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My thoughts on the 1st anniversary of the passing of the great Gordie Howe

June 11, 2017, 6:12 PM ET [2 Comments]
Scoop Cooper
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NOTE: In remembrance of the first anniversary of the passing of my friend of many years and the greatest hockey player of all time, "Mister Hockey" Gordie Howe, I am reposting my blog of a year ago including a couple of emails from his Hall of Fame son, Mark, to me at the time.

"Dad has always been a much better person than he ever was a hockey player," Mark Howe said of his father, Gordie Howe, in his emotional and heartfelt induction speech at the Hockey Hall of Fame in November, 2011. On that night he followed his dad (who had been inducted into the Hall 39 years earlier in 1972) becoming an honored member of the Hall with Gordie and other members of his family pridefully sitting in the front row. And I can say from my own first hand experience that Mark's words were certainly true even though "Mr. Hockey" was also the best hockey player in the world for most if not all of his long and glorious career. I was honored to know Gordie, who passed away on Friday at age 88, for nearly 35 years. I have never met a better human being in all my 70 years than was he.


Mark and Gordie with the Stanley Cup at Mark's induction to the Hall of Fame in 2011

Born in the tiny Saskatchewan farming community of Floral to an American-born father who had emigrated to Canada from Minnesota and a German-born (Stuttgart) mother, Gordie was the sixth of nine children (four boys, five girls). Nine days after he was born on March 31, 1928, the family moved to the nearby metropolis of Saskatoon where he grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. By the time he was 13 and playing hockey for the King George school, Gordie got his first taste of a championship as his school team won their age group's city title with Gordie as its star player -- as its goalie!!


Gordie (3rd from Right, back row) playing for the King George Athletic Club in Saskatoon at age 14

Although his coach, Robert Trickey, told him that his best chance of ever advancing in hockey was if he continued to play goal, Gordie was nonetheless determined to "play out" which he would soon do with the King George Athletic Club as an already almost six foot 14-year old in 1942-43. Two years later he was invited to the Detroit Red Wings training camp in Windsor, Ontario for a try out and the rest is history. After one year with the USHL Omaha Knights in 1945-46 where he played for coach Tommy Ivan under whom he would later also win a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 1953-54, Howe was promoted to Detroit as an 18-year old NHL rookie in 1946 and would remain with the Wings for a quarter century until his first "retirement" in 1971.


Gordie Howe (back row, second from left) at age 17 in his first season as a pro player with the 1945-46 USHL Omaha Knights


Gordie as a rookie pro with the Omaha Knights in 1945-46

In his first season with Detroit Gordie wore #17, but when Roy Conacher left the club after that season the trainer asked Howe if he would like to switch to what would become his famous #9 that Conacher had worn. "I was perfectly happy with 17," Gordie told me once, "but when the trainer told me that the 9 would also entitle me to a lower berth on overnight train trips I gladly accepted."


As Red Wings rookie in 1946-47 Gordie Howe wore #17 before switching to #9 in 1947-48

I first saw Gordie play in person in a game at the Spectrum against the Flyers on January 3, 1970 won by the Red Wings, 6-1. Although he did not score a goal himself, Howe set up four of the six Wing goals in the match assisting on a hat trick by longtime linemate Alex Delvecchio, and also on a single marker by his other linemate that night, Frank Mahovlich. I first met Gordie in person in September, 1978 when at age 50 he was playing with his sons, Mark and Marty, with the WHA New England Whalers. Ironically that first meeting took place at Hersheypark Arena where the Whalers had come to play a pre-season game against the NHL Washington Capitals in an afternoon-evening double-header in which the CHL Fort Worth Texans also played the AHL Hershey Bears. Gordie, Mark and Marty were all sitting in the hard wooden seats a few rows up from the ice watching the earlier game when I introduced myself to them and interviewed Gordie briefly for a program piece I was writing for the then defending AHL Calder Cup champion Maine Mariners.


Gordie on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, March 18, 1957


Gordie as a WHA Houston Aero -- and at age 52, an NHL Hartford Whaler in 1979-80

I finally got to know Gordie personally and eventually well in 1982 when Mark was traded by the Hartford Whalers to the Flyers and his father would visit Philadelphia from time to time to see him. One of those times I recall the most vividly was in the 1984-85 season when Gordie and I ended up sitting next to each other in the Specturm pressbox for a game against the New York islanders. At the time one of the Isles top centers was the feisty John Tonelli with whom both Gordie and Mark had played for three seasons with the WHA Houston Aeros from 1975 to 1978 when Tonelli was still just a fiery but inexperienced teen right out of junior and Gordie was 31 years his senior.

