Gordie and Me

So, I was perusing the articles on Yahoo! today and came across a somewhat bizarre story related to hockey legend Gordie Howe. Apparently, neighbors of his in Michigan have been conducting extensive surveillance on Howe's property, and by extensive I mean (allegedly) taking pictures of his home every 5 seconds among other things. Howe has filed a restraining order against the couple that was doing it. Hopefully, when I grow old I'll find a more interesting hobby than spying on my neighbor 24 hours a day. Golf is fun, maybe I'll learn how to play bridge.

The content of the story wasn't so important as was the fact that it was about Howe, aka "Mr. Hockey," a Hall of Famer who finished up his brilliant career with 2 years (1977-79) on the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and a year (1979-80) with the Hartford Whalers after the team joined the National Hockey League. Not to get too hockey geek on you, but Howe won the Art Ross Memorial Trophy (most regular season points) and the Hart Memorial Trophy (MVP of the league) six times each, ranks third in NHL history with 1,850 total points and was an All-Star 23 times. It took no less than Wayne Gretzky to come along and break some of this guy's scoring records, many of which stand to this day.

I had the good forture of seeing Howe play in-person, as we were Whalers season ticket holders at the time. Among the highlights were getting a stick that he used and broke during a game, as well as an autographed goalie's stick that is one of my prized pieces of sports memorabilia. Then, there was a night in 1984 when I attended a celebrity sports event at the Hartford Civic Center exhibition hall with my dad and my buddy Mike. Howe was there, along with such illuminaries as actress Susan St. James (riding high with the TV show"Kate and Allie" at the time) and local boxer Marlon Starling, who was the WBC World Welterweight Champion in 1989. I played him in Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots and even took a few rounds from the champ as I recall. It was a cool night, and I was in heaven with various members of the Whalers, Patriots (when it was wayyyyy less popular to be a Pats fan) and local TV personalities in the house.

Remembering that my dad took a lot of pictures at the event, I dug into the scrapbook and pulled out a few photos from the night. You get to see yours truly when I wore a younger man's clothes, had braces, wore a CB jacket because they were all the rage and for some reason wore short-sleeved polo shirts under a long-sleeved dress shirt. All I can say is that I was 13 and not yet taking my older sister Elizabeth's fashion advice. She didn't get to meet Gordie Howe though, so there.