Well, we all knew it was coming, #sigh ... it is with great sadness I report the passing of Gordie Howe, Detroit RedWing & hockey legend.
Gordie was the original "great one", so great in fact, when they wanted Wayne Gretzky to wear #9, he deferred to #99 out of respect to Howe. You couldn't wear a #9 sweater playing in the Detroit amateur leagues back in the day without someone gigging you for not being good enough to wear that number & no self-respecting father let his kid take that sweater without first advising him not to disrespect the number ... so great was the legend of Howe. Summers were 'Here's Howe' hockey camps at Gordie Howe Hockeyland and the greatest feat you could accomplish on the ice as a youth hockey player in Detroit was a 'Gordie Howe Hat Trick' ... a goal, an assist, and two minutes for fighting.
His career spanned 7 decades, and while his last professional game with the Detroit Vipers was more of a publicity stunt, he still skated that shift better than any 70yr old could. A man among men, a reporter once asked Gordie why he wore a protective cup but not a helmet ... "You can always get someone to do your thinking for you" was his reply,
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Gordie was my first official sports hero and the measure of all athletes since, in my book.
This one hurts ... a lot, #sniff.
