100 Players and coaches - Quotes on Gordie Howe

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Inspired by the thread regarding Gordie Howe’s last NHL season, I’ve collected quotes from 100 people, mostly players who played with and against Howe. This includes quotes from 50 Hall of Famers.
So grab a big jug of coffee while you’re entertained by all the Gordie Howe stories.

”He was the best hockey player of the twentieth century. I played against him when he was 51 years old, he was very well developed physically and completely devoted to hockey. He shot the puck with brute force, with one hand from the center of the ice at 51. I saw it personally, and when everyone left the practice, he remained to do shuttle drills. That's what a professional hockey player with a capital letter means!. He was truly Mr Hockey.” – Vyacheslav Anisin (Played in the Summit Series 72 and against Howe in the Summit Series 74, and also vs WHA All Stars in 79)

“Gordie was the most professional hockey player to ever play the game. He was just an unbelievable character off the rink but on the ice you didn’t want to get in his way to much or make him too angry. He was quite the hockey player. There’s nobody like him. He could do everything. He could go down the ice, carrying the puck, and if somebody bothered him from one side he would switch hands and go from a right-hand player to a left-hand player and protect the puck. He was ambidextrous. He could play with either hand.” – Ralph Backstrom

"In that time, I just learned so much – not only about hockey, but how to treat people. He would never turn down anybody for an autograph. It used to be, after the games, we'd get on the bus and there'd be Gordie at the door, signing autographs, and the guys would be yelling at him, 'Let's go, let's go.' But he would stay until he signed the last one."

"We always said, he could score goals, play the power play, kill penalties and, on the other side of it, could be effective in a fighting sense. He could do anything. In any era, he would have been great. He had such stamina, he could play a lot. He never seemed to slow down. He had that steady pace, just like a thoroughbred. You could catch him, but most times, you didn't want to."

"I recollect playing in Montreal, when Gordie scored his 600th goal and there was a standing ovation for him, which wouldn't happen very often in most cities for a visiting player, and especially not in Montreal. Then, on the next shift, he goes out and takes J.C. Tremblay into the corner and just plasters him into the boards and now there's a standing boo. That's just the way he was. Getting his 600th goal didn't mean anything more than taking out one of their most important players in the corner." – Doug Barkley

"Once while Howe was carrying the puck, Bruin defenseman Larry Hillman took a run at him. Gordie let the puck drop right at his feet, brought his stick up and a put a perfect Z on Larry’s forehead, like the mark of Zorro. Next thing you knew, he was back stick-handling. He never lost control of the puck, and it happened so fast the ref didn’t notice." – Bob Baun

”Howe was so powerful, that trying to strong-arm Gordie off the puck in a corner was akin to wrestling with a telephone pole. On the ice, he could do everything and make it look so easy. I always had so much respect for the fact he could do anything. There’s no doubt I’m very happy to have played my 18 years when Gordie was there.” – Jean Béliveau (HHOF 1972)

"One night we were in Montreal, during Gordie's last year with Detroit, and we got into a skirmish. Montreal had some tough guys, and one of them, a guy who I won't mention by name, was kind of squared off with me and we were holding onto each other.

"Everyone was picking out partners [to fight], but nobody wanted to pick Gordie Howe. And so there was some bad language and some bad blood out on the ice. And this guy is hanging onto me, we'd already dropped our gloves, and I thought we were breaking up. And all of a sudden Howe sort of skates by and he elbows the guy in the face. And his head looked like it just about came off. And so this guy comes back and grabs onto me even harder -- like he doesn't want anything to do with Gordie Howe. And Gordie was about 40 at that time. That's the kind of reverence he got from so-called tough guys in the league, and Gordie was an old man at that time."

"He was smooth, people used to say he was lazy and slow, but he wasn't lazy or slow. He was smooth; he just had that gift of coordination. He skated effortlessly. He could handle the puck as well as anyone, and he could shoot left-handed as well as right-handed. The game was easy for him. The rest of us are really working just to make it happen. He was so athletic, and then he had the mindset to go with it. He had the patience and the competitiveness, that mean spirit -- he had a real meanness about him that kept players from bothering him. And he just had it all. He had the size. He didn't look big on the ice with those sloped shoulders, but if you stood beside him, this guy was a man. And I doubt if he ever lifted a weight in his life; he was just a natural specimen. And he had all the intangibles." – Red Berenson

“He was primarily a defensive player when he started, and he’d take your ankles off if you stood in front of the net. Jack Adams always used him too much during the regular season, so he had nothing left when the playoffs came round.” – Toe Blake (HHOF 1966)

“My mom [Dorothy] was a huge fan of Gordie Howe’s from when I was a real young kid. I found out, once I got older, that my mom sent a birthday card to Gordie every year. When I finally did make it into the NHL, and played against Gordie at the Nassau Coliseum for the first time, my mom happened to be in town, and she was able to meet Gordie Howe after the game. It was a huge thrill for her. It was a bigger thrill for me to introduce her to Gordie.

“It was always special playing against Gordie. I remember the first time playing against him in Hartford and it was a little surreal because I had been watching him ever since I was a little boy, watching hockey on TV. It was quite amazing, and as I get older I find it quite amazing that he was able to play until that age.” – Mike Bossy (HHOF 1991)

“Gordie was the greatest player of my time. I had to be on my toes because he had a great shot and skated with two great players in Sid Abel and Ted Lindsay. I had to watch him all of the time when he came down the ice. He was outstanding. One thing that I remember about Gordie Howe was his energy. If he just finished a shift on the ice and they got a penalty, he would come right back and help kill the penalty. He had a lot of endurance.”

“He was strong and he could defend himself very well. He wasn’t a fighter, but we knew that he was strong. The fans appreciated him because they compared him to the Rocket Richard. For me, Gordie was just as good as the Rocket.” – Émile Bouchard (HHOF 1966)

“The first time I played against him was in Springfield because the arena in Hartford wasn’t ready. I couldn’t believe it; I was playing against a legend. It was just incredible. I had always heard of the type of player he was and how he played the game with so many different dimensions to it. You didn’t mess with him in his time or that night, which was proven to me at that age. The story I remember about that game is that Bobby Miller had given Marty or Mark a good hit, for Gordie that was a cheap shot. Later in the game, Bobby ended up with a nice little cut up over his eye, and was told not to do those types of things to his sons. You didn’t mess around with Gordie.” – Ray Bourque (HHOF 2004)

"Gordie was a great hockey player, a great competitor, his record speaks for itself. He was dynamite. He scored a few goals on me, and I got him a few times too. But there was one game I remember just before Christmas; in the warm-up he skates by me and says, 'John, keep your head up tonight.' I didn't say anything, the game starts and bingo! Can you believe it, Detroit scores the first goal on me. It's Gordie. He looks at me and says, 'John, Merry Christmas!' I didn't say a word. But we won 4-3 and I rushed down the ice to wish Gordie a Happy New Year, but he was too fast for me, he was gone, darn it.” – Johnny Bower (HHOF 1976)

“In St. Louis we did warn our team to let him play, don’t get involved physically with him and get him after us. One of our young defenseman, Bob Plager, he caught Gordie with a pretty good check, but it was not what we were supposed to do. We paid for it later because Gordie was determined to show his strength. Looking back, it wasn’t funny at the time.”

"He was a complete player. He had skill, he had strength, he had power, he was fearless and most people wouldn't even fool around with him.”

