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| ISBN-13: | 9781633197220 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 128 |
| File size: | 18 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Gordie
The Legend of Mr. Hockey
By Detroit Free Press, Gene Myers
Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2016 Detroit Free PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-722-0
CHAPTER 1
MR. HOCKEY
His legend will live forever
Detroit's adopted son is gone, but the stories, on and off the ice, remain
MITCH ALBOM
Here's a Gordie Howe story. He was playing at the old Olympia, and an opposing player hit him and somehow cut his hand. Gordie had to leave the ice and go to the trainer's room. There, Dr. John (Jack) Finley, the Detroit Red Wings' longtime physician, began stitching him up carefully.
"Hurry up," Gordie said. "I gotta get back out there."
As Finley accelerated, Gordie added, "And by the way, Jack, don't go anywhere. Because the guy who did this is gonna be in here real soon."
Scotty Bowman, laughing, told that story to me a few hours after Gordie's death on June 10, 2016. Just as Wayne Gretzky told ESPN about being with Gordie at a White House dinner with President Ronald Reagan, and there were so many forks that Gretzky asked his childhood hero which one they should use.
"Kid, I have no idea," Gordie said. "I'll follow the president and you follow me."
Who really follows Gordie Howe? Nobody can. Nobody will give us stories like that, or memories like those, not 25 years with a single team, not five decades of hockey, not a standing ovation at Joe Louis Arena as a white-haired, 51-year-old All-Star.
You lose athletes like this, and there's a hole on the shelf forever. Nobody slides over. Nobody fills the space.
A TV anchor asked me what other Detroit athlete's death was equal to Howe's? I had no answer at the time.
All I know is that Howe's death at 88 was seismic. Gordie Howe was the Babe Ruth of hockey. And you'd expect that Babe Ruth's death would be felt most strongly in New York, right?
The world should expect no less from Detroit. Howe's passing came on the same day as Muhammad Ali's funeral, and while the nation can lament two towering sports figures dying in the same week, there should be no criticism (as there was in some corners) for Detroit focusing its attention on Howe, even at the expense of Ali's funeral.
Spirit of Detroit
Besides his excellence on the ice and kindness off it, Gordie Howe was known for his sense of humor and storytelling skills. In a joint autobiography with wife Colleen titled "And ... Howe!" he wrote: "Tiny Tim came to Detroit when he was really famous in the late 1960s, as I recall. I was surprised to find out that he was a big fan of mine. In fact, he signed a picture and they sent it over to the Olympia for me. It said: 'Dear Mr. Howe, Keep Puckering Those Nets.' The reporters asked me my response, and I just said, 'Well, it just shows that you can't always pick your fans.'"
SALWAN GEORGES/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Old-time hockey
Gordie Howe went with a fashionable hat instead of a tuque or helmet for the ceremonial puck drop at the Winter Classic Alumni Showdown at Detroit's Comerica Park on Dec. 31, 2013. From the left: Mickey Redmond, the Wings' first 50-goal scorer; Ted Lindsay, whose No. 7 the Wings retired in 1991; Mr. Hockey, who received a huge ovation; Brendan Shanahan, who won three Cups in Detroit; and Mark Howe, the Hall of Fame defenseman who received "a nasty look" — but no elbow — when he tried to assist his 85-year-old father.
JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DETROIT FREE PRESS
All sports are, at their core, local. It's why players wear the name of cities (or countries) on their jerseys, and why fans root based on their geography.
Gordie Howe was one of ours. He was "Detroit" and "Red Wings" with capital letters. His departure from this Earth was always going to be our biggest story of that day. No apologies. None needed.
People around the country asked what it was like in Detroit after the news spread. The answer: It was as if a top had been lifted from a boiling cauldron and an explosion of marvelous memories shot into the sky.
Bigger-than-life player
Who didn't know Gordie Howe in his city? Or his state? Who didn't have some kind of story or encounter? As with legendary Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell, it seemed everyone who ever shook Gordie Howe's hand was moved to remember it as a personal highlight. Someone will boast how he chatted with his youth hockey team and someone will tell you how he signed autographs in a parking lot and someone will detail how, if a child didn't say please or thank you, he would mark their palm with the pen.
Look left. Look right. There's someone talking about Gordie. The stories seemed to group into two categories:
The first sounded like panels in a Superman comic. As a child, young Gordie, born in a tiny Canadian farm town named Floral, grew strong carrying buckets of water into the farmhouse (his family had no indoor plumbing). Later he hauled bags of cement when he quit school to work in construction.
As a teen player he was 6-feet and ambidextrous, and could do things equally well from both sides. His physique grew so chiseled, he could crush your hand when he shook it. He signed with the Red Wings, and his signing bonus was a team jacket. A team jacket? Yep.
A man for all countries
Michigan's governor, Rick Snyder, and Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, revealed on the Canadian riverfront in May 2015 that the to-be-built $1-billion bridge between Detroit and Windsor would be called the Gordie Howe International Bridge. Howe did not attend the event, but his son Murray relayed his reaction: "That sounds pretty good to me." One playful Howe admirer tweeted: "Bad name for a bridge. Everybody knows that you don't cross Gordie Howe."
