You’ll never compress Gordie Howe’s life into a single calendar month, but this eight-day stretch, June 4-12 over 58 years, is remarkable in that it includes four significant anniversaries:
1958: Named captain of the Detroit Red Wings on June 12.
1972: Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on June 7.
1980: A second and final retirement, less one game, June 4.
2016: His death June 10 at age 88.
Not counting preseason or the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Howe skated 1,767 NHL games. That’s 5,301 periods; add those latter numbers together and coincidentally, or not, you have No. 9, the sweater he wore to hockey immortality.
Marty Howe, 69, and his brother, Mark Howe, 68, are on a fishing boat this week in the Deep South of the United States, casting their lines some 70 miles into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana angling for yellowfin tuna, red snapper and perhaps even a swordfish, “hooked on fishing,” Marty jokes, by their father in their youth.
“Dad took us fishing every year when the season ended,” Marty said Sunday.
They would set out at 3:30 a.m. ET on Monday from Mark’s New Jersey home for a 15-hour drive to Alabama, spending the night just south of Birmingham, then another six hours on Tuesday to Louisiana, 75 miles southeast of New Orleans to Venice and out onto the water.
“With Gordie, we’d take a small float plane out to a little lake in the middle of Canada, the ice barely off the lake,” Marty recalled of the boyhood trips. “They’d drop you off and you’d stay for 10 days with no food, no nothing. If you don’t catch fish, you’re going to starve. It’s just you and the bears and lots of male bonding.”
Gordie Howe is in every discussion about the greatest athletes of all time, in any sport. His pro career spanned 32 seasons — 26 in the NHL, six in the World Hockey Association — a one-game contract signed with Detroit of the International Hockey League on Oct. 3, 1997, seeing him become the first player to skate in six decades.
Gordie Howe deep-sea fishing in the 1960s, and with the Stanley Cup in 2008 with Mark (center) and Marty. Howe family collection, courtesy Travis Howe
Mr. Hockey’s honor roll, in part: four Stanley Cup championships won with the Red Wings; Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 1972; 23 NHL All-Star Game appearances; six Hart Trophy and six Art Ross Trophy wins, given to the most valuable player and top point-scorer in the NHL, respectively; 22 consecutive NHL seasons of scoring at least 23 goals; top five in NHL scoring for 20 straight seasons between 1949-69; countless off-ice honors that include arenas and buildings named for him, and a bridge under construction, scheduled for completion in 2024, to link Canada and the United States across the Detroit River.
Howe was the first NHL player to reach 1,000 points and retired from the Hartford Whalers in 1980, at age 52, as the League’s leader with 1,767 games played (now ranked second to Patrick Marleau’s 1,779); 801 goals (now third to Wayne Gretzky’s 894 and Alex Ovechkin‘s 822); 1,049 assists (now 10th, Gretzky is first with 1,963); and 1,850 points (now fourth, Gretzky first with 2,857).
There are countless signposts on Howe’s road through hockey, but four milestones in the month of June were the focus of conversation Sunday when Mark clicked into an hour-long video call, Marty on his left shoulder.
Gordie Howe as a Detroit Red Wings rookie in 1946-47, and with his mother, Katherine, and father, Ab, on Gordie Howe Night held on March 3, 1959, at the Detroit Olympia Le Studio du hockey/Hockey Hall of Fame
“People will debate who’s the greatest player of all time and Gordie is always in that discussion,” Mark said. “But no matter what Dad achieved as a player, he was a much better human being, a much better father. And that says tons about the man.”
How better to organize a talk than to divide it into three periods and overtime, covering Mr. Hockey’s captaincy and legendary style of play, his Hall of Fame election, his second and final retirement, and his huge legacy seven years after his death.
• ELECTED RED WINGS CAPTAIN, JUNE 12, 1958:
Gordie Howe was named the 16th captain in Red Wings history by general manager Jack Adams, not that Adams chose to tell Howe about it. That would be left to Detroit Free Press reporter Marshall Dann, who wrote nine paragraphs about it in the newspaper’s June 13 edition.
Howe succeeded two-year captain Red Kelly, wearing the “C” on his wool sweater for four seasons between 1958-62. He would be succeeded by Alex Delvecchio.
Ted Lindsay was captain for four seasons before Kelly, stripped of the role by Adams in 1956 for his work organizing the NHL Players’ Association, one season before he was traded to the Chicago Black Hawks.