"One of the most humorous things I was told came from the Red Wings doctor, Jack Finley -- he started in 1960 and was there when I was there [in 1993]. This was one of Jack's early seasons, in the '60s, Gordie was cut and came into the dressing room; he needed stitches for a pretty deep cut. Gordie was in a rush. He told Jack, 'You don't need gloves, just stitch me up. And in fact, don't go very far because the guy who did this will be coming in soon.' " – Scotty Bowman (HHOF 1991)

“I remember playing against Detroit in my second game in the NHL. Johnny Bower got hurt, and I had to play in Toronto against Chicago and Bobby Hull et cetera on a Saturday, and then in Detroit on that Sunday. I’ll never forget that game; I was in awe certainly. I call that period BM – ‘Before the Mask’ -- so you were a little more nervous. Gordie took a shot in that game and snapped my goal stick in half. It had never happened in Juniors, but here was the world’s greatest player and he snapped a shot that broke my stick.” – Gerry Cheevers (HHOF 1985)

“They ought to bottle Gordie Howe’s sweat. It would make a great liniment to rub on hockey players.” – King Clancy (HHOF 1958)

"Others had the fear of going in the corner and chasing the puck with him, because you didn't know whether you were going to get a stick or an elbow or a hello or a good-bye. For me, the biggest fear was having to face Gordie one-on-one and what he was going to do with that puck." – Joe Daley

“If you got Gordie really mad, he'd give you a little wood, but only if you got him mad. Yes, he was dirty, but in a clean sort of way.” – Alex Delvecchio (HHOF 1977)

"He's an exceptional man. He played hockey until he was 52 years old and was a professional athlete at the highest level. He gave me many valuable lessons.

- There's nobody in this world, nobody, that you can't learn something from. You're not any better than anybody else. The person that's looking for a coffee on the street can teach you something." - Howe

- ”It isn't the team paying your cheques, it’s the fans," - Howe

- ”It's a privilege to be asked for an autograph. If you've been asked to give an autograph, write your name so that they know, 10 or 20 or 30 years from now, they know who signed that piece of material." – Howe
- Jordy Douglas

"I went to the WHA. The first game we played against Houston, I crossed the blue line and he clipped me with his stick on the forehead. I remember the puck was dumped in [later] and he went back to get it. I ran him. I figured I've got to let him know not to do that. From about 20 feet, I ran him and hit him. He bounced off the boards and we both went down. He just kind of looked at me.”

"After the game, a lot of reporters came down and asked, 'Why didn't you fight him?' For once in my life, I thought fairly quickly on my feet and said, 'Well, it seemed like a no-win situation. If I beat him up, then I just beat up a 50-year-old man. If I get the shit kicked out of me, which was quite conceivable, I just got the hell kicked out of me by a 50-year-old man.' "We played them next a month later and I had made Sports Illustrated for quote of the month for saying that. He tapped me on the shin pads and said, 'You're getting a lot of mileage out of me, aren't you kid?' That was kind of a thrill." – Rick Dudley

"My very first game in the NHL was in Montreal. I only got on the ice once. The next game we played was in Detroit and I sat on the bench, never got on the ice, and then in the third period, [coach] Billy Reay said, 'Esposito, you go out there with Bobby Hull and Reggie Fleming. And let Bobby take the faceoff.' ”

"I go out there and I'm like, 'Holy shit’; Gordie Howe, Hall of Famer. Alex Delvecchio. Teddy Lindsay. Billy Gadsby. Terry Sawchuk, [teammates] Pierre Pilote and Bobby Hull.' All these Hall of Famers. I'm going, 'Oh my God.' Then Bobby says to me, 'Phil! You got that old son of a bitch?' and he's nodding at Howe. I said, 'I got him,' and Gordie just smiled at me.”

"The puck drops and he gives me an elbow. Right under my nose. Cuts me for six stitches. I'm on the ice six seconds. I turn around and say, 'You old son of a bitch!' I could feel the blood coming down. I swung my stick at him, at his pants because that's where we swung those days, the only place we had padding, and Gordie and I got two minutes each. We went into the penalty box, with only an usher between us. I went in first. I had a towel with ice in it, trying to stop the bleeding. I lean around the usher and I say to Gordie, and you can write this the way you want, 'And you used to be my f***ing idol!' He says, 'What did you say, f***ing?' And I replied, 'Uh, nothing, Mr. Howe. Absolutely nothing.'

"A couple years later I played in the All-Star Game with him. Don't forget, Gordie was 14 years older than me. I'm (21) in my rookie year, he's 35. He said to me, 'That's the first time in my life somebody said to me that I was his idol. I was flabbergasted.' I said, 'So why did you elbow me in the head?' He said, 'Phil, I tested every rookie. If you didn't respond, I owned you. For as long as you played, or I played. And you responded.' And you know what? He never bothered me again, and I never bothered him.”

"I golfed with Gordie and I never saw a guy hit the ball like that. Never. I really liked him, I did. He truly was my idol. I grew up in Sault Ste. Marie [Ontario] and I'd get Detroit Red Wings sweaters every Christmas. I never liked No. 9; I was a No. 7 guy [he wore No. 7 for most of his career]. For me, Gordie was the greatest all-around player in hockey. He could do everything." – Phil Esposito (HHOF 1984)

“But even in his 50s he was a force and could still play. He wasn’t just there because he was Gordie Howe. He was contributing. I remember he scored a goal on me – a wrist shot from about 25-feet out. He beat me clean to the low catching side. He really got a lot on it – blew it by me before I could get there. I think that’s why he came back. He knew he could skate and do the job physically.” – Tony Esposito (HHOF 1988)

“The first time I played against him I’ll never forget. It was in Detroit and I got caught deep in their zone and I was back-checking coming as fast as I could, but I must have got too close to him and he caught me with an elbow.” – Bill Fairbairn

“Gordie would simply stand there with that grin on his face and psych out opponents. I could have punched him for that ice shower. But no one challenged Gordie Howe. He scared every opponent he faced because he could beat you any way he wanted.” – John Ferguson

“I respected him very much so, and evidently he must have respected me. He’s a big, strong guy, but if you played him without messing around with elbows and everything, he’d do the same to you. But if you kind of did something to him, he’d do the same to you.” – Fern Flaman (HHOF 1990)

”It was early in my professional career when Gordie Howe changed the way I played hockey forever. Before one of my first few seasons in Hartford, Gordie, who had recently retired, would occasionally skate with us informally prior to training camp since his sons Marty and Mark still played for the Whalers.”
”At one skate, I was bearing down on the goal with the puck on my stick when I felt something slide into my right glove and lift my arm up above my head. It was Gordie. He had slipped the blade of his stick into my glove and was yanking my arm around like a puppet on a string. “That’s why you take the laces out of your gloves kid,” he told me. “Yes, Mr. Howe,” I said.”

”I skated straight to the bench and removed the strings from my gloves. I didn’t use them again for the rest of my 23-year career.” – Ron Francis (HHOF 2007)

”When it came to what happened on the ice, Gordie had a memory like an elephant. If you played it straight up with Gordie, you had no problem. You could take him into the boards and rough him up a bit. I played against him for a lot of years and never had a problem. But if you gave him the stick or slashed him, he didn’t forget. He may not get you that night. But he would get you the next game or two months down the road. In the Original Six days, you played 14 games against every team. You had plenty of opportunities.”