JOHN GALLAGHER/DETROIT FREE PRES
"After I finished a game at the Olympia I used to walk home," he once told me. "Then, when I moved into a residential area, I took the bus down Grand River. You don't get too flamboyant on $6,000 a year."
Even so, he quickly fought his way into the league, and at 18 already was known as a brute force, at times, almost superhuman. During the 1950 Stanley Cup semifinals, Gordie suffered a serious injury crashing his head into the boards, and doctors had to drill a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure. Many thought he would never play again. Instead he came back the next year and led the league in scoring.
When does the Kryptonite come in? When does he grab Paul Bunyan's axe? That's what it's like to hear the first type of stories about Howe. He led the Wings to the NHL's best record seven years in a row. He won six MVP awards, won six scoring titles, held up four Stanley Cups and kept playing and playing, even as his once brown hair receded on that high, prominent forehead, until he looked more like a professor than a hockey player.
Well. From the neck up.
The rest of him was rugged hockey. Tough? He knocked out the famous Maurice (Rocket) Richard the first time they played each other. One punch. Nearly a decade later, when the New York Rangers' Lou Fontinato tried to ambush him, Howe hit him so hard "he demolished his nose," hockey historian Stan Fischler recalled. "I was there. Lou's nose took a 90-degree turn."
Fischler — who ranks Howe as "Top of the list. Not second. Not third. The top" — was one of so many inside the game telling stories of Howe after his passing. Analysts. Players. Coaches. Old friends.
Bronze age
Gordie Howe checked out the resemblance when the Wings unveiled his statue inside Joe Louis Arena in April 2007. The statue — 6-feet-4 tall and 12 feet long — was composed of white bronze with integrated glass chips to simulate ice. The artist was Omri Amrany, who also created the statues of Tigers greats inside Comerica Park, Magic Johnson outside Michigan State's Breslin Center and Michael Jordan outside Chicago's United Center.
ROMAIN BLANQUART/DETROIT FREE PRESS
A pair of Howes
That's Gordie and Mark Howe of the Whalers battling with a pair of Red Wings in brand-new Joe Louis Arena on Jan. 12, 1980. Mark had two assists and Gordie missed on three shots in a 6-4 Hartford victory. At one point, an octopus landed at Gordie's skates, which he scooped up with his stick and passed to a shovel-wielding employee. In the closing seconds, the organist played "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Howe then threw his gloves into the stands and gave his stick to Dennis Polonich, from Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, who had requested it.
ALAN R. KAMUDA/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Picture perfect
A few days before his 75th birthday, Gordie Howe reminiscenced about his career at his Power Play International office in Commerce Township, Mich., taking a break from signing hundreds of promotional placards for OK Tire of Canada. The cards read: "Celebrating their golden anniversary, Mrs. Hockey's 70th birthday and Mr. Hockey's 75th."
SUSAN TUSA/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Here was Red Berenson, the longtime Michigan Wolverines coach, who as a young player with Montreal, was asked by the legendary Toe Blake to "cover" Gordie and not give him any room:
"I tried to do that — and all of a sudden, my head was spinning. He nearly knocked it off. ... I looked over at our bench and they were laughing, because they knew. It was the infamous elbow. That was Gordie Howe."
Here was Don Cherry of "Hockey Night in Canada," telling about the first time he met Howe, during warm-ups on the ice. Cherry, then a young player, was adjusting a new jock strap.
"Having trouble finding it?" Howe asked, skating past.
From the historical to the hysterical, the stories tumbled forth. I can detail a time when I sat with Gordie, who was nearly 70, and fired a series of "urban legends" about him to see whether they were true.
"Gordie Howe once suited up with the Detroit Tigers and hit a few balls out of the park," I said.
"True," he said. "Well. Into the seats."
"Gordie Howe," I continued, "who suffered from dyslexia, flunked the third grade twice."
"False," he said.
"Did you flunk it once?"
"Yeah, once." He paused. "But that's the year I started playing hockey."
Sign of the times
Before Game 1 of the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals between the Wings and Penguins, Gordie Howe autographed a copy of "Nine" for Eric Prits, 11, of Oakville, Ontario. Several Howe autobiographies and biographies were published over the decades. The Wings' Bill Roose and the Windsor Star's Bob Duffy wrote "Nine."
AMY LEANG/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Signature talent
Among the Gordie legends was that he could sign his name 1,000 times in an hour. In "Gordie Howe's Son," Mark wrote about his father's nightly ritual during summer trips across Canada for Eaton's department store: "Dad would pre-sign 2,000 to 2,500 cards so he could spend more time the next day writing in things like 'To John, best wishes' and thus have more time with each person."
ANDRE J. JACKSON/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Long-distance well wishes
Five days after Gordie Howe's stroke in October 2014, the Wings-Kings game was delayed so that the Joe Louis Arena fans could stand and clap for Mr. Hockey. They also chanted "Gor-die! Gor-die!" So did the team on the bench. The next day, the Howe family posted a YouTube video of a smiling Gordie watching the tribute from his daughter's home in Lubbock, Texas.