Detroit Red Wings captain Gordie Howe with (from left) Leo Labine, Marcel Pronovost, coach Sid Abel and Val Fonteyne after a game during the 1961 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Olympia Stadium in Detroit. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
Kelly slumped some as captain, not that Howe viewed the weight of the “C” as a burden.
“It’s an honor all right and I don’t think it’ll hurt me … might even help me, you know,” Howe told Dann, his only published quote upon learning the news.
In 274 regular-season games as Red Wings captain, Howe scored 300 points (116 goals, 184 assists). By then a four-time 1950s Stanley Cup champion, he led Detroit to the 1961 Final, a six-game loss to the Black Hawks.
“If there was a celebration at home when Dad was named captain, I don’t remember it, but I was 3, and can’t remember 13,” Mark said with a laugh.
“We seldom talked about hockey (in later years). We’d talk about fishing or golf, family things. We had the fortune of playing on the same team as Gordie for seven years (1973-80). He wasn’t the captain in Houston or New England (of the WHA) or Hartford (1979-80 with the Whalers, his final season in the NHL). But boy, he was the leader of that locker room. I’d imagine it was much the same when he was named captain of the Red Wings.
Detroit Red Wings captain Gordie Howe in a late 1950s portrait, and on the cover of the March/April 1963 Hockey Illustrated magazine. Louis Jaques, Weekend Magazine/Hockey Hall of Fame
“Gordie would lead by example on and off the ice, as a person and during practices and games. He wasn’t one to say a lot. I can’t imagine that he ever got up and said a word in the locker room. But he’d do the same with Marty and me. If there was a lesson to learn, if we’d done something stupid on the ice, we’d come to the bench and all he’d do is look at us and laugh. That was his way of telling us, ‘Did you learn a lesson? Learn it on your own.'”
“The look was, ‘How stupid are you?’ ” Marty added with a grin.
“Gordie was a man of few words. He was not a rah-rah guy in the locker room, but he led out on the ice in every aspect of the game. He was not only your best player and your best scorer, he was also your best fighter. He had all the bases covered.”
Mark Howe considered aloud late Montreal Canadiens legends and captains Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau.
“The aura around these men… Gordie was the same way,” he said. “When he walked into the room, it was just his presence. He didn’t need a ‘C’ or an ‘A’ on his sweater. The respect came for the way he played, his style, that he was always about his team. It was never about his individual stats. He was a great teammate and someone you certainly wanted on your side.”
Gordie Howe walks to the Detroit Red Wings’ Montreal Forum dressing room for a 1958 game, and in an on-ice Forum portrait. Alain Brouillard/Hockey Hall of Fame
Howe’s famous style never wavered. He suffered no fools and took no prisoners. If he respected every opponent as he did every teammate, he wouldn’t hesitate even a single heartbeat to mete out punishment, much of it retribution, on the ice.
Howe was a magnificent talent who filled the net, hockey’s greatest offensive threat until Gretzky arrived. He made room for himself with a style as delicate as a boulder rolling downhill.
“Gordie had a list of rules, a few things you did not want to do to him,” Marty said. “One was, ‘Don’t take my puck and make me look foolish.’ Then there was ‘Don’t hold onto my stick’ and third, ‘Don’t hook me around the ribs.’ Do any of those things to him and you’re likely to get the smelling salts, a few stitches in the forehead or one of those famous elbows.
“I think Gordie’s ribs had been broken so many times that it just bothered him to have someone hook him there. I’d see him grab an opponent’s stick off his ribs, pull it forward and the elbow would come back and meet the guy’s face as he was leaning forward. The guy would go down like a tree.”
Mark warmed to the vision, saying that his father knew exactly where the single camera was for the first years of televised games, and how most bodies were left strewn on the ice 30, 40, even 100 feet behind the referee’s back.
Detroit Red Wings captain Gordie Howe is chased by Toronto forward Red Kelly behind goalie Hank Bassen at Maple Leaf Gardens during a 1960 game. Turofsky/Hockey Hall of Fame
“It was Gordie’s puck. You just didn’t take it away from him,” he said. “Inevitably, you’d get that big elbow. If Dad really wanted to get you, he’d aim right for the bottom of your chin. He could knock you out. Those big, powerful arms and shoulders could do a lot of damage.