”One night in Montreal fans were giving him a fine ovation for reaching some fine milestone and five minutes later they are booing him for something that happened between him and Montreal player J.C.Tremblay. They had both gone into the corner, and only Gordie came out. Tremblay went down like a sack of potatoes. There was no television replay back then, and no one knew what happened. When he got back to the bench, I asked Gordie what had happened. Gordie said he didn’t know what happened. But Gordie was my roommate and after the game, we had supper and I asked him again. ’I really don’t know,’ Gordie insisted. ’But maybe the thumb of my glove struck him in the eye. That’s probably what happened.’ That could happen, I told myself, as we walked back to our room in the Mount Royal Hotel. But after I picked up the morning paper, I couldn’t resist kidding Gordie the next morning at breakfast. ’You must have a really powerful thumb,’ I said to Gordie as I sat down. Then I showed him the newspaper headline that said Tremblay had a broken jaw.”

”Not until I did my own book did Gordie reveal that the incident wasn’t about anything that Tremblay did on the ice. Apparently, the spring before, Gordie had been working as a radio analyst after the Red Wings were knocked out of the playoffs. He had been on the train watching some of the Canadiens playing bridge. Gordie commented that Dick Duff had made a nice play. ’What’s a dummy like you know about bridge?’ Tremblay had said to Howe. That night in Montreal Gordie had responded to the comment – Bill Gadsby (HHOF 1970)

“We were playing in Detroit. I was on a line with Danny O’Shea and Claude Larose, and Gordie was playing with Alex Delvecchio and Frank Mahovlich. That was nice ... thank God they weren’t still in their prime.”

”That night, I scored a hat trick against Roger Crozier. On the third goal, after I put the puck over Roger’s shoulder, I skated around with my hands in the air,” Grant said. “I could feel this presence coming behind me and I thought ‘Uh, oh’, I just had this feeling. The next thing I know I’m into the boards, my head is against the glass and Gordie said, ‘That’s enough for you tonight, son.’ I took the message very seriously.”
“Gordie was a big man in his day but today he would be not much bigger than average, really. But one thing Gordie had was the farm boy strength. Bobby Hull was the same way. They had (big) hands and arms and probably never picked up a weight in their life. They were just born naturally strong. Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and Bobby Orr are three players who I think would have the same success playing today as they did back then or even before. They’d stand out in any generation.” – Danny Gare

"Even at 50 or 51, you didn't want to [tick] Gordie off. One night, I remember, Robbie Ftorek gave it to Mark [Howe] with his stick. Really bad. Next time we play them, two weeks later, they're lining up to take a faceoff. Gordie, of course, just happens to be right beside Ftorek. Before they can even drop the puck, he wheels around and pitchforks Ftorek in the face. After the game, Don Blackburn, who was our coach -- or maybe it was Harry [Neale] -- says 'Holy crap, Gordie, what was that all about?!' And Gordie says, 'Didn't you see the way he hit Mark two weeks ago?!' " – John Garrett

“He obviously got a tremendous amount of respect, and he could go into the corner and come out with the puck and he still had a great shot. I tried to stay away from him. I remember playing against him in Washington. We had Ben Gustafsson, who hit Gordie. It was an unwritten rule that you don’t hit Gordie, and he was upset. The next time they were in the neutral zone, Gordie throws him a flying elbow. Ben saw it coming and ducked, and Gordie wasn’t happy.” – Mike Gartner (HHOF 2001)

“Alex Delvecchio would shoot the puck in and I would go out and shoot it back over the blue line. Good old Gordie said, ‘You’re going to do that one too many.’ The next time it was fired into the left corner I went out and got it, and the next thing I knew I was laying on the ice and old Mr. Elbows got me. I was down on the ice and he skated over and said, ‘I told you so.’ I’ll never forget that. I was never worried who had the puck. I was always worried about, ‘Where is No. 9? Where is he on the ice?’ ”- Eddie Giacomin (HHOF 1987)

”I have vivid memories of playing against Gordie Howe and as a matter of fact my fourth game in the NHL in Detroit at the Olympia I found myself unconscious on the ice on my back. They woke me up with the ammonia and two of my teammates dragged me off the ice, sliding me back to the bench. I look at the linesman and he comes by and says "Number Nine!". That was Gordie Howe. I never saw him, but he elbowed me in the side of the head, no penalty, and if the linesman had not told me I wouldn't have known who hit me. He was that quick and that sneaky. So I said to myself that I couldn't let that happen...I mean, I was just starting out, so I'm going to try and get him back. Then every time we played against him he's taking out somebody else and I'm thinking that I'm not so ready for this! I thought maybe I'll wait til he gets a little older! Never did attempt anything, though.”

”Then a couple of years ago at an All-Star Game, we were having breakfast in the hospitality room and Gordie comes to me and said, ‘Rod, did I ever get you?’ I said, ‘Gordie, who didn’t you ever get? You’ve done everybody.” – Rod Gilbert (HHOF 1982)

“I actually played against Gordie and I think my only focus before the game was to skate next to him. I was 24 in those days, and he was what, 52? My only thought process at that point was to skate with him, don’t let him touch the puck, and don’t make him mad because there’s all those stories of him with the elbows and with the stick. And I just said, ‘You know what? I’m not here to make enemies; I don’t need to hit Gordie Howe to be famous.’ So I just skated next to him, and it was a pretty calm evening the few times I did play against him.” – Clark Gillies (HHOF 2002)

“I first played against Mr. Howe in the 1978-79 season in the old WHA with the Birmingham Bulls. It is something that I will remember all of my life. We were playing against New England and after a goal I had a fight with Marty. I was 18 years old, so I didn’t know Marty, but I knew Gordie. I served my five-minutes and went back. The next time on the ice, Gordie was taking a face-off and got kicked out of the face-off circle and lined-up next to me on the wing. He looked at me and the next thing I knew I was on the ice trying to catch my breath. He said, ‘don’t touch my son.’ It wasn’t funny for me at the time because I was really in pain, but obviously you can see that he knew exactly what was going on on the ice. He was pretty amazing. He is somebody that we will be talking about for the rest of our lives -- for centuries to come.” – Michel Goulet (HHOF 1998)

"I was in the warmup [and] I was so, so excited to play against Gordie Howe, and I thought, 'Wow, this is something really cool. And we're skating around the warmup getting ready for the game, and every time I went by Gordie he was winking at me and he's getting me excited for the game.”

"I went back in the locker room and I said to one of the guys, 'Gordie Howe is out there winking to me.' And he said, 'No, no, no. He's got a blinking problem, he's not winking at you.' "

"The first shift I stole the puck and I was going the other way, and all of a sudden I felt this stick and he cracked me over the thumb. Howe said, 'Kid, don't ever take the puck from me again,' and I said, 'No, I never will.' " – Wayne Gretzky (HHOF 1999)

"He was built to be a hockey player. He was strong as an ox. He was mean as a rattlesnake and you treaded lightly when you came around him. He had a very heavy shot and a soft touch. Old school hockey. That was Gordie Howe." – Paul Henderson

"I got to play against Gordie Howe." He elbowed me in the corner. Anybody else had done that I’d have dropped my gloves, but he’s my idol.” – John Hilworth

“Whatever ailment he had we would bring him in and do whatever X-ray studies on his wrists or his back. He’s kind of a medical wonder, so radiologists are always excited to see his X-rays because they are unbelievable in terms of how he could tolerate the pain and continue doing what he does. His wrists are a miracle in and of themselves. He’s basically got a bag of bones in both of his wrists. They’re about twice the size of a normal human being’s. He’s had several fractures in them that were never treated at the time of the injuries so all of the bones just kind of disintegrated. When you look at the X-rays it looks like a patient that has an abnormal nervous system that doesn’t detect pain. Most patients wouldn’t be able to tolerate that pain.” – Dr.Murray Howe (his son)

“I was playing with the New York Rovers, and they called me in and told me that I would be playing against the Red Wings. I think it was a Wednesday night, and I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to be a bit of a knee-knocker.’ We got out on to the ice to warm-up and they came over and wanted a picture of the two of us. We’re standing there and I said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m shaking like a leaf.’ He [Gordie] said, ‘That’s no problem, wait until the whistle blows.’ Once the whistle blew, I was all right, but we never were on the ice at the same time in that game.


