount of people who are heartbroken over his passing who we've shared the news with is a demonstration of his impact," GTHL executive director and chief operating officer Scott Oakman said. "Certainly, a young man with a young family, it's heartbreaking to hear the news, but just the impact he had on individual people when he met them, how he inspired them to do better and be better."

Oakman and Brown said Stoudamire's legacy will live on through the Red Wings and GTHL initiatives.
"His impact will be seen very clearly in the next 2-3 years as our organization rolls out our plans to be more diverse and inclusive," Oakman said. "He's helped us lay the groundwork for that to happen."
Said Brown: "We know that even though he's passed on, he's in each and every one of the projects he touched here in the city of Detroit."