Governor Rick Snyder is among those mourning the loss of Gordie Howe, the long-time Red Wings player known as “Mr. Hockey”.
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The cause of death was not disclosed.
Hockey lost one of its greatest ambassadors, personalities, and talents today.
Red Wings owner Mike Ilitch said Howe “embodied on and off the ice what it meant to be both a Red Wing and a Detroiter”.
October 3, 1997: Howe skates one shift with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League, giving him the distinction of having competed as a professional hockey player in six decades. “And when you get hit in the nose, your eyes tear up, and he said “Sorry kid”, but on the way back to the bench he speared me on the back of the leg all the way back, so he wasn’t too sorry”, Keenan chuckles. “If you love it, you can overcome any handicap or the soreness or all the aches and pains, and continue to play for a long, long time”. After scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Boston Bruins on goaltender Glenn Hall, 40 seconds into overtime in the Boston Garden on May 10, 1970, Keenan is seen standing in the front of the net with teammate Noel Picard as Orr scores the victor. After the Red Wings, Howe went on to play one more season in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers and six in the World Hockey Association.
Hockey Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald says Gordie Howe represented hockey “with great dignity and always had time for his legions of fans”.
In the WHA, Howe spent four seasons with the Aeros and his final two years with the New England Whalers. His 801 career goals rank second to Wayne Gretzky’s 894.
Howe played 1,924 National Hockey League games (regular season and playoffs) and 497 in the WHA.
Gordon Howe was born in the small farming town of Floral, Saskatchewan, and put on a pair of ice skates when he was 4 years old.
Toledo, Ohio TV station WTVG, where Howe lived with his son, reports Howe was a 23-time NHL All-Star.
He was part of hockey’s most fabled scoring units, the so-called “Production Line” in reference to Detroit’s auto industry, alongside Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay.
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Howe set National Hockey League marks with 801 goals and 1,850 points that held up until Wayne Gretzky surpassed his idol in the record books. There’s even something called a “Gordie Howe hat trick” – for a player who scored a goal, had an assist and got in a fight in a single game. “But I don’t think he was dirty”. Howe wore the number 9 when he played.