“I always say there’s no way that Gordie could play in today’s NHL. He’d be suspended 20 games at a time. He’d be on the ice and somehow an opponent would have a bloody nose, and nobody saw how it happened. He was still doing it at 52 years of age and was tremendously feared for it.
“Dad kind of laid down the law. Players would say, ‘How often do I want to be punched in the face or elbowed in the chin?’ He said, ‘If I have a person thinking for even a split second that they might get that elbow and they hold up, that’s the difference between getting a shot away or putting the puck where I wanted to put it.'”
That’s exactly the way Howe played for four seasons wearing a “C” on his sweater, and the other 28 without one.
• HOCKEY HALL OF FAME ELECTION, JUNE 7, 1972:
The shrine’s selection committee waived the then-customary five-year waiting period following a player’s retirement to induct Howe and Beliveau, one of his dearest friends, in the Class of 1972, one year after their final games.
It would be a short retirement for Mr. Hockey, who in 1973 returned to play six seasons in the WHA — four with the Houston Aeros then two with the New England Whalers — and a final NHL season with Hartford in 1979-80.
Gordie Howe seems to have scored on Toronto’s Johnny Bower during a 1959 game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Graphic Artists/Hockey Hall of Fame
“I infringed on the rules so many times in my career, maybe that’s why they infringed on the rules now to get me into the Hall of Fame,” Howe joked to Detroit Free Press reporter Curt Sylvester, news of his election less a mystery than his Red Wings captaincy 14 years earlier.
Howe was such a team player that there is not a single word about his enshrinement in his 2014 autobiography “Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe: My Story.”
A much higher-profile ceremony at the Hall of Fame would come four decades less a year later when Mark Howe was inducted as a member of the Class of 2011, Gordie basking in the glow of his son’s celebration.
• SECOND RETIREMENT, JUNE 4, 1980:
Gordie Howe’s second retirement came a year before he wanted it, the Whalers in 1980 deciding to move forward with an emphasis on youth.
“They did the retirement thing at the end of the season, but Gordie didn’t want to retire,” Mark recalled. “Someone in upper management wasn’t going to offer him a contract. He could still impact the game, as could Dave Keon (the latter to play two more seasons for Hartford). They were better than many of the younger guys, but Gordie had been let go by the Red Wings, they didn’t want him in the front office, the Edmonton Oilers traded Gretzky… It was the evolution of the game.”
Hartford Whalers’ Gordie Howe chases the puck in front of St. Louis Blues’ goalie Mike Liut and Tony Currie during a March 1, 1980, game at the Checkerdome in St. Louis. Lewis Portnoy/Hockey Hall of Fame
Howe played 80 games in his final NHL season, at age 52 scoring 41 points (15 goals, 26 assists). At left wing before being shifted to defense, Mark spoke of having had a great chemistry with his right-wing father as a linemate. The younger Howe finished third that season in team scoring with 80 points (24 goals, 56 assists), his first of 16 NHL seasons.
“We never had to talk or say anything,” he said. “I knew where to go. Dad said, ‘Get in there and I’ll get the puck to you.’ He made the game so easy for whoever played with him. Dad had 41 points that year and he was playing fourth-line minutes, second power-play unit. not bad for a 52-year-old guy who had (limited) ice time.”
The 1979-80 season was Marty’s first of six in the NHL, all but one for the Whalers (78 games for the Boston Bruins in 1982-83). He played six games that season, then all three in Hartford’s first-round elimination sweep by the Canadiens, scoring once with an assist in Game 2 at the Forum.
Indeed, one fight shy of the goal-assist-fight Gordie Howe Hat Trick, as close as either Howe son got to that magical milestone.
“Maybe combined in our careers, we had one,” Mark said, laughing.
• LEGACY FOLLOWING DEATH, JUNE 10, 2016:
The world of hockey and many far beyond the game were heartbroken with Gordie Howe’s death in Sylvania, Ohio. Having been diagnosed with dementia in 2012 and a series of strokes in 2014, Mr. Hockey’s family said he died of “old age” at the age of 88.
Seven years later, Howe’s name continues to surface when his NHL records are challenged, or whenever there’s discussion about the greatness of the game’s finest players.