RICK OSENTOSKI/USA TODAY
"Gordie Howe, as a kid, would play with pucks made of 'frozen road apples,' another word for cow manure," I said.
"That's false," he answered, smiling. "I was a goaltender. And in the spring, that would be dangerous."
Humble champ off ice
Then there were private stories. The many moments of charity. The countless hours at a rink or a fundraiser.
The time Gordie photobombed a picture Kris Draper was taking with his son at Comerica Park, capturing a mock elbow throw beautifully. ("I'm so lucky to have that photo," Draper said.) Or the plane trip that Gordie took from New Orleans, sitting next to a woman whose husband, Roop Raj, was working as a Detroit TV newsman. The woman had no idea who Gordie was, and he never told her. Just spoke the whole trip about New Orleans. When they landed, he gave her a card.
"Give this to your husband," he said.
The card read "Mr. Hockey."
There are thousands of memories like that, being quietly told all over town, all over the state and, yes, all over the hockey-playing world. Make no mistake. It wasn't all storybook for Gordie. He served only four years as captain during his 25-year Red Wings tenure. "I did not like the captaincy," he once told me. "You're the one they come to and ask, 'What happened?'"
He also never made the kind of money that lets a legend retire for good (thus the many post-playing endeavors). And he wasn't thrilled with his retirement treatment by Wings management at the time.
"They didn't know what to do with Gordie Howe," he once said. "They had me in the front office. I think they were trying to embarrass me to leave. ... Thank God the present ownership is different....
"I'd liked to have been an assistant coach, where I could play with the guys every day, and also be in a position where if two people got injured, I could go on the bench. If a third person got hurt, I could play five minutes."
It didn't happen. After all those years with the Wings and two years in retirement, he finished with a WHA stint playing with sons Mark and Marty and a final year in Hartford back in the NHL. Then came decades of just being "Mr. Hockey" — plus a one-shift appearance with the minor-league Detroit Vipers, which allowed him to say he played in six decades.
I joked with him before that game that he should be careful going over the boards. He said, "That's why I'm starting. I'll go through the gate."
His final years were challenging. Mrs. Hockey, his beloved wife Colleen, died in 2009 after a long struggle with Pick's disease, a rare form of dementia. Then dementia turned its sights on Mr. Hockey. A 2014 stroke that robbed him of his mobility and other functions had many fans bracing for the worst. (And reportedly had Gordie telling his family, "Just take me out back and shoot me.") But in true Howe fashion, he rallied once more, defying odds with unconventional medicine (a stem-cell treatment) and prairie stubbornness, putting the weight back on, regaining his strength, making a few more appearances to serve his legend.
The news of his death came suddenly to most of us. No long deterioration. No sad updates on failing health. He went quietly, with modesty, befitting a child of the Depression, who got his first pair of skates from a woman going door-to-door selling her possessions. Those first blades were too big, and he needed to stuff them with socks.
It was the last time any hockey shoe could not be filled by Gordie Howe.
He did it all. He left it all. "They used to say if you needed to fill a rink," Bowman recalled, "you'd probably go for Rocket (Richard). But if you needed to win championships, you'd have Gordie Howe on your team."
That's the kind of statement that makes a legacy. That, and maybe one more story from the second category, the kind that only gets told after an icon has passed.
In 1995, the Wings were in the Western Conference finals against Chicago, one victory from making the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1966. Although they won the first three games, each by one goal and two in overtime, they had been embarrassed by the Blackhawks in Game 4 and some fans were worried about a letdown. Sergei Fedorov, a huge star, had an injured shoulder and was planning to sit out Game 5.
Gordie came to see Bowman. He told Bowman he thought it was essential that Fedorov played.
"Why don't you ask him to come down to the Joe tonight and I'll talk to him," Howe suggested.
Bowman did. Fedorov came down that night. They went out on the ice together. As Bowman recalled, "Gordie said to him, 'Sergei, you're not gonna get in to the semifinals every year. This isn't always going to happen. You got to suck it up and play.'"
Sure enough, the next night, Fedorov played. The game went to overtime again. It ended in double overtime, when Fedorov made an assist to Slava Kozlov, who buried the winning goal.
Twenty-nine years after the Wings had last been to the Cup finals, when Gordie was a player, they were going again.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Gordie by Detroit Free Press, Gene Myers. Copyright © 2016 Detroit Free Press. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
The stories remain Mitch Albom, on what Mr. Hockey meant to Detroit,The world recalls All eyes on Hockeytown for Gordie's funeral,
Simply the best Hockey had never seen a player quite like Howe,
Truly a class act Recalling our favorite memories of Mr. Hockey,
Partners in life Colleen Howe was more than just Mrs. Hockey,
A family man Mark Howe, on what being Gordie's son meant,
Decade of dynasty Howe's Wings — and Detroit — ruled the 1950s,
Two magic moments A look back at Gordie's final shifts on the ice,
By the numbers Mr. Hockey's career stats, records and awards,