"I can remember playing against Gordie a couple of times. I even recall lining up against him and then having to go into the corner against him for a puck. He took it easy on me and didn't give me any of the elbows he is famous for!. The second time I played the Wings was an amazing time because I scored the tying goal in the third period. When the goal went in, Gordie was sitting on the bench and let out a ‘Yeah!’ ” – Vic Howe (Gordie’s youngest brother)

“He was usually the best player on the ice every time you played against them. He was very, very strong and you tried to keep him to the outside and hope that he would shoot from a bad angle.” – Harry Howell (HHOF 1979)

“When I was a kid, Gordie was one of my idols. I had his book that my dad gave to me for Christmas when I was 12. . . . The first time I played against Gordie, I was so impressed because I had followed his career as a kid. He was one of the top players in the NHL, so for me it was a pleasure of getting the chance to play against him.”

[Aged 10] "I was the first one up those steps into the Gardens, and the ice was so pristine. The blue-lines were so blue, and the red-lines were so red, and I stood there with my arms stretched out to save a spot for my mother and father. We were right at the blue-line that the Toronto Maple Leafs defended twice, and Al Rollins was in goal. I remember, in the first period, Howe came down and just stepped over the blue-line, and snapped those big wrists of his, and Al Rollins pulled the puck out from behind him. And, my dad looked down at me and said, 'Robert, when you can shovel-shoot the puck like that, you can play in this league.’ It was only 10 shorts years later that I'm playing [for Chicago] with a teammate of his, Ted Lindsay, who had come from Detroit and was playing against Howe and Detroit — and they were the greatest times of my life."

[In one of the first times they played against each other] ”We both got two-minute penalties for ’staring at one another,’ When we got to the penalty box he opened the door and stood aside and let me in and I thought to myself, 'Well this guy isn't that tough, he isn't that bad,' When the penalty was over, he opened the door and out he went, and when I went to follow him out, he slammed the door on me. I found out then that he was playing the game for keeps.” – Bobby Hull (HHOF 1983)

“I played against him, of course, but one day in the summer, we were playing golf in Halifax. We were the first ones out, just after dawn, nice course, no practice balls, just get up and hit it. He shoots 68. And [former Major League manager] Lou Boudreau told me in Chicago he watched Gordie hit baseballs in Tiger Stadium and tried to sign him to a contract with the [Cleveland] Indians. “So I said: ‘Gordie, you’re the greatest hockey player of all time, you just shot 68 and you could have played major league baseball. It doesn’t seem fair.’ He said, ‘You should see me bowl.” – Dennis Hull

"I don't think you could ever say enough about Gordie Howe that would do him justice. He was 'Mr. Hockey'. He was everything. My second game ever, 19 years old, I lined up on the ice against Gordie Howe and I was like, `Man I'd love to get your autograph but I better keep my head up so I don't get my nose broken." – Bob Kelly

"The first game we're playing against Detroit and against Howe after 12 ½ years, he's got his arm around me with his stick around me and the puck's in the corner. We're going to be the first ones there, so I figure I'm just gonna freeze the puck there with my feet. Gordie leans right into my ear and says, 'How's the wife?' And I sort of turn to respond, and he almost puts me through the boards. My footprints are still there." – Red Kelly (HHOF 1969)

(Rookie Forbes Kennedy ending up in a face-off against Howe) ”The next thing I see he dropped the gloves and he grabbed me by the pants and his hands slid off my pants and I went head first into the corner. He was unreal, greatest guy you ever met in your life, him and Bobby Orr."

“Gordie was definitely the best player I ever played with. You wouldn’t believe what he could do. Because of the way Hockey Night in Canada was set up in those days, people really didn’t get to see him as much as they should have and didn’t realize how great he was. Of course, I played with him and against him, but Gordie was just a super man. He was first one on the ice and the last one off. Gordie was so naturally strong no one wanted to get hit by him that’s for sure.”- Forbes Kennedy

“The thing is, some times when I was beside him on the ice, he used to talk to me, and say, ‘Hey, you better watch out tonight,’ and he would say it laughing. It was actually kind of funny.”

"It was always special to talk to him. With all the experiences that he had, playing with his two sons [Marty and Mark] he was something special. I don't think we're going to see that again. I remember we had this NHL old-timers game in Saskatoon. It was a fundraiser against the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and one of our guys got hit pretty badly. Gordie jumped on the ice and said 'Watch this guys.' At the faceoff he elbowed the guy and he knocked him over. The guy was down on the ice and he didn't realize what happened to him. And Gordie turned to him and said, 'Well guys, that's what the fans are here for.' " – Guy Lafleur (HHOF 1988)

“Towards the beginning of my career in Montreal, Gordie broke my nose. It was the last minute of the game, and he was in the corner with the puck. We were killing a penalty, and I went in and put my stick out there to block his pass, and the puck just rode up my stick and crushed my nose.

”The people who never saw Gordie play really missed out on something special, and it was truly an honor to play against him. You’re talking about one of the greatest players ever in our game. He’s strong as an ox, mean as a snake, and he’s a winner. I think any coach would love to have a winner like Gordie on their team.” – Rod Langway (HHOF 2002)

“There is one thing about Gordie that I will always remember: as a defenseman, anytime you went into the corner with him, you had to be careful. If you tried to push him around, or anything like that, the first thing you had on your nose was his elbow. He was very good at that. He was a great competitor, always a team player, and a great asset to the game.”

“My first year, I went in a corner with him, and I was getting ready to give him a good check, and he elbowed me in the mouth. My nose was bruised, and I learned.” – Jacques Laperrière (HHOF 1987)

“The thing I do remember, is how strong, physically he was. It was unbelievable. Going into the corner with him, you couldn’t get the puck away from him. If he tried to go around you, you’d go to push him up the boards and he would stick an arm out, and with one hand still controlling the puck. It was like trying to push a wall; you couldn’t push him off the puck. He was phenomenal. I don’t think there was a single weakness in his game. He could play any type of game you wanted to play. You want to play physical? He was strong. He was just perfect. That’s why he’s Mr. Hockey.” – Guy Lapointe (HHOF 1993)

“He had the meanest pair of elbows I’ve ever seen. He hit me right at center ice. I just happened to be going by him there, and he stuck out that big elbow and knocked me flat on my bum. … I was just surprised because there was no reason for it.” – Edgar Laprade (HHOF 1993)

”I approached him during warm-up. Gordie, you’ve always been my hero. Can I have your stick after the game?. Gordie said, ’Sure, kid.’ Well, in the third period he chopped me for about six stitches in the head, and while I was still reeling, he said, ’Hey, kid, that stick is going to mean a whole lot more to you now.’ ” – Pierre Larouche

"He was one of my idols. All I remember is Bobby Orr coming up to me and saying, 'Reg, keep your head up, Gordie is going to test you.' So, on one play I go around the net and sure enough, Howe elbowed me. I turned around and slashed him. He said to me, 'kid you're going to be okay.' ” – Reggie Leach

"Gordie really was the greatest hockey player who ever lived. I was fortunate to play with Gordie for 12 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and I've known him for over 70 years. He could do it all in the game to help his team, both offensively and defensively. He earned everything that he accomplished on the ice.”
” I remember one player on the New York Rangers harassing Howe during a game at Olympia Stadium in the 1950s. I said, 'Why don't you get rid of that SOB?.' The next period when I looked out on the ice, there was the Rangers winger on the ice, out cold. Nobody saw it happen. No penalty. The referee was down on the other end. Nobody bothered [Howe] too much. He enforced himself." — Ted Lindsay (HHOF 1966)

[First encounter] "I was playing for the Rangers, playing against Gordie, I gave him a hard body check and I knocked him to the ice. On the bench one of my teammates gave me some advice. 'Son,' he says, 'don't worry where the puck is the rest of the game because he's coming after you. I think Gordie tried to hit me, like five times.”

