Howe was a Prairie boy, through and through
Saskatchewan gave Gordie Howe an upbringing, an all-consuming love of hockey, a statue and a final resting place.
Howe gave Saskatchewan — and the wider world — the gift of hockey, done in a down-home, prairie way. He was a ferocious and skilled competitor on the ice. When the street clothes came on, the real Howe came out: Modest, genuine and fan-friendly, with an awshucks demeanour that reflected his humble upbringing.
Howe ended his career — at the remarkable age of 52 — as the NHL’s all-time leader in games, goals, assists and points. He scored his first goal in 1946; his last in 1980.
During Howe’s final season, Sports Illustrated reflected on his career, saying he was “as effortless as DiMaggio, as well-balanced and deceptively fast as Jimmy Brown, as steady and soft-spoken as Gehrig.”
A series of strokes left Howe at death’s door a couple of years ago; fans prepared their goodbyes, but he staged a remarkable recovery — highlighted by his return to Saskatoon for the Kinsmen Sports Celebrity Dinner in February of 2015.
“I thought he would have been gone a long time ago,” Howe’s friend and longtime goaltending foe, Johnny Bower, said following the great player’s passing this past June. “But he’s a damn fighter, just like he played hockey. He wouldn’t give up on anything.”
Howe died last summer at age 88, and he and late wife Colleen returned to Saskatoon, forever, in late September — their ashes placed in the base of the statue outside SaskTel Centre that bears his likeness. As we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, the StarPhoenix and Leader-Post are telling the stories of 150 Saskatchewan people who helped shape the nation.
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