Flames executive Brian Burke shares stories on Gordie Howe

Alex Prewitt | Jun 12, 2016

Flames executive Brian Burke shares stories on Gordie Howe /

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SAN JOSE — This is a time for mourning and sadness but also for stories, and few figures in the NHL tell those better than executive Brian Burke. Currently the president of hockey operations for the Flames, formerly of Hartford, Vancouver, Anaheim, Toronto and the league’s front office, Burke spoke with SI for an unrelated topic Saturday afternoon and agreed to share some memories about the late Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.

“It’s just staggering to the hockey community to lose giants like that,” Burke said over the phone from Calgary. “I was talking to Doug Barkley, who played with Gordie. He said, ‘They’re getting a pretty good team up there. They’ve got [Jean] Beliveau last year, Gordie this year, there’s a pretty good team up there. I’m getting choked up just talking about it. It’s a sad day for the hockey community to lose someone that was that big a part of everything.”

What follows are Burke’s words, lightly edited for clarity:

1. The Hair

“When I first took over in Hartford, Gordie was on the payroll there as a goodwill ambassador. And I asked him, I said, ‘We should sit down and talk about your role.’

'Mr. Hockey' Gordie Howe—NHL Hall of Famer, Red Wings legend—dead at 88

“He came into my office. He sat opposite my desk. He leaned over to the left and leaned over to the right, way over. Like peering. I thought he was looking behind me, so I turn and look, see if there’s something in the window or something. I turn back around and I said, ‘Is something wrong, Mr. Howe?’

“And he keeps leaning each way. Finally he goes, ‘Does your barber charge you by the f---ing acre?’ I changed it to g—d---- for the media. That’s how our meeting started. I’ve got such a big head and such thick hair. F---, I laughed.”

2. The Elk and the Concrete

“If you look at pictures of Gordie Howe, any picture you see of him, except when he’s on the ice, he’s always smiling. I’d met him before. It was a great thrill. I met him and went to a payphone and called my wife and told her, you’re not going to believe it, I just met Gordie Howe. I didn’t want to wash my hand. He’s always smiling. It’s such a paradox, this vicious hockey player and this kind man.

Gordie Howe was my idol

“He loved to tell stories. He said, ‘One time I was driving to northern Saskatchewan, and I heard an elk run across the road. And I thought, Elk don’t run unless they have to. So I’m thinking, I stop my car, turn off the engine, I’m going to wait a minute, see why those elk are all running. Sure enough, about 50 yards behind here comes Mr. Cougar, trotting along.’

“And he’s telling me about growing up on the farm. There’s a great story in his book, about how his dad got him a job about the concrete plant. And the guy told Gordie, ‘Alright move these 50-pound bags of concrete, and stack them over here.’ About 10 minutes later, Gordie came up and said, ‘Alright, what do I do now?’ And the guy said, ‘No, I said stack them all.’ Each guy would struggle with a 50-pound bag of cement. Gordie picked up one in each hand. And if you’ve ever picked up a bag of concrete, it’s impossible to grip it, unless you have a bone-crushing grip. It’s impossible to grab a bag of concrete by the side and carry two at once and that’s what he did.

3.The Blinks

Ted Lindsay told me one. Gordie, he blinked like every 10 seconds or so. He’d take a real deep blink, and it was from when he fractured his skull. When you first meet him, you’re like what is this? Then you realize it’s just this little affliction. So he blinked like once every 10 seconds. So Ted Lindsay told me this story, he said they were lining up for a faceoff against Chicago and they dropped the puck and Gordie speared the guy opposite him right in the groin, and they had to carry him off.

“And Teddy said to Gordie, ‘What the hell was that for?’

“Gordie said, ‘He was mocking me, he was blinking at me.’

“And Teddy says, ‘He’s got the same thing you do, you a—h---!’”

GALLERY: SI's Rare Photos of Gordie Howe

Rare SI Photos of Gordie Howe

1954

Gordie Howe sits next to Detroit Red Wings teammate Red Kelly during a game against the New York Rangers. Although just 26, Howe was already in his ninth NHL season. Detroit won its second straight Stanley Cup that season as Howe made his eighth straight All-Star team.

1957

Gordie Howe and the Detroit Red Wings battle the Montreal Canadiens. He scored 33 goals and 77 points in 64 games that season and won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL's MVP, his fourth of six such honors. His rugged style of play was summed up by the expression "Gordie Howe hat trick"—when a player has a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game.