"Growing up, he was my idol. To get to play with him was such a thrill. First practice, I turned around, he had his stick right across my forehead here, and he said you're the only one I never got back." – Don Luce

“I only played against him him in the USSR-WHA super series in 1974. At the time he was already old, but still played great. He was the leader and we all looked at him in total awe. He was powerfully built, had strong wrists and had a very good shot. The hockey world has lost a great player. The best hockey player of the 20th century" – Yuri Lyapkin (Played in the Summit Series 72 and against Howe in the Summit Series 74)

”I also grew up in Saskatoon, and after I met him as a 10-year old, he became my hero and the inspiration for pursuing a hockey career. But when I played against him for the first time, I wanted to see how tough he really was. I took a really good run at him but it was like hitting a cement wall. He didn’t even move, but I went down on one knee and got up quickly. As I skated down the ice, I quickly found myself in the air. Gordie had stuck his stick between my blade and boot and just kind of threw me into the corner.” – Keith Magnuson

"He played all those years and we packed every house that we came to. Boy, you didn't want to go in the corner with him without your eyes open because you were liable to get an elbow or something. He was a tough guy to play against."

"Gordie Howe wouldn't let me be a loner. We had a great chemistry. It seemed like we were on the same wavelength. We never spoke, but we understood each other just by thinking. Spots would open up, I'd go in there, and Howe would put the puck on my stick. It was an amazing year for me." – Frank Mahovlich (HHOF 1981)

“You probably noticed that I eventually wore No. 9. Ronnie Ellis and Gordie Howe were two right-wingers – both who wore No. 9, and my all-time favorite players. In Gordie’s final game in Toronto he scored a remarkable goal. He came in over the blue line about 8-12 feet, dropped a shoulder, took a wrist shot for the top corner, and Mike Palmateer, who prided himself on having the best glove-hand in hockey – was still bent over looking for the puck as the light went on. Our entire bench stood up as one and started to cheer. It was wonderful and such a nice way to say good-bye, especially at the Maple Leaf Gardens. It was Gordie Howe. It was vintage, and it was great being a part of it.” – Lanny McDonald (HHOF 1992)

“Well, if you left him alone, he’d leave you alone, but if you ever raised a stick or an elbow, he’d be more than willing to do the same to you, that’s for sure.” – Johnny McKenzie

“One night we were playin’ Detroit in the playoffs, and the puck went into Gordie’s corner in our end. I’m the closest Leaf, so I head for the corner, and I get there the same time as Howe. He runs me into the fence, and I turn around and I whack him across the shins, and he gives me a push back in the shoulders, just misses my head, and I give him another crack. He turns with his elbow and catches me right in the mouth. I say, ‘Uh-oh, I’m in trouble here.’ I got blood runnin’ down, and I stick my tongue up and the tooth is gone, see. So [referee] Leo Gravelle blows the whistle. And I said, ‘Leo, for God’s sake, that’s a penalty.’ ‘No, no. I didn’t see it.’ I’m bleedin’, eh? I say, ‘Well, look, I gotta try to find that tooth. So Leo says OK. He stopped the game, and for about three or four minutes everybody on both teams is lookin’ for the goddamn tooth. And we never did find it."

“Two or three years later we’re in Detroit. It’s in my corner this time, and Howe comes in behind me, and I touch the puck and pass it over to Jimmy Thomson, and just as I pass the puck Howe plasters me against the boards. So I come out and I give him an elbow right in the middle of the chest, and he gives me an elbow back and there goes another tooth. His elbow came even with my mouth, my elbow went even with his belly button. Over the years I’ve met him once or twice somewhere along the lines. It’s always, ‘Hi, Howie, how are your teeth?’ He’s a great guy.” – Howie Meeker

”I've got a lot of Gordie Howe stories. The first time I met him was unbelievable. The first time I played against him was unbelievable. He slashed and stuff; Gordie used to do that to everybody. But he used to cut Robbie Ftorek every game. Like every game. Robbie was like Pavel Datsyuk. He'd come up behind you and steal the puck. Robbie was a great player. And Gordie would turn around and whack him. Nine times out of 10, it was over the head. And Robbie would have to go to the box to get stitched up. It happened every game.”

”In the '50s, when the regular-size guy was 5-foot-7, 5-8, 150 pounds, Gordie was big, even when I played against him later in the WHA. He had those wrists. And he had that muscle that goes right down from his ear to the end of his shoulder. Very few people have that -- usually weightlifters and guys like that. Gordie was an immense man who shot the puck both ways. His stick was straight, so he could do that. A great passer. A beautiful skater. Just big and strong and raw-boned. He could play any position. He was mean. Heaven help the guy that did anything to his sons, Mark or Marty. Gordie was going to get you before the night was over. He was the big, old grizzly bear protecting the cubs. If you got a piece of Mark or Marty, Gordie made you pay the piper.” – Barry Melrose

"When I was growing up, Gordie Howe was a mythical legend in our house. We revered him. He represented what every hockey player dreamed of becoming on and off the ice...I was 17 years old, playing against Gordie Howe. I was the recipient of one of his elbows. I think he did it more so I could talk about it the rest of my career.” – Mark Messier (HHOF 2007)

"There was a play where the puck was kind of on the half-boards in the defensive zone, and Mark [Howe] and I were just racing for it. We bumped shoulders right at the boards, Mark went down on top of the puck, the ref blew the whistle, and about three seconds later here comes Gordie with an elbow to my chin.
"He says, 'Don't touch my sons anymore,' and I said, 'OK,' That was how I met Gordie." – Joe Micheletti

“We played the Red Wings in our third or so game of the season. I went over to check Gordie Howe, and I think I went to lift his stick, and caught him on his cheekbone. It looked like there was just a little scratch or something, but there was a whistle on the play. He looks down and sees a little blood on the ice. He looked at me, and I’m kind of smiling, I guess, and he points his finger at me. When he did that, I said, ‘Ah, get out of here you old bastard, you should of retired years ago. You’re too old for this game anyway.’ We’re in the dressing room between periods, and Ted Lindsay is sitting next to me and says, ‘Stanley, you shouldn’t have talked to Gordie the way you did.’ I said, ‘Well, he is old. He shouldn’t be out here.’ And he said, ‘What you just said, he’ll never forget. Watch yourself.’ ”

”We get to a game in Detroit, about five, six or seven games after the incident, and I had kind of forgotten about it. Gordie came skating back after we had shot the puck in the end zone, and I’m going in to fore-check. I cut across the middle and the next thing I know, I’ve got an awfully sore jaw. I’m rolling around and don’t know where the hell I am. I see a bunch of guys sitting on the bench, so I literally started crawling over there. I get on the bench and in about two seconds I feel somebody lifting me up under the armpits. The next thing I know they’re throwing me over the boards onto the ice. I ended up on the Red Wings’ bench. That’s how goofy I was.”

