Sticks raised for Mr. Hockey
Legend changed the game over amazing five-decade career; retired at age 52
In a country where hockey is king, Gordie Howe ruled for decades.
A Canadian icon, Howe grew up in the Great Depression playing hockey on ponds — on handme-down or jerry-rigged skates. He went on to become Mr. Hockey, a tough and durable customer who could fight as well as he could score.
Howe, who died Friday at the age of 88 at son Murray’s home in Sylvania, Ohio, could do it all.
His hockey career spanned five decades — six if you count a 1997 cameo in the International Hockey League — and six prime ministers.
From Parliament Hill to the flat Saskatchewan prairie where Howe learned the game, tributes poured in.
“Mr Hockey left peacefully, beautifully, and [with)] no regrets,” Murray said in a text to the Associated Press, adding that his father died simply of “old age,” not another stroke like the one he had in October 2014.
“We are celebrating the life of a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a friend to all,” the family said in a statement sent by the Detroit Red Wings, Howe’s longtime team.
Flags were lowered to halfmast in his hometown of Saskatoon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lauded Howe as an inspiration to generations.
Wayne Gretzky, a.k.a. The Great One, said via Twitter that Howe was “the greatest hockey player ever,” and “the nicest man I have ever met.”
“Sending our thoughts and prayers to the Howe family and to the millions of hockey fans who like me loved Gordie Howe,” Gretzky added. “RIP Mr. Hockey.”
Former teammate Ted Linsday considered Howe the greatest player ever to lace up a pair of skates.
“He could do it all in the game to help his team, both offensively and defensively,” Lindsay said. “He earned everything he accomplished on the ice.
After making his National Hockey League debut for Detroit on Oct. 16, 1946, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Howe played 32 professional hockey seasons, more than any other man. He also was the oldest player to score in the NHL and made hockey a family affair when he skated with sons Mark and Marty.
Howe was named an all-star 21 times, including 12 first-team selections on right wing, and helped the Detroit Red Wings hoist the Stanley Cup four times. He won the NHL scoring title and MVP award six times each.
He was 52, and a grandfather, when he finally retired in 1980 — eight years after he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and nine years after being appointed into the Order of Canada.
“One of my goals was longevity,” he once said. “I guess I’ve pretty much got the lock on that.”
Howe was a fierce, physical competitor who could beat you with his elbows or a deciding goal. The Gordie Howe hat trick — when a player scores a goal, records an assist and gets in a fight in one game — lives on.
In his 2014 autobiography titled Mr. Hockey, Howe credited his father for showing him the way.
“One lesson he taught me that stuck with me throughout my hockey career was not to take dirt from anyone, because if you do they’ll just keep giving it to you,” he wrote.
Respect equals space, he soon learned.
Rangers tough guy Lou Fontinato paid the price for carving open Howe’s face with his stick in early 1959. Howe bided his time before thumping him in a onesided fight that left his rival bloodied with a relocated nose. Howe dislocated a finger during the beating.
Howe, however, was clear on how he preferred to be remembered.
“Respect gave you more room, and if you get a little more room to manoeuvre, then you’re going to be a better hockey player,” he said. “I played a little rough.”
“I shaded the rules a little bit. I remember against the Russians somebody was bugging Wayne [Gretzky]. ‘Just flush him down the right side and when you hear me get out of the way,’ I said. ‘I’m going over the top of him and teach him a lesson.’ And I did.”
Off the ice, Howe was soft-spoken, even shy.
“To me, Gordie is a contradiction,” said Howard Baldwin, former owner of the World Hockey Association and NHL’s Hartford Whalers. “I think anybody that followed his career knew that he was a fierce competitor and he was a tough hockey player. And yet he was a very gentle, kind soul off the ice.
“You just loved to be around him, he always had a twinkle in his eye, loved to chat and catch up. He was a pleasure to be around as a friend.”
A tiger on the ice, Howe was a pussycat when it came to the love of his life, wife Colleen.
Howe never lost his love for the sport and the people who played the game. Howe was in the crowd with other hockey heroes like Gretzky and Mark Messier when Canada defeated the United States to win the gold medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. He also carried the Olympic flame in the Games torch relay.
In retirement, he became one of the sport’s most-loved ambassadors, although his public appearances were few in recent years as he dealt with cognitive impairment, a form of dementia.
In the afterword to Howe’s book, his four children — Marty, Mark, Cathleen and Murray — called it “a very slow decline over many years although it has become more noticeable recently.”
In March 2016, on the eve of his 88th birthday — and 17 months after suffering a stroke — Howe was feted at Joe Louis Arena by more than 20,000 fans who sang Happy Birthday as he was presented with a hockey puck cake. Howe’s legend lived on. To many older Canadians, Howe always was and always will be No. 1.
Howe held the NHL record for most goals, 801, until Gretzky broke it in 1994 en route to scoring 894. Howe is still No. 2 on the all-time goals list.
Howe’s 1,850 career NHL points (801 goals and 1,049 assists) are third only to Gretzky’s 2,857 and Mark Messier’s 1,887.
Howe collected 174 goals, 334 assists and 399 penalty minutes in 419 games in the World Hockey Association.
Including regular-season and playoff games in both leagues, Howe finished his astounding career with 1,071 goals, 1,518 assists for 2,589 points in 2,421 games with the Detroit Red Wings, Houston Aeros, New England and Hartford Whalers.
Along the way, he spent 40 hours 19 minutes (2,419 minutes in all) in the penalty box.
Howe retired from the NHL in 1971. An arthritic left wrist had been forcing him to use one hand on his stick at times. Another factor was the sadness he felt after his mother fell down stairs at his cottage in northern Michigan and died.
When the fledgling World Hockey Association formed in 1973, Colleen Howe helped negotiate a deal that was incredible at the time. Her husband would be paid $1 million US and sons Mark and Marty $400,000 each in fouryear contracts with the Houston Aeros.
Howe, who had an operation to improve his wrist, called it “the fulfilment of a dream” to play on the same team as his sons.
He got 100 points in his comeback season, led Houston to the championship, and at age 46 was named the league’s MVP. Mark, 19 at the time, was named rookie of the year.
The family act moved to New England and the Whalers in 1977.
When the Whalers joined the NHL in 1979, Howe stuck around for one last season, scoring 15 goals. He retired for good at 52, after an entire 80-game schedule.