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

Gordie Howe, who terrorized teams and opposing skaters alike as one of the toughest and best players in NHL history, has died at age 88.

Michael Farber | Jun 10, 2016

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

The Almighty blew it this time.

Sure, vengeance might be His (Romans 12:19), but as the Creator vets His newest recruit—a powerful, stooped-shouldered man with an easy smile and old-fashioned values forged in Depression-era Saskatchewan—He would be well-advised to skim the Book of Gordie. Verse 1: Do not mess with Gordie Howe. Howe, who died on Friday at age 88, had a memory as long as his unparalleled career, which touched five decades and included seven MVP awards in two leagues. Heaven might be a swell place, full of cherubim and gaping five-holes, but if Mr. Hockey suspects that he was taken from us too soon, that he could have gotten yet another day out of his rich life ... well, the Supreme Being should start skating with his head up, you know?

Gordie Howe, man of the people: my treasured moments

Howe has eternity to fix somebody’s wagon, not just the mere decade he needed to settle an old score with Bobby Baun. In the 1957–58 season, Baun, a rugged Maple Leafs defenseman, nailed Howe, who had been cutting into the middle to take a shot, with a seismic check. Ten seasons later, Baun was earning a living with the expansion Oakland Seals when Howe again cut to the middle. Fool Gordie once, shame on you. Fool Gordie twice, a Zamboni might be scraping up your teeth. This time Howe released his shot and held his follow-through long enough for his stick blade to carve g.h. in Baun’s throat. As a supine Baun gasped for breath, the Red Wings’ star straddled him and growled, “Now we’re even, you s.o.b.”

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

There were times when truculence moved Howe to apologize, as it did on one occasion in 1979–80, when, at age 51, he returned to the NHL with the Hartford Whalers (and scored 15 goals, by the way). Howe, who by then was poetry in slow motion, raked his stick across the chin of Bob Miller after the Bruins’ center had the effrontery to steal the puck from him. Miller left the ice late in the second period, leaking blood. When Boston’s veterans inquired about his fresh zipper during intermission, a credulous Miller replied, “Gordie got me ... but he said he was sorry.”

The room erupted in laughter.

“Then,” said Brad McCrimmon, who was a Bruins defenseman that year, “it was show-and-tell time.”

Somebody pointed to some missing teeth ... Gordie.

Another player displayed a scar ... Gordie.

A bent nose ... Gordie.

Said McCrimmon, “There’d be Gordie blinking—you know how he was always blinking?—and he’d say, ‘Sorry, kid.’ Gordie was sorry a lot.”

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.

Mark Howe knows the stories well. “The inevitable question I got was how Dad would have done if he’d played today,” says Mark, a Hall of Fame NHL defenseman who played with his father in the World Hockey Association for six seasons, beginning in 1973–74. “I always would say that he couldn’t play today because he would have been suspended all the time. He might break a guy’s jaw with his elbow, take out his teeth, cut him up real bad. Honestly, he was the nastiest person I ever saw on a pair of skates. He also was a completely different human being when he didn’t have them on.”

This is the Gordie that Mark fondly remembers. In the late 1960s, when he guesses that his father was earning $25,000 or $30,000 a year with Detroit, Mark would join Gordie in mid-trip during the latter’s annual cross-Canada tour of Eaton’s department stores. Upon returning to the hotel room each night, Howe would autograph as many as 2,500 cards so the next day he could spend extra seconds joshing with the children in line rather than looking down and writing his name.

Howe genuinely enjoyed people, at least the ones, unlike the estimable Dave Keon, who didn’t steal the puck from him. (Keon, maybe the cleanest player in hockey, once pick-pocketed Howe twice in a game. After the second time his Toronto teammates sidled three feet away from Keon on the bench to signal to Howe that his larceny hadn’t been their idea. The third time Keon tried to take the puck, Howe put him in hospital with an elbow.) When a reporter from Montreal was bumped from an oversold Pilgrim Airlines flight that was carrying the Whalers to Philadelphia during Howe’s NHL comeback season—teams flew commercial then—Howe, seeing that there was another plane in 2 1/2 hours, told the team that he would catch the next one with the newspaper guy so that they could sit and chat. Howe always left an impression, whether with his simple kindness or with his elbows.

SI VAULT: On and on and ... Howe skates in fifth decade (1/21/80)

Howe was a less prolific scorer than Wayne Gretzky, who blew past his record of 801 NHL goals in 1995 and played for another four seasons. (Howe also scored 174 goals in six WHA seasons.) He did not dazzle like Bobby Orr or even Maurice Richard, an early rival who had more flair but not the well-rounded game of a man who made his NHL debut during Harry Truman’s administration and retired in the final year of Jimmy Carter’s. While his desire to keep playing with sons Mark and Marty made Howe’s final years a quixotic journey—even though he was the WHA’s MVP at age 45—longevity certainly added heft to the impressive numbers he amassed with the Red Wings. Howe ranked among the NHL’s top five in scoring in 20 seasons and won four Stanley Cups and two Avco Cups in the WHA. Between the two leagues, he assisted on 1,383 goals and engaged in 22 fights. Curiously, he scored a goal, chipped in an assist and engaged in a fight in the same game just twice, but the combination of these hockey arts is still memorialized as a Gordie Howe Hat Trick. Was he the best ever? Maybe. Gretzky and Orr publicly have endorsed the idea, and Scotty Bowman has made the same claim.

Of course, only the Big Guy can sit in judgment (Isaiah 28:6), but when picking teams for celestial games of shinny, He will make sure Gordie is on His wing. Just in case.

Published Jun 10, 2016

MICHAEL FARBER

Along with the pages of Sports Illustrated, you'll find senior writer Michael Farber in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Farber joined the staff of Sports Illustrated in January 1994 and now stands as one of the magazine's top journalists, covering primarily ice hockey and Olympic sports. He is also a regular contributor to SI.com. In 2003 Farber was honored with the Elmer Ferguson Award from the Hockey Hall of Fame for distinguished hockey writing. "Michael Farber represents the best in our business," said the New York Post's Larry Brooks, past president of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. "He is a witty and stylish writer, who has the ability to tell a story with charm and intelligence." Farber says his Feb. 2, 1998 piece on the use and abuse of Sudafed among NHL players was his most memorable story for SI. He also cites a feature on the personal problems of Kevin Stevens, Life of the Party. His most memorable sports moment as a journalist came in 1988 when Canadian Ben Johnson set his controversial world record by running the 100 meters in 9.79 seconds at the Summer Olympic Games, in Seoul. Before coming to Sports Illustrated, Farber spent 15 years as an award-winning sports columnist and writer for the Montreal Gazette, three years at the Bergen Record, and one year at the Sun Bulletin in Binghamton, NY. He has won many honors for his writing, including the "outstanding sports writing award" in 2007 from Sports Media Canada, and the Prix Jacques-Beauchamp (Quebec sportswriter of the year) in 1993. While at the Gazette, he won a National Newspaper award in 1982 and 1990. Sometimes Life Gets in the Way, a compendium of his best Gazette columns, was published during his time in newspapers. Farber says hockey is his favorite sport to cover. "The most down-to-earth athletes play the most demanding game," he says. Away from Sports Illustrated, Farber is a commentator for CJAD-AM in Montreal and a panelist on TSN's The Reporters (the Canadian equivalent of ESPN's The Sports Reporters in the United States, except more dignified). Farber is also one of the 18 members on the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee. Born and raised in New Jersey, Farber is a 1973 graduate of Rutgers University where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He now resides in Montreal with his wife, Danielle Tétrault, son Jérémy and daughter Gabrielle.