"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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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"