1957

Gordie Howe poses for a portrait with Red Wings teammate Ted Lindsay in the locker room at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Howe, Lindsay and Sid Abel were known as "The Production Line" and the trio finished first, second an third in scoring during the 1949-50 season.

1962

Gordie Howe poses with the stick and puck he scored his 500th career goal with following the Detroit Red Wings game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1963

Gordie Howe and Bill Gadsby talk on the ice during a break in the action of a game against the Montreal Canadiens.

1964

Gordie Howe takes a seat in the stands before the Detroit Red Wings game against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

1968

Gordie Howe looks to score around all of the clutter in front of the goal during the Detroit Red Wings game against the St. Louis Blues at Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

1969

Gordie Howe is surrounded by fans as he walks from the locker room to the ice for the Detroit Red Wings season opening game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Howe spent 25 seasons with the Red Wings and still holds eight franchise records, including games played (1,687), goals (786) and points (1,809).

1971

Gordie Howe looks poised to score against Buffalo Sabres goalie Joe Daley. The 1970-71 season was his last with Detroit.

1971

Detroit Red Wings teammates since 1951, Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio (right) watch the action from the bench during a game against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo N.Y.

1974

After coming out of his two-year retirement in 1973 to join the NHL's new rival -- the World Hockey Association -- Gordie Howe watches from the bench as his Houston Aeros play the Alberta Oilers. He won the first of his two Avco Cup championships with the Aeros that season, ultimately producing 37 points in 26 postseason games during the two title runs.

1974

In addition to bringing Gordie Howe out of retirement, the Aeros signed both of his sons. Mark Howe (right) was the WHA's Rookie of the Year in 1973-74 while Marty (left) scored 90 points.

1974

At age 45, Gordie Howe scored 100 points for just the second time in his career, during the 1973-74 season.

1974

Gordie Howe tapes his stick before a game against the Vancouver Blazers. That season, he won the Gary L. Davidson Trophy as the WHA's Most Valuable Player. The award was renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy a year later.

1976

Gordie Howe follows the action after checking Willy Lindstrom during Game 1 of the WHA Avco World Trophy Finals between the Houston Aeros and Winnipeg Jets in Houston, Texas.

1977

At age 49, Gordie Howe smiles before a New England Whalers game against the Quebec Nordiques. Howe left Houston for the WHA's Whalers after the 1976-77 season, moving with his sons Mark and Marty.

1977

Gordie Howe squirts water while resting in a hot whirlpool. Despite his 49 years, Howe had an impressive season in which he racked up 96 points (34 goals. 62 assists) in 76 games.

1978

Mr. Hockey admires his 50th birthday cake before a game against the Cincinnati Stingers. When Gordie Howe returned to the NHL the next year as the league absorbed the Whalers, he became the oldest player in NHL history, and he remains the only person to play in the league at age 50 or older.

1979

The Howe family pose for a portrait at home in Connecticut. The 51-year-old Gordie was in the midst of his final season of pro hockey. He would later return for one shift with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League in 1997 to become the first player in the sport's history to play professionally in six consecutive decades.

1989

Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe share a laugh during a press conference after Gretzky broke Howe's career points record during the Los Angeles Kings game against the Edmonton Oilers at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Canada.

1989

Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe pose together, holding pucks with their number of career points at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Canada.

2002

David H. Schreiber for Sports Illustrated

Gordie Howe admires a portrait of his wife Colleen, a sports agent who founded Power Play International and Power Play Publications to manage the business interests of her husband. The two were married for nearly 56 years, before her passing in 2009.

2002

Gordie Howe autographs a bobblehead of Mr. Hockey himself in Deerborn, Mich.

2002

Gordie Howe relaxes during an autograph session in Deerborn, Mich.

4. The Blindside

“Then he told me this story, his first or second year in the league, he said he was playing in Toronto, and Eddie Shack’s playing opposite him. Eddie said, Look, I don’t want a rough game tonight, so you lay off me and I lay off you.’

“Puck goes down to the corner, and Gordie’s got a chance to hit Eddie Shack and Gordie lays off, just kind of rubs him. We go back down to Gordie’s corner and Eddie almost kills him. Of course Gordie wasn’t ready for the hit so he got crumpled. He skates back to Shack and goes, ‘What the hell was that? And he goes, ‘You believed me?’

