SportsCentury Greatest Athletes #21: Gordie Howe 

These guys that grew up in the depression era... add in the fact it was rural Saskatchewan... Most never outgrew it... Dirt Poor... Then you had the Dust Bowl... cue the 'Grapes of Wrath' sequence... I'll say this about Gordie... Gordie was tough... He didn't need no damn policeman.. He was 'THE MAN'...

Of his ERA. Please do not say all time and try to compare guys from his era to today. Gordie is a legend, but leave it at that. Guys today are in another universe compared to 60 years ago. Watching a game from the 50s/60s is like watching a bad beer league game, leave the legends of the past in the past because 99.9% of them wouldn't make a roster today

You are full of it@@PlumpHotdog

@@PlumpHotdogI would love to watch a bad beer league that features the likes of Gordie Howe, Maurice Richard, or Bobby Orr. Come on, dude.

Bobby orr is the best

@@freddyfurrah3789 Orr insisted Gordie WAS the MAN…so did Gretzky. It was a much more manly game in those days & #9️⃣ sustained his dominance for multiple decades‼️ 🇨🇦

Mark Howe said Gordie was the meanest player he ever saw. Look for the video of when Phil Esposito talks about his first shift against Howe. If that isn't dirty nothing is. EDIT: in this video above what did Bobby Hull say about Gordie? That he, "....loved every high sticking moment." smh Howe was dirty, but not dirty like Mark Messier.

They were BOTH DIRTY & liberally applied the lumber…the difference being, Gordie could back it up by himself, with his fists. His own son, Marty Howe, said a Gordie Howe hat trick should more accurately be; a goal, an assist & cross check to the face, based on his father’s game. 🇨🇦

@@dougbrowne9890 Sure, junior…Messier’s entire game was based on Gordie Howe’s blueprint. His father Doug, was a hard nosed, minor leaguer with the Edmonton Flyers, Detroit’s farm team in the ‘50-60’s. I saw Gordie play against his father during their annual preseason game in 1963, at the old, Edmonton Gardens. Juvenile, bias statement…What’s your team, the Islanders❓I was literally at the game, exactly 4️⃣0️⃣ years ago, today, when Edmonton dethroned the Islanders, forming the greatest Dynasty in NHL history.

OIHHHHH BULLDHIT GORDIE WAS THE ORIGINAL STICK MAN HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR A THOUSAND STITCHES TO OTHER PLAYERS //// I LIKE GORDIE , BUT BOY WAS HE DIRTY

If not the Top 5 At Least TOP10. THE BEST OF HIS GENERATION.

Before Wayne Gretzky, gorde howe was the king of 🏒hockey, gorde howe was more complete player

make that five...the Rocket Richard too!

Gorde howe was a greatest two way hockey 🏒player

Orr

Gorde howe had the NHL records 📚 in his hand when he retired , king of hockey 🏒

Gorde howe two way hockey 🏒player, greatest ever

Saw an interview with Gretsky after his playing days. He claims he was a much better baseball player than hockey player, but saw no avenue to becoming a major leaguer in baseball so went the hockey route. Hockey does have the greatest athletes. The fewest crybabies too.

@@cdjhyoung Gordie could have been a pro Baseball or Pro Golfer maybe pro bowler if he wanted to. But his love of hockey kept him there. Many stories of him hitting monster home runs in Tiger Stadium. They say he hit the hardest hit home run there ever started off at pitcher level on infield & by the time it was out of the park hit the facing of the upper deck still rising & got out in lighting speed.

Why are you sorry? Gretzky agrees with you. So does Orr...and Lemieux, Bobby Hull, and Esposito do too.

He would have been too tall to play middle linebacker, in fact, that position hadn't been invented until the late 1950's. There is a candid picture of Howe from the 1950's sitting in the locker room with his shirt off. This man looks like a WWF wrestler all pumped up for a photo shoot, but Gordie is just relaxing on the bench. The man was a monster.

@Spam Houston I attended a celebrity bowling tournament at which Howe was 'competing'. After he scored a high 200 game, the other athletes demanded he switch hands. So he bowled the next game left handed, and did better. Howe played for years before score keepers realized he was shooting from both sides - right handed and left handed. This is like a batter coming to the plate and randomly picking a side to hit from. In the later part of his career, he took a cheap shot from and up and comer. No immediate retaliation. But in the next period, Howe found a way to steer the youngster to the boards near the kids bench. Gordie Reached out, left handed, put the point of his stick in the kids crouch and dumped him into his own bench. On national TV. The man was strong, highly skilled, and wickedly evil when it served his purposes. Do they still call a goal, an assist and a ten minute major penalty a Gordie Howe hat trick?

@@cdjhyoung I've seen a clip of Gordie scoring on Montreal with a backhanded slap shot from the left wing blue line. And I'm not making it up.

Kids do well to get three hours a week of ice time. He played 20 hours on a weekend. Pond hockey, no whistles, you only stopped to face off after a goal. Today a 1-2 minute shift is average, stoppages in play are frequent and 20 minutes in a game is high. Even in the NHL, Gordie played on a dominant line, killed penalties and was on the power play. He often played 40 minutes in a game. They dont make men like that any more.

Orr

Orr is the best

Orr