Gordie Howe

Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who spent 26 seasons in the NHL and six in the WHA between 1946 and 1980, with the first 25 of those NHL seasons played for the Detroit Red Wings. Known as "Mr. Hockey," he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most well-rounded players ever. When he retired, his 801 goals, 1,049 assists, and 1,850 points were all NHL records, later broken by Wayne Gretzky, who has often praised Howe's impact. A 23-time NHL All-Star, Howe shares the record for most NHL seasons played with Chris Chelios, and his 1,767 regular-season games stood as the league record until Patrick Marleau surpassed it in 2021. In 2017, he was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players."

Howe debuted with the Red Wings in 1946. He won the Art Ross Trophy as the league's top scorer six times—leading the NHL in points from 1950–51 through 1953–54, then again in 1956–57 and 1962–63—the second-most Art Ross wins in history. He also led the NHL in goals four times and ranked among the top ten scorers for 21 straight seasons. In 1953, he set a league record with 95 points in a season, a mark that stood for six years. He won the Stanley Cup four times with Detroit and earned six Hart Trophies as league MVP, and he led the NHL in playoff points six times.

Howe first retired in 1971 and was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame that same year. He entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 but returned to play two years later with his sons Mark and Marty on the Houston Aeros of the WHA. Despite being in his mid-40s, he scored over 100 points twice in six WHA seasons, won back-to-back Avco World Trophies (1974 and 1975), and was named league MVP in 1974, totaling 174 WHA goals. Traded to the New England Whalers in 1977, he became the first player to play a professional game at age 50 and to score 1,000 career goals. When the Whalers joined the NHL for the 1979–80 season as the Hartford Whalers, Howe played in all 80 games, scoring 15 goals, and became the oldest player to appear in an NHL game. He retired weeks after turning 52. His WHA career was key to the league's brief success before the NHL merger, pushing the NHL to recruit European talent and expand into new markets. Across both leagues, Howe scored 975 regular-season goals and 96 playoff goals, and he was named MVP seven times.

Though best known for scoring, Howe was also exceptionally strong and tough, redefining the forward position with his two-way play. He is the only player to compete in the NHL in five different decades (1940s through 1980s); he also played a shift in a 1997 IHL game for the Detroit Vipers, making it six decades of professional hockey. The "Gordie Howe hat trick"—a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game—is named after him, though he only recorded two such games. In 2008, he became the first recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award.

**Early life** Howe was born in a farmhouse in Floral, Saskatchewan, to Katherine (Schultz) and Albert Howe, one of nine children. When he was nine days old, the family moved to Saskatoon, where his father worked as a laborer during the Depression. Howe spent summers working construction with his father. He was mildly dyslexic but physically advanced for his age; by his mid-teens he was six feet tall, and doctors, concerned about a calcium deficiency, advised him to strengthen his spine with chin-ups. He started organized hockey at age eight, quit school during the Depression to work construction, and left Saskatoon at 16 to pursue hockey.

**Playing career** Howe was ambidextrous, one of the few players of his era who could shoot left- or right-handed with straight sticks. As a young teen, he played bantam hockey with the King George Athletic Club in Saskatoon, winning the 1942 Saskatchewan Provincial Bantam Hockey Finals. At age 15 in 1943, the New York Rangers invited him to their training camp in Winnipeg, where he played well enough that they wanted him to sign a "C" form (giving them his NHL rights) and attend the College of Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. Howe declined, preferring to return home to play with friends. In 1944, Detroit Red Wings scout Fred Pinkney noticed him and invited him to camp in Windsor, Ontario. Howe signed a "C" form with Detroit and was assigned to their junior team, the Galt Red Wings. Because of Canadian Amateur Hockey Association rules limiting transfers from Western Canada, he was declared ineligible for the 1944–45 OHA season. He played only one regular-season game for Galt on November 18, 1944, scoring a goal and two assists, but those stats were later stricken when the Hamilton Barons folded. Howe was supposed to attend Galt Collegiate Institute but instead worked at a metal factory, staying with Galt for the season to practice and play exhibitions.