Gordie Howe Passes Away at the Age of 88

The hockey world lost a legend early Friday morning as Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe passed away.  

The 88-year-old Howe, was the only player whose playing career spanned over six decades. Five of those decades were spent in the National Hockey League. He played longer and better than just about anyone else that laced up the skates. 

In his league record 26 seasons in the NHL, Howe played 1,767 games, 1,687 with the Detroit Red Wings. He also holds the league record for most games played, including most played for a single team. Until the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, passed him in 1994, Mr. Hockey was in first place with 801 career goals. 

Howe wrapped up his career with 1,850 points, which was another record he held until Gretzky surpassed him. He also become the first player in NHL history to skate in 1,500 games, while remaining the oldest player to ever appear in an NHL game (52 years and 11 days). No other player has played past the age of 48 years of age. 

In 2012, Howe was diagnosed with dementia and suffered a series of strokes in 2014.

NHL Commissioner said in a statement from the league, “All hockey fans grieve the loss of the incomparable Gordie Howe. A remarkable athlete whose mastery of our sport was reflected by the longevity of his career and his nickname, “Mr. Hockey,” Gordie’s commitment to winning was matched only by his commitment to his teammates, to his friends, to the Detroit Red Wings, to the city of Detroit and above all, to his family.”

Bettman added, “His devotion to Colleen through her illness and that fact that he extended his playing career into a fifth decade so that he could play with his sons are only two examples of that true priority in his life.”

 

Howe finished in the top five in scoring for 20 straight seasons, while also leading the Red Wings to seven straight regular season championships, between 1948 and 1955. The four-time Stanley Cup winner, six-time Art Ross Trophy, for leading scorer, and six-time Hart Trophy winner, for league most valuable player, received the first ever NHL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. 

In his final season, in 1979-1980, Howe put up 15 goals and 41 points while playing for the Hartford Whalers. While not bad total for most players around the league, those numbers were lower than the standards that he had set for himself over his career. He also had turned 52 during the final week of the season as well.

Most of his impressive numbers came at a time, most players had already hung up their skates. Howe’s lone 100-point season, was during the 1968-1969 season, when he was 41-years-old. He also picked up 58 penalty minutes that season. 

Howe was born on March 31, 1928 in Floral, Saskatchewan. Floral was an unincorporated village so small that its last post office had closed about four and a half years before Mr. Hockey was born. Shortly after his birth, his family moved him and his eight siblings to Saskatoon. 

The mild dyslexia and long hours, doctors had him spend hanging from a bar, to prevent curvature of the spine due to a bone condition did not hamper his drive to become a hockey player renowned for his toughness. Howe accumulated 1,685 penalty minutes throughout his career, while having more penalty minutes than points in 11 of the 26 seasons. 

While the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, a goal, assist and a fight in one game, has become a common term in the game today, Mr. Hockey only had two of them. He was not opposed to dropping the gloves from time to time, if the situation called for it. 

In his biography, “Gordie Howe: My Hockey Memories,” he makes note of the fact that he was not afraid to drop the gloves. He said in the book, that his father let him know from a young age, not to let anyone throw dirt on him, or they will keep doing it. 

He also noted in the book, that as he fought so frequently during his rookie season, his head coach, Jack Adams told him, “I know you can fight. Now show me you can play hockey.”  

Detroit almost lost the rights to Howe, due to a mistake that put him on an unprotected list, when he played for the Omaha Knights of the United States Hockey League in 1945. Fortunately for the Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens Executive, Frank Selke had a good relationship with Adams and told him that Howe was not listed as Red Wings property. 

Howe earned 2,500 dollars in Omaha during the 1945 season, compared to his first NHL season where he earned the league minimum in 1946-1947, of 7,000 dollars for the year. 

Howe’s famous number nine, almost never happened. In his first season he was assigned number 17, but as soon as Hall of Famer, Roy Conacher, left the Red Wings for the Chicago Blackhawks the following year, Howe snatched up the number. The reasoning he gave for the change was due to the fact the lower the uniform numbers usually got a lower Pullman berth on the train trips to road games. 

Howe got his first pair of skates at the age of five, when a woman trying to make ends meet during the Great Depression, know on his family’s door looking to sell a bag of clothes. Inside the bag, Howe found a pair of second hand skates which were several sizes too big for him, but he wore extra socks to make them fit.

While he may have struggled in school, partially due to the dyslexia, hockey turned out to be a constant for him. He played for the King George School in Saskatoon during the 1940’s. At the age of 15 he was invited to a tryout by the New York Rangers, in Winnipeg, which is the first time that he had the opportunity to see formal hockey equipment. The Rangers opted not to sign him during that tryout. 

The following year, he would leave Saskatoon to pursue a career in hockey when the Red Wings would sign him, assigning him to their junior team in Galt, Ontario. 

At the age of 17, he would rack up 48 points in 51 games with Omaha, in the 1945-1946 season. The following year he would score 22 points with the Red Wings. Howe had his breakout season in 1949-1950, scoring 35 goals and 68 points for third in the league. 

During the Stanley Cup Playoffs that season, he suffered a skull fracture, broken nose and cheekbone after colliding into the boards with Toronto Maple Leafs captain, Ted Kennedy. The injury required emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain. He returned the following season, and won the league scoring title by 20 points more than the next player.

Howe retired from the game following the 1970-1971 season, due to chronic wrist injuries. He had declined an offer to coach the expansion, New York Islanders, instead taking a vice president positon with the Red Wings. In 1972, Mr. Hockey was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

In 1973, Howe got the opportunity to play with his sons, Mark and Marty on the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association. He had surgery on his wrist prior to that season, and helped lead the Aeros to the WHA Championship and a league MVP. 

Gordie and his sons moved onto the New England Whalers in 1977, where they played for two more years together in the WHA, before the merger brought him back to the NHL as a member of the Hartford Whalers. 

Howe’s last season with the Whalers during 1979-1980, was not intended to be the final one. He had approached Whalers general manager, Jack Kelley about playing one more year, while serving as an assistant coach, but after Kelley turned him down, he had quit on the spot and the team scheduled a press conference to announce the retirement the next day. 

While his playing career officially ended in Hartford in 1980, he did get the chance to extend his playing days into a sixth decade, in 1997, when the took one shift with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League. 

The Red Wings immortalized his playing days, nine years ago when they unveiled a bronze statue of him taking a slap shot, in front of Joe Louis Arena.