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Availability

Gordie: A Hockey Legend is available from booksellers in both the 2003 updated trade paperback edition and the original paperback edition.

 

Gordie

About the Book

Gordie: A Hockey Legend is the authoritative, unauthorized biography of Gordie Howe, who many regard as the best all-around player in the game’s history. First published in 1993, Gordie was reissued in paperback in 1994 and republished in 2003, Howe’s seventy-fifth year, with a new cover and introductory chapter updating the story of his life to that point.

The publisher, Greystone Books / Douglas & McIntyre, writes:

“Before Gretzky, before Russians played in the NHL, before multimillion-dollar salaries, there was Gordie Howe: the greatest all-round player in hockey history.  Thoroughly researched, richly illustrated and completely unauthorized, Gordie: A Hockey Legend is the only full-length biography to cover Howe’s entire playing career.

“It’s all here: the dramatic Stanley Cup victories, the bloody fights and terrible injuries, Howe’s stirring comebacks, and the incredible longevity of a career that lasted until Gordie was 52 and playing alongside his sons, Mark and Marty. Recreating four decades of hockey glory, author Roy MacSkimming takes us behind the sports icon to reveal a man who remains immensely popular with young and old.

“The Howe legend begins on the frozen sloughs of Saskatchewan, where a painfully shy boy from a poverty-ridden family discovered his one advantage in life: major athletic talent. Signed by the Detroit Red Wings at 16, Howe joined celebrated teammates Sid Abel, Ted Lindsay, Terry Sawchuk and Red Kelly to forge a team that dominated the NHL as only the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers have since. Six-time leading scorer, six-time Hart Trophy winner as most valuable player, Howe surpassed Rocket Richard’s NHL goals record to reach an amazing total of 801, unmatched for years until finally Gretzky caught up to his mentor and idol.

“Gordie: A Hockey Legend recreates the glory of hockey’s golden age, the six-team NHL from the 1940s to the 1960s. Author Roy MacSkimming has interviewed the men who played with and against Howe, watched game films and scoured archives for written and visual records.

“In an introduction to the new edition, MacSkimming reflects on Howe’s last ten years.  He recounts Gordie and Colleen Howe’s reactions to this unauthorized biography, relates Howe’s many attempts to retire, and describes the tragic illness that has recently afflicted Colleen Howe and transformed the couple’s life together. Reissued to celebrate Gordie’s seventy-fifth year, Gordie reminds us of Howe’s enduring importance in the rapidly changing world of hockey.”

Excerpt

There’s a story they like to tell about Gordie Howe.  One summer during a fishing trip to Alberta, he was driving with his tackle up to a lake north of Edmonton.  Approaching an old man fishing off the side of a bridge, Howe slowed his car to a stop, rolled the window down and stuck his head out.

“How’re they bitin’, old-timer?” he called.

The stranger turned back to his rod.  “Pretty good, Gord,” he replied.

I’m reminded of that kind of public recognition when I finally get to Gordie on an evening in August 1993, nearly forty years after my best friend and I argued passionately over who was better, he or the Rocket.  I’m sitting across the table from Howe in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Beside him is Colleen Howe; beside me is publisher Rob Sanders.  We’re there to discuss the possibility of collaborating on Gordie’s long-overdue autobiography.

But Howe can scarcely take part in the conversation. He’s too busy accommodating the steady stream of restaurant patrons, young and old, who keep stopping at our table and asking, some shyly, some boldly, for his autograph. As a result, the strongest impressions of Howe that I retain from that evening are visual: the astonishing size of his hands, the hands that administered the legendary wrist shot and the punishing beatings, and that now shrink neighbouring objects by comparison, making our cups and saucers and cutlery resemble a dollhouse tea set; the fingernails as big as dollar coins; his wrists the girth of ankles; yet everything in perfect proportion.

And pain.  He seems a veritable mountain of pain, from his elongated, muscled neck and precipitously sloping shoulders to his long, thick, gnarled limbs gathered stiffly under the table, all aching so much that he’s constantly wincing and massaging his massive wrists and thighs and kneecaps to obtain some relief.

I say how regrettable it is that, so many years after his retirement, Howe still hasn’t published his autobiography.  Not only has Gretzky already come out with his life story, but the list of former NHL players who have collaborated with co-authors is as long as Howe’s arm.  It seems wrong that hockey’s greatest living player still hasn’t recounted his career from start to finish.  He is moving steadily farther away from the source of those personal memories and reflections that his legions of fans would love to read about.

I realize it’s not as if writers and publishers haven’t tried to collaborate with him.  Trent Frayne and Roy MacGregor are two highly respected and experienced hockey writers whom Howe could have worked with over the years, but didn’t.

For whatever reason, as it turns out, I don’t have any better luck than they did.  But later that evening I have a serendipitous experience. In the Hotel Vancouver I come across a Plexiglas showcase displaying a gilt-edged souvenir plate. The plate bears a hand-painted portrait of Wayne Gretzky in action, wearing the colours of the Los Angeles Kings. And hovering just above Gretzky’s head, emerging from the heavens like some biblical vision, is none other than the hawk-nosed profile of the man I’ve just shared dinner with. The portrait seems to be saying, “And Howe begat Gretzky….”  It confirms my conviction that any man who becomes an icon in his lifetime deserves a book to himself. Hence this unauthorized biography.

[Note: The above was written in 1994. A year later Gordie and Colleen Howe self-published their autobiography, and…Howe!]

Gordie Howe Trivia Questions

  1. In which season did Howe break into the NHL with the Red Wings?
  2. What was Howe’s highest NHL regular-season goals total?
  3. What were Howe’s NHL regular-season total goals and total points records until broken by Wayne Gretzky?
  4. What was Howe’s first team in the World Hockey Association?
  5. Which NHL team was Howe playing for when he retired for good in 1980?