Gordie Howe, NHL President Clarence Campbell and Detroit Red Wings owner Bruce Norris in a pre-game presentation on October 10, 1963 at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, Howe receiving the 1962-63 Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy; on the cover of the 1970-71 NHL Guide, both Howe and Campbell having begun with the NHL 25 years earlier, Michigan, USA. Howe won the Hart Memorial Trophy and Art Ross Trophy in 1962-63. James McCarthy/Hockey Hall of Fame; NHL files
Ovechkin passed Howe for No. 2 on the NHL goal-scoring list with No. 802 on Dec. 23, 2022. Marleau passed Howe with the most NHL games played, his 1,768th on April 19, 2021.
Both players were effusive, even emotional in their praise of Howe, hearing their name spoken in the same sentence.
“I think it’s so much better when you get to talk to the people, to get a sense,” Mark Howe said. “After Patrick saw my congratulations video to him, we exchanged emails and then he gave me a call. I could hear his voice breaking. I know how much it meant for him to break that record.”
Mark and Marty Howe, as well as their siblings Murray and Cathy, keep the family name vibrant with their Howe Foundation work. Established some two decades ago by Gordie and his wife, Colleen, the Foundation was designed to provide funds to underprivileged children so that they might experience the passion of sports. With that, they might carry these lessons through life, passing them on to the next generation.
A recent auction of Howe family memorabilia grossed more than $100,000 for the charity.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stands with Marty (center) and Mark Howe, paying tribute to Gordie Howe during the 2016 NHL Awards in Las Vegas. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Mark and Marty have countless memories of their father, two top of mind when they catalog them.
“I was the only Howe family child in attendance for Gordie’s 544th career goal (Oct. 27, 1963), tying Rocket Richard for the all-time League lead, then when he broke it (Nov. 10, 1963),” Mark said. “There were 10-, 15-minute standing ovations for both by 15,000 fans at the Olympia. I stood with them, an 8-year-old, thinking, ‘Wow, that’s my dad.’ They were both wonderful achievements and I’m so glad I was there.”
Many years later, Marty Howe attended his father’s 23rd and final NHL All-Star Game at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena in 1980.
Mr. Hockey’s first All-Star Game had been in 1948, at Chicago Stadium. He made the score sheet not for a goal or an assist, but for a fight, scrapping with Toronto defenseman Gus Mortson.
“They gave us our game sweater as a souvenir,” Howe recalled in 1980. “I didn’t keep mine; I gave it to my buddy on a fishing trip. I wish I hadn’t now. It would have been a good keepsake.”
Marty (left) and Mark Howe flank Gordie Howe during the 1973-74 Houston Aeros WHA season. O-Pee-Chee/Hockey Hall of Fame
Howe did keep his 1980 jersey, having been named to the Wales Conference team as a coach’s choice by Scotty Bowman. He assisted on Real Cloutier’s goal, the Wales’ sixth in a 6-3 victory.
“Fans cheered Gordie for 15 minutes and he was embarrassed by it,” Marty Howe said. “Seeing that kind of respect from your fans and your city… it was very special to me.”
Marty hopes that one day there will be an NHL trophy to celebrate his father.
“Of all the things that have recognized Gordie over the years, that’s one thing that has never come his way,” he said. “He was never one to campaign for it. You knew how he was, but he’d have loved the idea, as his family would today.”
Until his final public appearance, Gordie Howe charmed everyone he met with his self-deprecating sense of humor and light-hearted ability to put everyone at ease, no matter that so many were intimidated by his star quality.
Gordie Howe’s No. 9 was worn on the jersey of the Detroit Red Wings during the 2016-17 season. Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images
“I tried to get him to stop tweaking his nose and making his teeth fall out,” Marty said with a sigh.
Mark relates a story that perhaps best illustrates to the family the appeal of a father and grandfather.
“We received an email five years before Gordie passed from a guy in Western Canada,” Mark said. “He wrote, ‘I just waited in line for four hours to get Gordie’s autograph. It’s the 25th or 26th time I’ve got it and every time it’s the greatest experience of my life.’
“Gordie made everybody feel that they were his best friend. He really responded to kids, didn’t matter whether you were 8 or 88. He made people feel comfortable to be in his presence. He never judged anyone. He always accepted people for who they were.
“Everything about Gordie and his interaction with people was genuine. Nothing made up about it and people responded to that immediately, just the way he was as a human being. That’s part of why his legacy is still so strong.”
Top photo: Gordie Howe is flanked by sons Mark (left) and Marty during Mark’s 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame induction weekend. Matthew Manor/Hockey Hall of Fame