Mark Howe: Like father like son
By Dave Waddell –
The Howe family has frequently broken new ground in the hockey world and they did so again Nov. 14 when Mark Howe joined his father Gordie in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.
The Howes are the fourth father/son combo to be inducted and the first to have played together in the NHL. The other father/son pairings already in the hall are Lester and Lynn Patrick, Bobby and Brett Hull and Oliver and Earl Seibert.
“I spent my whole life dreaming of being a hockey player,” said Howe, who had 197 goals and 742 points in 929 NHL games to go with his WHA totals of 208 goals and 504 points in 426 games.
“You dream of winning Stanley Cups. Something I never dreamed about is getting into the hall of fame.”
He might not have dreamed of it, but his father certainly did. With his son’s totals of 1,246 points in 1,355 games spread over 22 pro seasons, Gordie didn’t hide his sentiment that he felt his son should’ve been inducted long ago.
“I think it obviously means more to him,” said Mark Howe, who is director of pro scouting for the Red Wings. “
Anyone that has children understands.
“Anything my children achieve means far more to me than anything I’ve done in my life. He doesn’t have to say that, I know exactly how he feels.”
The uniqueness of the journey, in which Gordie Howe got to play with both his sons in the WHA and NHL, made the induction ceremony a leap into a deep pool of emotions for the entire clan.
At least 40 family and friends attended the ceremony, but the one person Mark Howe dearly wished could attend was his mother Colleen, who passed away in March 2009 of Pick’s Disease.
“It means so much more to me that dad’s here to share it,” said Mark Howe, who put on a Wings’ jersey with the No. 9 on the back to conclude his speech. “I have a family and my good friends around me. That’s what it means to me.
“Whether it validates or doesn’t (my career), I did what I did on the ice. I’m proud of my career. I’m proud of my accomplishments I had as an individual and the teams I played with.”
When asked why he thinks he earned entry into the hall, Mark Howe’s modesty betrays him. However, Gordie Howe eagerly offers up several reasons with a bluntness similar to one of his famous elbows to the chops.
“The love of the game,” Gordie Howe said. “His feelings towards the game was it’s his life.
“He had the speed. As a passer, I include all of them Ted Lindsay, Sid Abel, no one passed the puck better.”
Like so many other greats of his era, the laboratory where Mark perfected his skills was the rink at his suburban Detroit home. He spent endless hours on the ice until it would get dark.
When he got old enough, Mark Howe found a solution to extend his playing hours.
“He wanted to play after dark until 10 or later every day,” Gordie Howe said.
“He got (two-by-four) posts and strung up lights, Christmas lights, and people would stop in their cars in the neighborhood wondering what was going on. Why did we have our Christmas lights up?”
From an early age, Mark Howe was well aware of what the Howe surname meant. He knew it required some sacrifices from him, but in return he enjoyed experiences beyond the dreams of most young boys.
The young Howe got to skate with the Wings in training camp, was a stick boy for visiting teams and got the use of the Olympia ice whenever he wanted.
“Most of it was growing up the son of Gordie Howe,” said Mark Howe about what his mother taught him as a boy.
“Everywhere you went, people talked about being a U.S.-born kid and being from Detroit. You went to all the Canadian cities (to play), you got spit on and treated like trash because you were an American. You got that from six, seven-years on up.
“You had to learn how to control your emotions as a young kid.
“As you get older, apart from being an American, you’re Gordie Howe’s son. That puts more limelight on you.
“The hardest part, I didn’t think it was that hard to me, was carrying that name on your back. I knew growing up as a child if I did something really wrong, his name was going to be in the paper.
“The upside, if you go anywhere in Canada or North America especially here in Detroit, with that name, I can walk in anywhere. All the liberties I had for being Gordie Howe’s son were fantastic.”
For a young hockey player, sharing a home with one of the sport’s living legends could’ve been a suffocating experience. Mark Howe learned it was best to embrace his father not compete with him.
He again credits his mother for teaching him early about being his own person.
“If I tried to compare my career to his it’s a lose-lose situation,” said Mark Howe, who scored his first professional goal 27 years to the day (Oct. 16, 1973) after his father scored his first NHL goal.
“What my mom taught me, whether it’s through school, work, hockey or how you conduct life away from the rink, set your own values and standards. ‘What do you want to do in your life and what are your expectations?’
“I didn’t care what anyone said because I had my values of what I decided for myself.”
Father and son were separate people, but with an unbreakable bond.
When Mark decided to jump to the WHA at 18 years old after winning a Memorial Cup with the Toronto Marlies in the spring of 1973, that was the opportunity Gordie was waiting for to fulfill his long-held dream of playing with Mark and his elder son Marty.
“If I didn’t go to the WHA, I had to wait two more years as a junior before being eligible for the NHL,” said Mark Howe, who was the MVP of the 1973 Memorial Cup tournament.
“I was able to play on the same team as my dad and brother.
“I also had the chance to make more money as an 18-year-old than my dad did in any year during his whole career.”
Mark Howe, who won an Olympic silver medal with the U.S. hockey team at the 1972 Winter Games as a 16-year-old, became an immediate star in the WHA. The Howe family was once again one of hockey’s biggest stories, but not everyone in the hockey world was impressed.
In those early days, the WHA’s tough guys learned the legend of Gordie Howe was no myth when it came to protecting his sons.
“The first three games we had fights and that was it,” Gordie Howe said.
“I went over to a coach who was sending someone out deliberately to maim him (Mark). High sticks were up around the throat and ears and he got cut up.
“I (skated) alongside side the bench and got three (opposing players with his stick) with one swoop. I said, ‘You put patches on my son. When those patches are off and you do it again, I’ll put more than a patch on you.’
“A lot of parents couldn’t watch their kids, with all the clips and cuts. I didn’t mind.
“I just waited for the next line change and you could get even. If I could skate, I could get even.
“It’s not nice, but that’s the way I was.”
However, Mark Howe’s toughest battle he had to fight alone.
On Dec. 27, 1980, Howe got bumped and slid into his own net with his knees up to protect a bad back. That tilted the net upwards and the metal puck deflector in the middle of the old-style goals plunged five inches into Howe’s body just missing his rectum and spine and coming out near his right hip.
“I kept asking if I was going to die,” said Mark Howe, who lost nearly five pints of blood.
“What I remember the most, it was day three or four and I hadn’t been out of bed much. I just couldn’t walk I was on so much Demerol.
“He helped me walk around the room and I think I threw up on him about five times.
“Later on that day about four or five people, every room around me just about, passed away. It got me motivated to get the hell out of there.”
Amazingly, Howe was back in the line-up six weeks later, though he said it took until the end of the following season before he felt right again. By that time he’d been traded to Philadelphia where he blossomed into a three-time, first-team NHL All-Star (1983, 1986, 1987).
During those same years in the early 80s, Mark was remarkably still learning to play defense fulltime after being switched there in his first year in the NHL (1979-80). He had been all-star forward in the WHA.
“He (Gordie) didn’t like it,” said Mark Howe. “They took me off his line.”
Howe, who was inducted into the Philadelphia Hall of Fame earlier in November, credits rugged Philadelphia defenseman Eddie Van Impe with turning him into a solid defenseman.
“I guess what I’m most proud of is six or seven years of my 22 we got to the finals on pro teams,” the 56-year-old Howe said.
“A lot of people consider me an offensive defenseman, but I thought though I was the opposite. I thought I was a defensive defenseman who knew how to create offense.”
“I thought I was an intelligent player. I knew how to play the odds in keeping the puck out of my net.”