Gordie: A Hockey Legend

Ian A. Andrews is a high-school social sciences teacher and editor of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association’s Focus.

Roy MacSkimming has provided a service to fans of all ages by writing an
intelligent, lucid, well-researched, and entertaining book about the
life and career of a true hockey legend, Gordie Howe. Its unauthorized
nature has allowed MacSkimming the freedom to explore the personality
traits of this “backward” boy from Saskatchewan, who bashfully took
the motor city of Detroit by storm in the 1940s.

Entering the NHL as a teenager and leaving as a senior statesman after
a distinguished quarter of a century (followed by six years in the WHA
and a final year with Hartford in the NHL), Howe established records
that have been eclipsed only by Wayne Gretzky in the expansion era. But
this is not a chronicle of records. MacSkimming has traced the human
face of Howe, his close relationships with hockey friends, his fierce
competition with Rocket Richard, his life-threatening injury in 1950,
and his acceptance of the patriarchal tyranny of coach Jack Adams, while
also providing examples of Howe’s “mean, vindictive side.”
MacSkimming has provided descriptive word pictures of exciting plays and
32 pages of vintage photos that should especially appeal to the
pretelevision set. Stressed above all is this superb athlete’s love
for the game—a game he played professionally at the age of 52 on a
team with his sons. To his credit, MacSkimming treats the WHA years as a
postscript to Howe’s career, a time to become financially secure after
being shortchanged by the tight-fisted Detroit management.

This is a definite must-read for all hockey fans.