As Tonelli took to the Spectrum ice that night Gordie gave me a little elbow and leaned over to me. "Look at that Tonelli kid out there," he began in his well known surprisingly soft voice. "Well when he was a rookie with the Aeros in 1975 he was all full of himself as a brash tough kid from Hamilton (Ontario) who was going to make his mark quickly. So in training camp he was taking runs at everybody out there as he looked to impress (coach) Bill Dineen. I liked the kid's spunk and let him have his head for awhile until he took a dirty run at Mark from behind. After the play I skated over to him and told the kid that Mark was my son and also one of the stars of the team, and that he was not to do that again or he would have to answer to me."

Tonelli smiled and skated off, Gordie told me, but then a short time later took another run at Mark which was immediately followed by a famous Gordie Howe elbow to Tonelli's face and a trip to the trainer's room for the 18-year old kid for repairs. "He never took a run at Mark again," Gordie said to me with a twinkle in his eye. "And not at Marty either."

After his "second" and final retirement in 1980, Gordie remained with the Hartford Whalers for a number of years working in the front office. In the late 1970s and early 1980s I was the prime writer for the Philadelphia Flyers program magazine. "GOAL", which at that time had 16 "live" pages for each game. I wrote many feature stories, ghost wrote columns for both coach Pat Quinn and then retired goalie Bernie Parent, and also did a full page column of my own called "Scoop" on the last page of the magazine which apparently Gordie read when he got copies of the program. One day during that time my phone rang at home, I picked it up, and the voice on the other end said "Scoop, it's Gordie."

Not ever expecting a call from Gordie Howe I immediately thought that "Gordie" must be former St. Louis Blue and Washington Capital RW Gordie Brooks, a good friend who had played for the Philadelphia Firebirds when I was the PR man for that team and who won the AHL scoring title with that club in 1977-78. When the "Gordie" on the phone started to ask me how Mark and the Flyers were doing and wanted my opinion on a couple of players I soon realized that it was actually Gordie Howe on the other end of the line. I had no idea how he had even gotten my phone number, but we had a very pleasant conversation for about twenty minutes or so. As always Gordie was as gracious as could possibly be, full of good humor with a quiet but infectious laugh, and he seemed really quite interested in what I had to offer him as to how I thought the Flyers and Mark were playing. That was certainly an "out-of-the-blue" phone call that I will never forget!


Gordie, Marty and Mark Howe with the WHA Houston Aeros

Mark left the Flyers in 1992 to sign with the Detroit Red Wings and owing to injuries retired as a player three years later. After serving the club for a brief time as its video coach Mark turned to pro scouting which he still does for the Wings. As do most pro scouts, Mark moved from Detroit to live near to the group of teams that he would be scouting most often which included the Flyers, the three New York area NHL clubs, Washington, and the AHL clubs in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New England. To that end Mark moved to the Philadelphia area (first Huntingdon Valley, PA and now Jackson, NJ) and so I began to see him again often in the pressboxes of the Flyers and AHL Phantoms when that club played at the Spectrum for 13 seasons.


Gordie and Colleen with his parents, Kate and Ab Howe


Gordie and Colleen in 1953 and 2003

From time to time Gordie would accompany Mark when he was visiting him from Detroit, and after Gordie's beloved wife of 56 years, Colleen, passed away from Pick's Disease in March, 2009, and Gordie himself also began to suffer the effects of dementia, he would spend extended periods of time living with each of his four children: Marty, Mark, Cathy and Murray. Whenever he would be staying with Mark, Gordie would come even more often to Flyer games and sit with him in the pressbox. Even though Gordie's short term memory was fading, as with most older persons his recollections of youth and earlier life still remained remarkably strong.


The Howes: Murray, Mark, Colleen, Gordie, Cathy and Marty

I was thus fortunate enough to see Gordie again perhaps a dozen more times in recent years both sitting with him during pregame meals in the Flyers ground level pressroom and in the pressbox high above the ice at the balcony level. Once again always as gracious as ever we had many interesting talks about the game we all love. He told me about his playing for the King George Athletic Club in Saskatoon as you young teen during the WWII years as if it were yesterday.

Over the years it has been my practice (and joy) to be able to "mentor" quite a few young men just starting out in hockey as bloggers and/or budding broadcasters, and whenever one of them was in the pressbox on a night that Gordie was there I would make it a point to introduce them to him. Even though he had never met any of these "kids" before, Gordie would unfailingly treat them with the utmost respect and interest. Even though in his 70s or 80s at the time, Gordie would still always stand up to talk to them, offer them advice and guidance about hockey, ask about them and their interests and ambitions, and offer encouragement. I would often feel that we were taking up too much of Gordie's time with these encounters, but he would always indicate that he wanted to continue the conversation with each of them which often lasted 15 minutes or more and would finally be ended because the intermission was over and the game about to start again.


