My claim to fame as a kid, at least in my mind, was that I had the same birthday as Mr. Hockey, Gordie Howe.
Now, of course, I had nothing to do with this, although I was a week late so maybe I had a little to do with it, but it gave me some pride that I had something in common with greatness.
And Canadian greatness, and in our national sport, no less.
And if Wayne Gretzky is The Great One, and I’m not disputing that, he wore No. 99 in honour of his hero, the original No. 9, Howe.
Gretzky and No. 4 Bobby Orr may have revolutionized the game but Gordie was a superstar before the term was invented and didn’t go about reinventing anything, he just played the game the way it was supposed to be played – while racking up MVP awards and scoring titles and Stanley Cups.
Although my own hockey career, unlike Gordie’s, ended prematurely in Pee Wee – when my mom tells me, but I don’t believe her, that she got tired of forcing me to go to practice once the weather got better in the spring – Gordie’s seemingly went on forever.
He played professional hockey into his 50s, even lacing up with his sons (how cool is that?), and all with humility and grace.
“To me, Gordie is a contradiction,” said Howard Baldwin, former owner of the former Hartford Whalers, in a Canadian Press story. “I think anybody that followed his career knew that he was a fierce competitor and he was a tough hockey player. And yet he was a very gentle, kind soul off the ice.”
Exactly. Tough as nails and even dirty on the ice, apparently his elbows are infamous, but the humblest of humans off the ice, despite being called the greatest of all time by The Great One himself.
In fact his humility probably cost him serious coin as he was underpaid for most of his career, resulting in those less talented than him to be also underpaid, until the players eventually unionized.
However, how Canadian is that?
Nice to a fault, ahem, but also will go through a wall for his teammates and if you’re on the opposing team keep your head up.
The irony is that if there was more media coverage back then, and the game was much more brutal than it is today, he might not be considered so nice, ha.
But he just did what he had to do in the game of the day to be successful. And boy did he succeed.
His humble beginnings make his story even more perfect, and perfectly Canadian: born in Floral, Saskatchewan on March 31, ahem, 1928, the sixth of nine children.
And Howe got his skates when his mother bought a sack of items off a neighbour in Saskatoon just to help them out, and it included skates, even though the Howe family had hardly any means themselves.
It’s so perfect that an act of kindness inadvertently led to the creation of the greatest hockey player in Canadian history.
And that he continued that legacy of kindness through a lifetime of being a perfect ambassador for the sport that this nation invented and always strives to be the best at, no matter what.
Even though Gordie’s death can’t be called unexpected in any way, there’s still a deep sadness involved.
Apparently to the disbelief of most of us, Gordie Howe can’t go on forever and he left us Friday at the age of 88, after suffering a serious stroke some 17 months earlier. However, his legacy will live on forever, both on and off the ice.