”Our backup goalie, Denis DeJordy, said he was the only one in the building who saw what happened. Gordie had skated by me, slipped his right hand up under his armpit, pulled out his fist, popped me in the jaw and put his glove back on. A few shifts later he ambled by and asked if I learned anything. I said ’Are we even?’ Gordie says, ’I’ll think about it.”- Stan Mikita (HHOF 1983)

“Gordie had those big elbows, therefore, you had to be careful when you went around him. You knew you were going to get the stick or the elbow. He caught me a few times. But Gordie never chased and looked for it. He was a natural superstar, like Jean Béliveau. They played hockey, but when they had to play rough, Gordie could do it.” – Dickie Moore (HHOF 1974)

"I equate it to my first year in the NHL [1970-71], which was Gordie Howe's last year [before Howe jumped to the WHA]. I remember going into the corner and he gave me a good elbow to the head. I didn't want to wash my face for a week. I know it sounds crazy, but when I sit down with my grandchildren and we're talking, I'll be able to say Gordie Howe elbowed me.” – Bob Murdoch

”Wayne Connelly was one of the most talented goal scorers we had. One night he and I were sitting out an exhibition game against Detroit at the Met Center. Detroit was leading going in to the third period. Gordie Howe has the puck, and gets some room, and scores. Connelly turns to me and says, "Louie, you defensemen give Howe way too much room. If I had that much room, I'd score 50 goals."

”No sooner had he said that than Howe gets the puck again. Larry Hillman comes to check him and comes a little too close, and Howe passes the puck and gives Hillman the stick right under the throat. Play stops, a stretcher comes out, and they wheel Hillman off. I turn to Wayne and say, "That's why you don't get that much room - you never touch anybody." – Lou Nanne

”I coached Gordie Howe. It was a complete thrill coaching my idol growing up. When one of our players in Hartford took a dirty shot, Gordie would say, “Don’t get them now, wait til next game, or next month, or next year when he doesn’t even remember he played against you.” Bobby Baun, with whom I played junior, tells a great story about Howe. When he played for Toronto his first year, he hit Gordie Howe in the Olympia in Detroit. Howe wasn’t knocked out but he didn’t know where he was as he got to the bench. That incident occurred in 1960. In 1967 or 1968, Baun was playing for the Seals in Oakland against Detroit at the Olympia. Almost the exact same incident happened again. Howe came down, cut across the ice and Baun slipped across to hit him like he did his first year in Toronto. Howe saw him coming and crosschecked him right in the neck. Baun said, ’I couldn’t breathe for two minutes. I thought he had broken my neck and when I finally looked up after ten or fifteen seconds of not knowing where the hell I was, Gordie was looming over top of me.’ He said, ’Now we are even, you son of a bitch.’ That was Gordie’s theory and he lived by it. If you asked players if roughing Howe up was a good idea, they would tell you it wasn’t.” – Harry Neale

“He was the best that ever played. He had a streak of cruelty in him, but it was intelligent. But he was not out to injure. He wasn't interested in injuring me. He just wanted to make me aware that I wasn't going to get off Scott free. The injury wasn't that bad. Some cracked ribs.” – Eric Nesterenko

”Early in the game, I got my elbow a little high on him. A little later, I was watching one of my pretty passes, looking back, and next thing I knew, I was on the ice. I’d had my head down, and he hit me pretty good. Gordie had let me know that he was still the man. He was standing over me, glaring down at me. A bunch of my teammates skated to my defense and there was a little scrum, but I didn’t want that. I told my guys, ‘It’s OK, I asked for that. I’ll take care of it myself.’ Later on, I had asked him about the hit, and in typical Gordie-fashion said, ‘It’s better to give than to receive.’ ” – Bobby Orr (HHOF 1979)

“My first year, 1965, I was with the Boston Bruins, and Gilles Marotte was a big, tough guy, who hit Gordie along the boards at the old Olympia. When you came out of the one corner at the Olympia there was a door, and Gordie went right through it. Marotte was a big kid, but he was a rookie. And about three shifts later, Marotte had a broken jaw. Somehow the old man got back at him. Gordie was the best, the king of the hill. What else can you say?” – Bernie Parent (HHOF 1984)

“Gordie went out of his way to introduce rookies to his lifestyle. In Detroit one night he threw an elbow at me and I went under it and put him down. Before I knew it, I saw his stick coming at me like he was going to take my teeth out. Instead, he got me in the Adam’s apple and I went down for the count. Gordie was determined to protect his livelihood. But today he couldn’t play because with all the cameras, he’d be suspended all the time. But God, he’s just a wonderful guy.” – Brad Park (HHOF 1988)

"He had a great vision of the game, a great scorer, puck control. It was hard to get the puck away from him. But what a player. He had great timing with the puck to score a goal. Players like that, they become legends. They become heroes. We became hockey players from watching these guys." – Gil Perreault (HHOF 1990)

”In my first game I wanted to show Toe Blake that I wasn't scared of anybody. Gordie is in the corner in our end and... I hit him really well. He went down on one knee and I could see there was frustration on his face. As play continued, I kept an eye out for Howe — Suddenly, Howe was upon me. He's staring me straight in the face. Then he gave me a look and a line that I will always remember: ’It's a good thing you're from Saskatchewan, kid.’ "

"I played many years against him after that and he got me many times. His elbows would accidentally hit me in the head all the time. He had a knack of doing this. He was probably one of the all-time greatest players. There's not a thing in his game that was wrong." – Garry Peters

"We were playing the police team and this young kid from their team was running all over the place, hitting everybody. Gordie yells, 'Hey son, this is a charity game.' Gordie let it go for about three minutes and nothing changes. So he jumps over the boards, goes into the corner with this guy, and boom, gives him three elbows, broke his nose. Gordie was 61 years old. As they're carrying him off the ice, Gordie says, 'Hold on' and skates over and says, 'I tried to tell you kid. I warned you.'" – Brent Peterson

”Steel elbow, we called him. The passing of Howe is very sad. I am sympathetic to his close ones. Gordie Howe was a real phenomenon in world hockey, a legend of world hockey, a legend of professional hockey. Howe was a man who entered the ice and caused the opponents to fear his posture and his entire aura. He also was skilled enough. Howe’s wonderful sons also played great hockey, and he himself played until a really old age.”

“Howe preferred hard, power hockey. He was a technically equipped player who could do everything: shoot, use force, respond to physical play. No wonder Howe was an idol in North America and around the world.” – Vladimir Petrov (Played in the Summit Series 72 and against Howe in the Summit Series 74)

“I never had a tussle with him in the corners or anything, but man, he was hard to check. You just hoped that he made the mistake and not you. You knew if you got close to him you were in trouble. You tried to keep him to the outside, but you never tried to hit him and bowl him over because he would make you look silly. You tried to get as close as you could to him, like a magnet and attach yourself, opposed to trying to knock him over. I never saw anybody knock him over or take a run at him because it was well-known that his right arm was always up. I think he would adapt to whatever style today, but we will never see another player like Gordie, who can control the game.” – Pierre Pilote (HHOF 1975)

”People feared Gordie. My teammate Tim Ecclestone got elbowed three times by Howe in his first NHL game. ’Welcome to the NHL, kid.’ He tested every rookie. He straightened them out and got plenty of room.” – Bob Plager

“I played in the last game at Olympia and the first game at the Joe. It seemed so big compared to Olympia. One of my biggest thrills ever was in the first season when Hartford came to town. I was at center ice taking the opening face-off. There I was facing the forward line of Gordie Howe, Mark Howe and Marty Howe. This was the only shift they ever played together on the same line. Bill Hogaboam was on right wing and Jean Hamel was at left wing, and I took the face-off against Gordie. We played the game and the crowd was going nuts. At the buzzer, I asked Gordie for his stick, and he very kindly gave it to me.” – Dennis Polonich

“We were playing in Hartford and I remember facing off against Gordie. It took everything in me not to look up at his head and focus on the jersey, much like when I played my first game in the NHL or the first game in the Montreal Forum. You just don’t want to think that you’re actually playing against Henri Richard and Gordie Howe and some of those guys. I really felt that I didn’t want to be influenced by it, but something happened in the first period that I’ll never forget.”

