Gordie Howe

Hockey Player

• Born: March 31, 1928
• Birthplace: Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada

Sport: Ice hockey

Early Life

Gordon “Gordie” Howe was born March 31, 1928, in Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada, a small town on the outskirts of Saskatoon. When Howe was three months old, his family moved to Saskatoon, a hockey town of about fifty thousand people. He was one of nine children of Albert and Katherine Howe. He was big, awkward, and shy while growing up and had few friends. Because school was difficult for him, he quit after his first year of high school. Howe got his first pair of used skates when he was about six years old and his first hockey stick when he was nine. From that time on, hockey became his way of life. Even when the temperatures dropped to 40 degrees below zero, he skated on an outside rink, and he had a hockey stick in his hands everywhere he went all year round.

The Road to Excellence

When Howe was nine, Ab Welsh, a forward for the Saskatoon Quakers, gave him his first hockey stick. Always his favorite, Welsh was strictly a position player whose techniques the young boy watched and studied. In the beginning, he played goalie, wearing shin pads composed of magazines and mail-order catalogs stuck in his socks. At the age of eleven, he was shifted to right wing. Meanwhile, he was still growing. Summers he worked for a construction company and on farms. By the age of fifteen, he was heavily muscled and weighed 200 pounds. No longer awkward, he was perfectly balanced, quick, and confident on the ice.

The summer that Howe was fifteen, he was selected for the New York Rangers training camp in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but he returned home before camp was over. The following summer was more successful. He attended the Detroit Red Wings camp in Windsor, Ontario, and was signed to a contract for the 1944–45 season and assigned to their team in Galt, Ontario. However, because his transfer from a western to an eastern province was ruled illegal, he was allowed on the ice only for practice sessions and exhibition games. For the 1945–46 season, Gordie was assigned to Omaha, Nebraska. That season, he made it big; he scored twenty-two goals and had twenty-six assists. Within a few weeks of his Omaha debut, fans began lining up for his autograph.

The Emerging Champion

When eighteen-year-old right wing Howe joined the Red Wings for the 1946–47 season, the dominant teams in the National Hockey League (NHL) were the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. The best player was Montreal’s right wing Maurice “Rocket” Richard, who had dominated hockey throughout the 1940s. However, Howe would dominate the 1950s. Following World War II, at a time when interest in hockey was at a low, his style and ability sparked new enthusiasm in the sport.

Howe's first two seasons with the Red Wings were not impressive, but during the 1949 Stanley Cup playoffs in his third season, he emerged as a star. Although the Red Wings came in second in the playoffs, he had the most points. In eleven games, he had eight goals and three assists. In the 1949–50 season, he was the league’s third-highest scorer. During the 1950–51 season, he reached a major milestone in his career, not only scoring his one hundredth goal but also displacing Richard at right wing position on the first team all-stars. He was becoming the most celebrated player in professional hockey.

Continuing the Story

Howe was a superb stick handler, equally capable with either hand. He was able to send a puck flying at 120 miles per hour with a flick of his wrists and scored repeatedly with his quick, forceful shot. He used a 21-ounce stick—the heaviest used by any NHL player—because ordinary sticks broke in his powerful hands.

The enormously strong, 6-foot-tall, 205-pound Gordie played aggressive, tough hockey that opponents feared and respected. As a result, he had many injuries, the most serious occurring during the opening game of the 1950 Stanley Cup playoffs. When an opponent sidestepped his check, Howe, skating full speed, crashed headfirst into the boards, fracturing his skull, cheekbones, and nose. Near death, he was rushed to a hospital, where brain surgery saved his life. Released from the hospital in time to watch his team win the championship game, the big right wing carried the Stanley Cup off the ice.

Howe's most important goal—the 545th of his career, scored on November 10, 1963, in his home arena—was followed by a ten-minute standing ovation. He had broken Richard’s all-time record. Not counting playoff goals, Howe scored 801 goals in his NHL career, a record that held for many years.

Howe married Colleen Joffa in 1953. They had three boys and one girl. Two of their sons, Marty and Mark, played hockey. After the 1970–71 season, Howe retired from the Red Wings, having played more seasons in the NHL than any other player. In 1973, his dream of playing hockey with his sons, Marty and Mark, was realized when the three Howes signed with the Houston Aeros of the rival World Hockey Association. In 1977, he signed with the Hartford Whalers, playing with them until his retirement at the age of fifty-two, following the 1979–80 season. His jersey, number 9, was retired by the Red Wings (1971), the Houston Aeros (1977), and also the Hartford Whalers (1981). His career point total of 1,850 points stood as the NHL record until broken by Wayne Gretsky on October 15, 1989. In 2007, the Red Wings erected a statue of Howe outside Joe Louis Arena. The following year, he became the first recipient of the NHL's Lifetime Achievement Award.

In his eighties, it was revealed by the media that, according to his family, Howe had begun experiencing increased dementia and needed to be taken care of by people he knew at all times. After suffering a severe stroke in October 2014, his son, Mark, reported that his father had been taken to a Mexico facility to receive an injection of experimental stem cells in the hopes of releiving some of the side effects. Since his family claimed that he had showed marked improvements in his abilities to walk and speak after the treatment, they took him back to the facility for a second round in June 2015. That same year, then Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper announced that a new international bridge planned to be built between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, by 2020 would be named the Gordie Howe International Bridge, as he is an icon who connected the two countries for many years. In 2016, Howe celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday with family at a Red Wings game in Detroit.

Summary

Gordie Howe is the standard by which many hockey players measure their achievements. He set records that will be broken, but he endured as an outstanding professional hockey player for thirty-two seasons, a record that will not be easily broken. Known as “Mister Hockey,” Howe is regarded by many as the best hockey player of all time.

Bibliography

Allen, Kevin. Mr. and Mrs. Hockey: A Tribute to the Sport’s Greatest Couple. Wayne: Immortal Investments, 2004. Print.

Duff, Bob. History of Hockeytown: Detroit Red Wings, Seventy-five Years. Detroit: Olympia Entertainment, 2002. Print.

Howe, Gordie. Gordie Howe: My Hockey Memories. Buffalo: Firefly, 1999. Print.

McDonell, Chris. For the Love of Hockey: Hockey Stars’ Personal Stories. Richmond Hill: Firefly, 2004. Print.

McDonell, Chris. Hockey’s Greatest Stars: Legends and Young Lions. Richmond Hill: Firefly, 2005. Print.

Platt, Jim, and James Buckley. Sports Immortals: Stories of Inspiration and Achievement. Chicago: Triumph, 2002. Print.

St. James, Helene. "Howe Physically Strong, Dementia Worsening at 85." USA Today. USA Today, 31 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.