Gordie Howe passed away today at the age of 88.
I am not old enough to have experienced Gordie live. I didn’t watch him play or listen to him on the radio. When I got older, I watched film of some of his games, but by that point, the Legend of Gordie was already firmly planted in my mind.
For me, Gordie wasn’t just “a hockey player” while I was growing up. He was so much more than that. Folk legend isn’t even the right word either.
Gordie Howe was an ideal.
My parents and uncles are of the perfect age to be Gordie fans. They were children during the best years of his career. Gordie came from humble beginnings, including a stint in his early teens where he dropped out of school to help support his family during the Depression.
I think that spoke to my family, and it sure spoke to me.
To this day, my dad is still a huge Red Wings fan, despite us growing up in Leafs country.
The things Gordie overcame in his career, from the aforementioned early life struggles, to dyslexia, to a fractured skull that nearly killed him, were the kind of things that could easily have derailed someone from being the best they could be. Gordie powered through them all. That’s the way he played on the ice as well.
Gordie Howe is the epitome of a hockey player.
He did everything on the ice. He is one of the most skilled players to ever play the game. He was also one of the toughest players to ever play the game.
Howe was so good that he didn’t have to be tough – someone could have done that for him; he didn’t have to work as hard as other guys, or play as much defense, or really do anything other than score.
But he did everything, and never asked anyone for anything that he wasn’t willing to do himself.
Without even knowing it, the way Gordie Howe played the game of hockey significantly impacted how I live my life.
It’s a bizarre thing that didn’t even really hit me until today. Every time Gordie has fallen ill in recent years I crossed my fingers, knocked on wood, or whatever and hoped he would pull through. I knew I would be sad when he passed away, but I didn’t know it would be this profound. This is a player who I never really saw play hockey, a person who I never met in real life, yet he made an indelible mark on who I am today.
Okay enough about me.
It’s a shame that Gordie Howe never really gets mentioned among the greats anymore. The argument seems to focus on Gretzky versus Lemeiux, with maybe some Bobby Orr thrown in there. Those are all great players, but to me the argument is Gretzky versus Howe. After all, any Lemeuix or Orr argument is based on “if they were healthy”.
Howe was the picture of health.
After his fractured skull, and before the wrist injury that forced his first retirement, Howe missed a grand total of 22 games over 21 seasons. This is during the era of no helmets, coach flights/buses, no real medical supervision, no off-season training, nothing that modern athletes have.
During those 21 seasons, he scored at least 20 goals every year, giving him a 22 year streak of at least 20 goals in season, 14 of which were at least 30 goal seasons.
He led the league in goals five times, points six times, and won six Hart Trophies as the league MVP. Gordie could have retired after his final Hart in 1963 as a hands down, first ballot Hall of Famer and one of the best players to ever play the game. Instead, he stuck around the NHL and WHA for another 1067 games of pro hockey, where he picked up 435 more goals and 1146 more points. That in itself is a Hall of Fame career.
Off the ice, Gordie Howe was about as perfect a human as anyone could ever expect. He was incredibly modest for all his accomplishments, once saying during his fifth decade in the NHL “One of my goals was longevity; I guess I’ve pretty much got the lock on that.” He’s one of the few players of his stature that I can recall ever avoiding even a whiff of scandal or impropriety. Last, but far from least, he is the namesake for the Gordie Howe Hat Trick, which is probably the most bad-ass thing to have named after you.
I still can’t figure out exactly what Gordie Howe was. He was a star, a legend, an ideal, but also so much more. I imagine the place he holds to me is similar to the place Muhammed Ali holds for many. Ali was known as The Greatest. Howe was most commonly known as Mr. Hockey, but had a wealth of other nicknames: Power, Mr. Everything, Mr. All-Star, The Great Gordie, The King of Hockey, The Legend, The Man, No. 9, Mr. Elbows, and The Most.
The Most is a strange nickname to have, but it fits. He may not be the greatest, but he certainly was the most.
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