“Gordie came in on goal and he shot the puck, of course he was a right-handed shot. The rebound came out and he then switched hands and then shot the rebound at our goalie left-handed. When we got back to the dressing room, I remember Billy Smith saying, ‘did you see what he did in the first period?’ I said, ‘yeah, I saw that. He picked up the rebound with the left hand; he’s a right-handed shooter.’ And Smitty said, ‘I had no idea that he was amphibious.’ I love that story and I love telling it when Billy is around.” – Denis Potvin (HHOF 1991)

”In 1958 I accidentally hit him. I guess it was one of the craziest things that ever happened to me and Gordie. There was a faceoff in our end of the rink. As usual in such situations, Gordie was taking the faceoff for us. Just before the faceoff, I skated over and whispered to him that he was to step aside as the puck dropped. I wanted to get a reef at the player who had belted me pretty good on an earlier play, Montreal’s Bert Olmstead. But the play got fouled up. Gordie shifted right into the line of fire, I missed Olmstead and hit Howe. Broke his shoulder. He was out six games. Naturally, I felt pretty lousy about that. But all Gordie said in the first-aid room was, ’Marcel , you’re a rotten bodychecker. You’d better get your eyes checked.’ ” – Marcel Pronovost (HHOF 1978)

“He was a tough son-of-a-gun and you were always very cautious of what you did to him. He was so strong that he would shove you out of the way. I hit him in the head one time and cut him a bit. By the time that game was over he had retaliated with me and put me in the hospital for seven days. He never even got a penalty. But a lot of times the referees never saw him do things. He was extremely clever that way. . . . Your respect for him grew as time went on.” – Bob Pulford (HHOF 1991)

“I remember one game at the old Madison Square Gardens on 49th Street when Gordie lost his hockey stick. He then skated by our bench and he grabbed the first stick that he saw, which was Orland Kurtenbach’s stick. He grabbed it and kept playing with it. Kurt jumped on to the ice and chased Gordie trying to get his stick back. It was a real funny thing. There’s no doubt that Gordie’s the most-prolific player of his era. He’s just a phenomenal individual to have played as long as he did.” – Jean Ratelle (HHOF 1985)

“Sure, I remember the first time I played against Gordie, I got an elbow in the face. He was just a great hockey player, he just wanted to win and that was part of the game. Everybody has his own way to play the game, and he was a little dirty, but just a great hockey player. I hated playing against him because he was too tough.” – Henri Richard (HHOF 1979)

“My first impression when he came back was that he just wanted to play with his sons. But then after playing against him, you were like, ‘Holy cripes, he’s not just playing with his sons; he can really play!’ He has to be one of the most incredible athletes that I’ve ever met in my lifetime.” – Larry Robinson (HHOF 1995)

(Terry Ruskowski putting the puck between Howe’s legs in practice) “I shouldn’t have done that. I kind of had that feeling that I shouldn’t have done that. The next time I tried it again, as I was going behind him, he hit me with his stick over the eye – cut me, and he said ‘whoops, sorry kid’. I was coming off the ice with a towel on my head with the trainer, and he kind of patted me on the butt and said ‘don’t ever make me look bad’. And I turned around and said ‘sorry Gordie, I’ll never do that again, I promise, I’ll never do that again.”

“They were the best years of my life, hockey-wise [Houston]. We had such a good team – we always had first place wrapped up. Me, being with an idol of mine, a hero and idol. He was my idol when I watched him [play in the NHL] and he became my hero when I played with him.”

“As a person and as a player, I’ve always said that when they called him a superstar, they’re still degrading him. There’s got to be another word higher than a ‘superstar’ for the category of player and person that Gordie was. When the game was on the line, we all kind of turned around and looked at Gordie, and he’d jump over the bench and either score a goal, make a play to set up the goal to win or tie...he’d block a shot, whatever he had to do to save the game. We’re talking a guy almost 50 years old, blocking a shot to make sure the puck didn’t go through to save the game for us. This is the kind of person, this is the kind of player he was.”– Terry Ruskowski

“We knew about Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull in Sweden. They were the main guys, but I never really got to see him play before I got to Toronto and he was playing in the WHA with his sons. When I played against him, I didn’t want to hurt him, because all of Canada probably would have killed you. Still, he could take care of himself, and I saw him put his elbow out and hit some guys. He was solid and very hard to move away from the net. It was amazing that at 52 he was still playing, but he was because he was so solid and in such good shape.” – Borje Salming (HHOF 1996)

“I remember my first NHL game against him. ‘Don’t mess with me, old man,’ I told him. Next thing I remember was the smelling salts.” – Derek Sanderson

“In training camp, we had these skating drills, and the skating drills would be exhaustive, but he would be the last guy going. I don’t know where he got the energy from, but when the rest of us were hanging with our heads down, he was still going ahead. He had tremendous stamina, after two or three minutes of it, everyone was huffing and puffing and trying to get their breath, but, God, I’d take a look at him and he was still plowing ahead. He had this exhaustive stamina and more energy of all of us put together.”
“He played defense a lot when Detroit was winning the game in the last 10 minutes or so. He’d play a shift at right wing and then drop back for a shift on defense. He had the ability to do that because he was so darn strong and he handled the puck so well. It seemed he was playing 35, 40 minutes some nights.“
”I played against him a lot, but I never saw him in a fight that we had. But he was strong, he was tough. When he checked you, he checked you with a very heavy stick. But we all did about the same. The talk was he was a great fighter and I guess he beat up the guy from New York one time and that became connected to him all the time. But I never saw that. He was not dirty, he was not vicious, he was hard-working and he was durable.” – Ed Sandford

“I saw him play when I was a kid, so I was pretty impressed when I started to play against him. He was feared by everybody, especially a young player like me when I came into the league at 20, 21-years-old. My first souvenir from him came in my second year in the league and our coach, Claude Ruel says to me, ‘Tonight, you will shadow Gordie Howe.’ So, the first face-off at center ice, I’m beside him, and I don’t look at him. We won the face-off and I turned around, and he cross-checked me in the back. I slid all the way into the boards. That’s how he served notice to me, and that was my first meeting with him.” – Serge Savard (HHOF 1986)

”I also got elbowed in a corner [by Howe]. I didn’t get him back, I had too much respect for him. – Paul Shmyr

” I played against him [Howe], but I think Gordie was a ”utopian” player. He was absolutely impossible to move out from the slot. As I later learned, it turned out that he was only a year younger than my father, so, when I played against him, he was already fifty. You had to find a way to do something in order to move him from that slot, but I never found a solution.” – Mikhail Slipchenko (Played against the WHA All-Stars with Dynamo Moscow in 79)