Gordie Howe by the numbers

“People ask me all the time: Who’s the greatest hockey player you ever saw? And I didn’t get to see Gordie in his prime, obviously, but he’s in the discussion all the time. There’s guys with way more points, but there was no played as productive as Gordie Howe who was as feared as Gordie Howe. He was a ferocious hockey player. This is the guy who did it all. He could kill you with a body check, he could beat you with a goal, he could beat you in a fight. He was a ferocious hockey player. People were nervous when he was on the ice.

“So you look at the other great players, and the discussion usually hinges on a half-dozen or so—Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky. But Gordie was in a class by himself. The only guy to have been truly feared in the group was Gordie. He was a true North American-style player, quintessential Canadian power forward before anyone used that term. Just a great human being. So family oriented, such a nice man. He had time for everybody. Everybody.”

5. The Dinner

“I remember I was working at the NHL and [commissioner Gary Bettman] said to me, ‘We don’t have a good enough relationship with the icons, so we want to reach out to some of these guys and bring them in.’

“I was like, ‘Alright, what a cool job this is.’ So I called Gordie and said I’d like to come and visit, so he said, ‘Why don’t you come down to Florida, see me and [his wife] Colleen?’

“So I called Mark Howe, I said, ‘Are you sure this is okay?’ And he said, ‘You got invited to Florida? Geez they don’t bring anyone down there. Gordie must like you.’ He says they don’t invite anyone down there except family. So I said, woah, now the pressure’s on.

SI VAULT:Wings of the Red Wings (3/18/57)

“So we go for a walk on the beach. We’re walking on the beach, and it was like walking on the beach with a pope. He couldn’t take 10 steps without stopping. Hi Mr Howe. Can you take a picture? Can you sign this for my son? We were out there for an hour and we couldn’t have walked 200 yards. He said, ‘Well, we better go back.’

Mystery of Brian Burke’s tie revealed!

“So we go back and I said to Colleen, ‘Open checkbook, I’m taking you out for dinner, where do you want to go?’ And Colleen said Long John Silvers. I said, ‘Colleen, the commissioner will kill me if I take you to Long John Silvers.’ And she said, ‘That’s where I want to go.’ And you didn’t argue with Colleen. I said okay.

“I called Bettman after. He asked how it had gone. I said, ‘One of the best days of my life. I got to hang around with Gordie Howe.’ He said, ‘Where’d you take them for dinner?’ I said Long John Silvers. He said, ‘Have you lost your mind? I send you down there to make this guy feel good, and you take him to Long John Silvers?’ I said, ‘Gary, that’s what Colleen wanted. You can’t argue with Colleen Howe.’”

6. The Lunch

“One day he was in Vancouver on business. He called me on my cell on a Saturday and said ‘I’ve got an event tonight, but if you’re not busy why don’t you come down and we’ll shoot the breeze for an hour?’

“So he told me where to go. I brought my wife with me. Gordie wasn’t there when we got there, so we sat with Colleen. And Colleen was a great lady too. So we’re just talking to Colleen until Gordie walks in. Took him 20 minutes to get to the table. Every booth he stops. Hello, how are you. Shook hands. Signed some autographs. Took him 20 minutes.

Gordie Howe, man of the people: my treasured moments

“So he sits down. I was just tongue-tied around him. They’re talking and at one point Colleen said something and Gordie corrected her. And Colleen put her little hand … Gordie had big hands, eh? He had hands like dinner plates. And Colleen put her little hand on top of Gordie’s two big hands and said ‘Hunny, I told you, don’t ever disagree with me in public.’”

Here Burke laughs. Actually, he laughed after all of them.

7. The Party

“He came to my Stanley Cup party unannounced. He was in Vancouver on business, and I’m sitting there, and in walks Gordie Howe. And I’m like, ‘holy Christ.’

“So [after the Ducks won in 2007] the Stanley Cup was there, and there were two kids looking at it. They didn’t see him. Gordie walked up, put his arm around each of their shoulders and they looked up and saw it was Gordie and their jaws dropped. He said, ‘Hey, I can stand here, my name’s on there, let me show you.’ And he showed them his name on the Cup.

“So then he says, ‘Come on. Are you okay with me being here? I wasn’t invited.’ I said, ‘Mr. Howe, you’re welcome anywhere in the hockey world at any time.’ He said, ‘Come here, let’s sit and talk some hockey.’ So we went in the back booth for an hour. We just talked hockey, telling stories. I would’ve stayed there all night. Finally my wife said, ‘You’ve got 200 guests here, you know?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m talking to Gordie Howe. They can all wait.’”

Published Jun 12, 2016

ALEX PREWITT