Myself with Gordie and Mark in the Flyers pressbox in 2012

Each of the people I would introduce to Gordie would later tell me that it was a memory that would last a lifetime, but the one person whom I introduced to Gordie this seemed to have the biggest impact on was ironically "Eklund", the owner and operator of this very site, HockeyBuzz, whom I introduced to Gordie in the Flyers pressroom several years ago. (Ek has already recounted what that experience was like for him -- and how much it meant to him -- in his own words in his blog about Gordie's passing posted in here yesterday.)

The last time I saw and visited with Gordie was at a Flyers' game during the 2013-14 season. It was clear that his dementia was getting worse, but the sparkle was still in his eye, the wry smile always there, and he had not lost his mischievousness either. He remained living with Mark in the summer of 2014 which was a difficult one for him healthwise with a number medical emergencies and trips to the hospital. With the start of the new season and Mark being on the road, Gordie moved to his daughter, Cathy's, home in Lubbock, Texas, where in October, 2014 he suffered a serious stroke. It left him virtually paralyzed and unable to speak. The end appeared very near for Gordie at age 86 and that he would not make it to the end of the year.

And then a "miracle" happened!

In December, Gordie was flown to San Diego, CA and taken from there to nearby Tijuana, Mexico, for a remarkable stem cell treatment that within a couple of days literally made a "new man" of him. Over the following months Gordie made a miraculous recovery, was able to walk and talk again, recognized his children (Mark told me at the time that Gordie had not been able to remember Mark's name for more than a year), was able to play with his grandchildren, and had regained a significant "quality of life".

His recovery was so remarkable that in February, 2015 he was able to travel to his hometown of Saskatoon one more time to be honored at a diner, the renaming of a hockey arena in his honor, and be on stage for a round table with some of the greats of the game telling their recollections of Gordie including Wayne Gretzky, Bobby, Dennis and Brett Hull, Lanny McDonald, and Gordie's teammate sons Mark and Marty.


An 11-year old Wayne Gretzky with Gordie in 1972 and in Saskatoon in February, 2015

During last season Gordie moved from Texas to Toledo, OH, to stay with his physician son, Murray, who cared for him in what proved to be the final months and in whose home he passed away on Friday. On March 26 Gordie made his final public appearance when Murray, Mark, and his grandson Nolan, took Gordie to the Joe Louis Arena to celebrate his 88th -- and last -- birthday coming up three days later. "Gordie was so excited about going to the game that he did not sleep the whole night before it", Mark told me when I saw him in the Flyers pressbox the next night. Among the many Gordie visited and had his picture taken with in the Red Wings dressing room that night was 19-year old rookie center Dylan Larkin.


Gordie meeting 19-year Red Wings' rookie center Dylan Larkin, March 28, 2016

It has indeed been a hard couple of months for "our game" as since the last day of the regular season no fewer than five giants of hockey have passed on: Ed Snider, John Brophy, Tom Lysiak, Rick MacLeish and now Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe. Three of these -- Snider, Brophy and now Gordie -- were all well into their 80s and had lead full and fruitful lives in the game of which each was an active influence as an owner, player, and/of coach for half a century or more. Lysiak and MacLeish -- two of the premier centers of the 1970s to early 1980s -- were both taken from us far too young, however, passing on the same day, May 30, after long and difficult illnesses. Both were just their 60s.

Each of these five great hockey people will certainly be missed by the hockey world, and especially by those like myself who knew each of them and watched all or much of their active hockey careers unfold on the ice, behind the bench, in the front office, and most especially in "howe" their lives touched both the game and all those around them.


Three generations of Howes: Mark, Murray, Gordie, and Nolan at Gordie's 88th birthday in Joe Louis Arena, March 28, 2016

"Dad has always been a much better person than he ever was a hockey player," his son and my longtime good friend Mark Howe still often says. And of course "Mr. Hockey" was one grand and glorious hockey player too.

So RIP Gordie Howe. There will truly never be another one like you in our game or our lives again.

Never.

NOTE: I have received two emails from Mark Howe since this blog was posted which read: "Thanks Scoop. Knew it was coming but still difficult. Glad he passed peacefully. He had a wonderful life. See you in the fall. Mark" and "Scoop, the service is on Wednesday at 11 am, Semi private. 500 reserved seats. 300 open to public. Public viewing at Joe Louis on Tuesday from 9 to 9. Thought the hours were appropriate. Mark"

I received the following message from Mark after the funeral service in June 15: "It was a wonderful an uplifting service thanks to Father JJ and Murray. I would have had everyone in tears and highly doubt I could have gotten past the first sentence. Enjoy the summer and see you in the fall. Regards, Mark"


Gordie and Mark at Gordie's 88th birthday in Detroit.



"Never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee."
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