Canada’s hockey icon Gordie Howe has died after a lengthy illness, his family confirmed Friday.
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Howe, who spent his prime playing for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL), was considered one of the greatest hockey players of all time after a career that lasted 33 seasons. After becoming bored during a short retirement, he took his talents to the rival World Hockey Association at the age of 45 and dominated recording 508 points in just 419 games.
Howe practically is synonymous with the Wings: He played for them from 1946 to 1971, leading them to Stanley Cup championships in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955.
Besides the four Cups, the talented right winger won six Hart Trophies as NHL MVP and six Art Ross Trophies as the league’s top scorer.
Steve Yzerman is the closest to Howe for Red Wings fans of my era, but we acknowledge Stevie Y didn’t have the ability to do all the things Howe did, especially when you consider the way equipment, travel and facilities have made it easier for the modern athlete.
I’d imagined him being 6-foot-7 (he was 6 feet), 220 pounds (actually 205) and looking like George Peppard (really pretty accurate).
If I can skate, Ill get even, Howe once said. A phrase still used in hockey parlance is “the Gordie Howe hat trick”, which is the accomplishment by one player, of a goal, an assist and a fight in a single game.
“I don’t know. Hey, Gordie Howe, he’s not called Mr. Hockey for nothing”.
The Red Wings and the Whalers, who are now the Carolina Hurricanes, retired Howe’s jersey number, nine, and Howe was enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.
Gordon Howe gone at 88 year old.
Howe had been battling health issues and was near death before undergoing an eight-hour stem cell therapy treatment in Tijuana, Mexico on December 8, 2014. Until it actually gets here, you don’t ever think it’s ever going to happen. While pushing 70 years old, he was signed a one day contract to the Detroit Vipers, playing one shift and becoming the only hockey player to ever play professional in six different decades. “I think that’s as great an honor as anybody can have”, Torrey said. “But I’ll tell you, because of what Gordie has done, for us mere mortals who have played this game, being No. 2 is not so bad”.
“As a human being, he was incredible”, Holland added. “They had nothing, like many people during the Depression”.
Howe, without a doubt, was most proud of his family.
Funeral arrangements were pending. He was an incredible ambassador for the sport..
On Howe and the media: “The other side of things where it’s changed today is he had personal relationships with a lot of the media people”. Fighting in hockey was part of the job description back then, and few players relished the opportunity to mix it up more. Howe is survived by his four children, Murray, Mark, Marty and Cathy.
Gretzky, “The Great One”, on Friday said, via his Twitter account, “Unfortunately we lost the greatest hockey player ever today, but more importantly the nicest man I have ever met”.
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Howe’s wife, Colleen, died in 2009 from Pick’s disease, a neurological condition that causes dementia.
