Good evening. I’m Howie Hanson, and this is The Howie Report for Monday, August 31.

The Duluth Heritage Sports Center began with a Saturday morning telephone call—and Pat Francisco’s immediate willingness to act.

Peterson Arena had been destroyed by fire in 2004, and funding for a proposed Salvation Army Kroc Center at Wheeler Field was being withdrawn. West Duluth still needed a replacement rink.

I visited businessman Alessandro Giuliani, who had recently purchased the historic Clyde Iron Works property, and asked whether he would donate land for a new arena.

“Of course, Howie!” he said.

I immediately called Francisco. Pat drove to Clyde Iron, met with Giuliani and emerged less than an hour later.

“Yes, Alex is in,” Francisco said. “Let’s get the ball rollin’.”

That was classic Pat Francisco.

Giuliani provided the land. Francisco spent the next several years overcoming the financial, political and logistical obstacles. More than $20 million was eventually assembled through donations, pledges, public participation and financing.

The Heritage Sports Center opened in 2008. A contaminated industrial property became a community campus with two regulation-size ice sheets, an indoor turf field, a walking track, community space and a Boys and Girls Club branch.

Francisco also was one of Minnesota Duluth’s finest hockey players. The Denfeld graduate recorded 69 goals and 133 points in 105 games for the Bulldogs. UMD later named its community-service honor the Pat Francisco Award, and he entered the DECC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2023.

His greatest investment was not recorded in a hockey scorebook or financial portfolio. It can be heard inside the Heritage Sports Center—in the skates, pucks, coaches, parents and children filling a building that began with one Saturday morning idea.

In Duluth, it’s cloudy and 63 degrees, with an east wind at 13 miles per hour.

I’m Howie Hanson. Thanks for watching.