“Do I remember playing against Gordie? I sure as hell do. His skill was toughest part of him. He was just a little faster than the rest of us and he could do everything just a little bit better. He was clean. You never had to worry about Gordie taking any cheap shots. As far as I’m concerned, he was one of the best hockey players I ever played against. Gordie played the game hard and he played it well. He didn’t play it dirty, but you had to be on your toes to play against Gordie.” – Clint Smith (HHOF 1991)

”He was tough on the ice and then off the ice, he was like Jean Béliveau, he was a super man. He always took care of me because if I played against him, we didn’t like each other, but now I was his friend [as a teammate] – Jean-Guy Talbot

[As a 17-year old] “I’d stand at the Zamboni entrance at Maple Leaf Gardens and watch games. I remember [Mike] Pelyk came in riding high with elbow on Howe and I could read Howe’s lips ‘I’ll cut you for 40!.’ Gordie had become friends with my uncle Jack and they used to go up fishing up in Cochrane, Ont … Howe was the same age as my dad. My dad played hockey, played for Eddie Shore, and I was warned about Gordie … and when I saw that reaction on Mike Pelyk, I thought ‘Oh my god, I have to play against that guy someday.’ ”

”So the first game against Gordie, I had the puck behind the net and I see him coming to my right. I figure I’m getting the hell out of there. I try to use the net as leverage and cut in front when he reached across with his stick and got me across the throat. I went ass-over-tea-kettle with my feet in the air. The pucks went in front of our net and Alex Delvecchio was right there to snap it in. And I get booed by 18,000 people. I remembered my dad saying to me ‘You better protect yourself. If someone takes advantage or you, you better go right back at them.’ So next shift, Gordie is in the corner and I take a run at him as hard as I could. I knocked him down … and I think ‘uh, oh’ he’s going to come after me. I’m only 19 years old. But he got up and kind of winked at me. He knew my uncle a little bit from fishing … and he gave me a wink.”

[All-Star game] “I sat right beside him. His arms were as big as my legs and I thought to myself ‘I can’t let this guy see me naked or he’ll beat the shit out of me some day,’ So I got to game, the all-star game, at three in the afternoon to put my gear on early so he wouldn’t see me naked.” – Dale Tallon

“I was a 20-year-old kid just star struck playing in the National Hockey League and once I found out Gordie Howe was in the league and I knew he played against my grandfather and I knew the things he had said. You have to do your job. Did I play against him on one shift, or a couple of shifts? Yes. Did I back off and give him his space, yes. They had a big four or five foot circle around him and nobody would go in it and approach him to cross check him, or for sure you didn’t want to get into his kitchen and at 52 I’m sure his elbows were just as sharp as could be.”

[On Swedish rookie teammate Leif Svensson] “He didn’t know Gordie Howe the way everybody else knew him and he tried to challenge Gordie on a few puck battles and he came out , not only on the short end of the stick, but on the end of Gordie’s stick as he was injected with a nonchalant, camouflaged spear with the toe of his stick along with an elbow.” – Greg Theberge (Grandson of Dit Clapper)

“I got on the ice and played a shift [First in the NHL] against Gordie Howe’s line, and [Alex] Delvecchio scored on us and I was a minus-1 my first shift. Later I bumped into Gordie, It was strictly by accident, and I said, ‘Whoops, sorry.’ He looked, smiled and I kept on going. I had no control of what came out of my mouth.”

“He [Howe] was notorious for certain things he had done over the years. The trainers, when I was in Detroit, had went through the Gordie Howe days, and they used to tell stories about Gordie. I know one trainer had red and white carpet in his house with No. 9 in it.”- Errol Thompson

“Playing against him was the thrill of a lifetime. We wanted to pressure him, but we didn’t want to hit him because we didn’t want a stick in the head. We were telling them in the locker room ‘We don’t want Gordie scoring against us, but remember, if you go after him you’re going to get clunked.’ He’s the master of trickery, who also has the most experience and style of any player in the history of hockey.” – Bryan Trottier (HHOF 1997)

“Eddie [Shack] would run him [Howe] all the time. Of course, he also knew how to get out of there quick, so he’d start all kind of things and be gone, just like that. Not too many guys gave Gordie a tough time, and Eddie was probably the only player who never got it back.” – Norm Ullman (HHOF 1982)

“My first NHL game was against the Red Wings. I was with the Canadiens then, and they threw me out to kill a penalty. I went into the corner with Howe, knocked him down from behind, and skated away with the puck. I hadn’t gone very far before I heard strides coming up behind me, and then I felt a stick slipping under my arm. Then there’s the blade – not an inch from my nose. It’s Howe, and he says, ‘Check out, junior.’ I got so scared I fell down.” – Bryan Watson

"As a young boy growing up in British Columbia, the Detroit Red Wings were my favorite team and of course Gordie was one of my favorite players. I think everybody idolized him and looked up to him because of what he stood for. He was a tough guy. If things had to be taken care of on the ice, he could do that and he was so wonderful to people off the ice.”

[First game against Howe in 1966] “A puck goes into the corner and when I get it, somebody hits me really hard, ‘oh my God, that hurt,’ My natural reaction was to turn around and elbow the guy. Which I did. I go back to the bench and Bobby Orr says to me, ‘you’re gonna pay for that.' It was Howe. So in the second period, we were fighting for position in front of the net. Gordie got me right in my nose. Broke my nose with his elbow. He said, ‘welcome to the league, rookie.’ ”

“I do remember in [1971], I got even with Gordie. I broke three of his ribs. We were fighting for position in front of the net in Philadelphia. Frank Mahovlich threw the puck out to Gordie and he got it. Just as he got it, I brought him down and he fell on my skates and he cracked three of his ribs. We’re laying there and Gordie says, ‘don’t move.’ I said, ‘don’t worry, I can’t. You’re laying on my knees.” – Joe Watson

"I got tripped into a goal post, and in those days the nets were anchored down by the longer posts. I hurt my knee badly and I was carried off the ice, and I'm in our training room and, after the first period, in walks Mr. Howe. He walked all the way around the rink in his equipment to come in and check and make sure I was OK. He was the toughest guy and arguably one of the greatest that ever played, and he took time to see if I was OK. That always stuck with me. I thought he was coming in to hit me [Joking], but I was just in awe. Our trainer was there and he just [said], 'Are you going to be OK? I hope everything is fine.' And he said, 'You're going to go on and have a great career.' I'm a kid and, for him to even think about doing it, let alone doing it, tells you everything you need to know about the man."

"He was one of those guys that if he was going to hit you, he was going to hit you, but the fact that he took the time to walk all the way around the arena; still to this day I can't believe it. It's what makes our game so great, to see people like that having compassion. Playing hard and playing tough, but caring about other people." – Doug Wilson

“Let us pray he doesn’t elbow too many angels.” – Father J.J.Meech at Howe’s funeral

Click to read more...

 

[The Panther]

Holy, epic post!!

 

[Eye of Ra]

nice one.

 

[NyQuil]

Love the Ron Francis and the Pierre Larouche stories.

It must be jarring for younger hockey fans to read about how violent he was on the ice, but you have to realize that he was such an obvious target due to his sublime skill and talent that he had to absolutely defend himself against every single attempt to get him - no matter how long it took.

I suspect that it's a factor in how long his career lasted.

 

[Nick Hansen]

Amphibious. Bet Billy Smith's heard that one a million times.

But really, how good was his ambidextrous shot?

And he seemed very good at dishing out pain without being over the top about it.

 

[BadgerBruce]

Mike Bossy's mom sending Howe a yearly birthday card . . . classic!

 

[tony d]

Mr.Hockey for sure, what a special player. Don't make them like Howe anymore.