Gordie
A Hockey Legend
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The author of Cold War shoots and scores with the only full-length biography to cover the entire playing career of the Red Wings’ superstar.
Before Gretzky, before Russians played in the National Hockey League, before multimillion-dollar salaries, there was Gordie Howe: the greatest star ever to play hockey. This richly illustrated, thoroughly researched and completely unauthorized biography takes readers 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 Edmonton Oilers have since. Six-time leading scorer, six-time Hart Trophy winner as the 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.
“Far superior to the hero-worshiping, gee-whiz, then-we-played, ghostwritten autobiographies so popular today . . . Must reading for hockey fans.” —Booklist
“A very impressive book . . . thoughtful, well-written and marvelously evocative of the era when the NHL had only six teams and the Red Wings were one of the best . . . an excellent biography.” —The Sporting News
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For longevity, no athlete in a contact sport has matched hockey's Gordie Howe, who played professionally as a right wing for 35 years, with a two-season hiatus, from age 17 to 52. In that career, spent mostly with the Detroit Red Wings, he set dozens of records, but the most noteworthy are the scoring of 801 goals in regular season play, winning the trophy for most valuable player six times, being named to NHL all-star teams 21 times and playing on the same squad as two of his sons. Born in 1928, and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, one of nine children of a poor family, Howe was preternaturally shy as a child and not much less so as an adult. He started to skate and play hockey before he was six and was recognized as an outstanding talent in his early teens. MacSkimming (On Your Own Again) spends too many words trying to prove that Howe was better than Maurice Richard and Wayne Gretzky, but this unauthorized bio will still have wide appeal for hockey fans. Photos.
