Howe, Gordie

Gordie Howe, byname of Gordon Howe, (born March 31, 1928, Floral, Saskatchewan, Canada—died June 10, 2016, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.), Canadian professional ice hockey player who led the Detroit Red Wings to four Stanley Cup championships (1950, 1952, 1954, and 1955) and to seven consecutive first-place regular-season finishes (1949–55) in a career that encompassed a record 1,767 NHL games played over 32 seasons (25 of them with the Red Wings). His extraordinary puck handling, skillful wrist shots (which he could make with either hand), and legendary toughness earned him the sobriquet “Mr. Hockey.” The Gordie Howe hat trick—a goal, an assist, and a fight within a single game—memorialized his style of play.

Howe played hockey from the age of five; he moved to the United States in 1944 and was put on the Detroit Red Wings’ negotiating list that same year. He was signed to a contract for Omaha in 1945 and played a season there before joining the Red Wings in 1946. He soon became known for both his scoring and his competitiveness. As part of the Production Line, which also featured Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay, Howe helped Detroit become a dominating team in the early 1950s. He was a six-time winner of both the Hart Memorial Trophy for most valuable player (1952–53, 1957–60, and 1963) and the Art Ross Trophy as top point scorer (1951–54, 1957, and 1963). At the apex of his career, in the 1968–69 season, he contributed 103 points.

Howe retired after the 1970–71 season to work in Detroit’s front office, but he moved to the new World Hockey Association (WHA) to skate with his sons, Mark and Marty Howe, for the Houston Aeros beginning in 1973–74. He scored 100 points in that first season and led the Aeros to back-to-back WHA titles. After finishing four seasons with the Aeros, Howe moved (1977) to the WHA’s New England Whalers. That team was absorbed into the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers, and Howe completed his final season (1979–80) with them; he played a full season, scoring 15 goals and 26 assists. At the time of his retirement, Howe had an NHL career record of 1,850 points (broken in 1989 by Wayne Gretzky) and 801 goals (broken in 1994 by Gretzky). Howe’s total professional career record stood at 975 goals and 1,383 assists (1,049 in the NHL).

Howe later became director of player development for the Whalers and chairman of the board for a marketing company. His numerous honours include appointment (1971) to the Order of Canada. In 1972 he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and in 2008 he was honoured with the first NHL lifetime achievement award. Howe’s autobiography, Mr. Hockey: My Story, was published in 2014.