February 5, 1980: The greatest player in the history of hockey gets his due, from the fans who knew him the best. And the owner of those fans' team had to just sit there and take it.
Gordie Howe had debuted with the Detroit Red Wings in 1946. Between 1948 and 1966, he had helped them reach the Stanley Cup Finals 11 times, winning 4: In 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. In 1963, he became the NHL's all-time leader in goals. When a wrist injury convinced him to finally retire in 1971, at the age of 43, he had 786 goals. At the time, the man in 2nd place, Bobby Hull of the Chicago Black Hawks, had 552.
It wasn't just the wrist injury: Howe had spent a few years feuding with the Wings' owner, Bruce Norris. While his father James E. Norris and his brother James D. Norris had built 7 Stanley Cup winners, Bruce had merely presided over the '54 and '55 champions, having done nothing to build them. Taking full control for the 1955-56 season, he became a typical sports team operator of the period, preferring to save money than to win. He broke up his championship team, and tried to build another on the cheap. Over the next 11 years, they would go 0-5 in Stanley Cup Finals.
After the 1968-69 season, Howe, arguably still the best player in the game, and already nicknamed "Mr. Hockey," discovered that he was only the team's 3rd-highest-paid player, at $45,000. Norris gave him a raise to $100,000, making him the 1st hockey player to make that much. But Norris fumed: He was one of those sports team owners who couldn't stand to have his authority challenged. To him, players were merely means to an end.
Especially angering this old-school old-boy-networker was the fact that Gordie's agent was a woman: His wife, Colleen Howe, who would eventually be known as "Mrs. Hockey." Norris blamed Colleen for Gordie being out of order enough to demand a raise. (This foreshadowed M. Donald Grant blaming Nancy Seaver for Tom's demand for a raise on the 1977 Mets.) The relationship between Norris and the Howes had begun to be poisoned, and it was all Norris' fault: If he had paid Gordie as if he was the best player in the game, all the trouble afterward could have been avoided.
Especially angering this old-school old-boy-networker was the fact that Gordie's agent was a woman: His wife, Colleen Howe, who would eventually be known as "Mrs. Hockey." Norris blamed Colleen for Gordie being out of order enough to demand a raise. (This foreshadowed M. Donald Grant blaming Nancy Seaver for Tom's demand for a raise on the 1977 Mets.) The relationship between Norris and the Howes had begun to be poisoned, and it was all Norris' fault: If he had paid Gordie as if he was the best player in the game, all the trouble afterward could have been avoided.
When Gordie retired after the 1971 season, he was given a job in the Wings' front office. Essentially, he was just a schmoozer, shaking hands with corporate clients at their arena, the Olympia Stadium, and allowing the Wings to put his magic name on their corporate letterhead.
Baseball legend Stan Musial, when asked what he did for the St. Louis Cardinals in his nice office at Busch Memorial Stadium, smiled and said, "I don't know, but they pay me a lot of money for it!" In contrast, Gordie grumbled about not having any actual input in the running of the organization. He wasn't the head coach, or an assistant coach, or the general manager, or the director of scouting, or anything of substance. In his words, he was "vice president in charge of paper clips."
Before the 1972-73 season, the expansion New York Islanders, thinking they needed a big name to get attention in the nation's biggest market, offered to make him their 1st head coach. He turned it down. It was probably for the best: The World Hockey Association was launching at the same time, and their Quebec Nordiques offered their head coaching job to Maurice Richard, the Montreal Canadiens icon who was the NHL's all-time leading scorer until Howe. He took it, and hated it. He lost his 1st game, quit on the spot, was talked into keeping the job until they could find someone else, won his 2nd game, and left anyway, and never coached again. But that's 2 more games than Gordie ever had as a head coach.
Bill Dineen, a teammate of Gordie's on the '54 and '55 Cup winners, was named head coach of the WHA's Houston Aeros. Another '55 (but not '54) teammate, Larry Hillman, was his assistant. In the 1973 WHA Draft, Dineen took Gordie's sons Mark and Marty.
To help the WHA get better publicity -- they'd already gotten Hull onto the Winnipeg Jets, a team essentially named for him (the Golden Jet, although their uniforms were blue and had no gold), Dineen asked Gordie to come out of retirement. He was willing to get surgery on his troubled wrist, and give it a shot.
Bruce Norris told the Howes that if Gordie quit the Wings' front office and went to "the rebel league," not only would he be blackballed from the NHL, never to work in it again in any capacity, but that Mark and Marty would also be blackballed -- and since they were players just starting out, this would affect them much more. In other words, he gave Gordie and Colleen an anti-incentive that would have hurt them much more than Gordie's own blackballing would have. It may not be the biggest dick move in the history of hockey, but it's the best-known dick move in NHL history.
And it backfired. Few decisions in the history of sports have backfired this much. Gordie and Mark -- or Gordie and Marty -- became the 1st father and son teammates in professional hockey history. They played on a line together. Mark and Marty got the traditional rookie hazings, and Gordie did not use his influence to stop it. On the other hand, the sons referred to their father as "Gordie," and even called him that to his face, in their teammates' presence, knowing that if they called him "Dad," they'd never hear the end of it.
Attendance went up all over the WHA, as people wanted to see the Howes. It probably kept the league going long enough for a merger with the NHL to be plausible. The Aeros won the AVCO World Trophy as WHA Champions in 1974. And Gordie, age 46, was awarded the Gary Davidson Trophy as Most Valuable Player.
Davidson was the founder of the league. He was also a co-founder of the American Basketball Association and the World Football League. (There would be 4 teams each from the ABA and the WHA that would be admitted to the established leagues. The WFL, on the other hand, totally flopped.)
The next season, the WHA MVP award was renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy. Gordie didn't win it again, but the Aeros again won the AVCO Trophy. They reached the Finals again in 1976, but lost to the Jets.
Meanwhile, from the time that Gordie signed with the Aeros in 1973 until 1983, the Wings made the Playoffs only once. From 1970 until 1987, they only won 1 Playoff series. From 1966, Gordie's last trip to the Finals, until 1986, 20 seasons -- ending the year Norris died, although he'd sold the team to Mike Ilitch in 1982 -- they played in only 17 Playoff games, winning 4 of them. They became known as "The Dead Things."
They moved from the Olympia, in a bad neighborhood on Detroit's northwest side, and built the Joe Louis Arena downtown, but that was about the only thing they had to draw fans. They certainly weren't caring about what Larry Aurie and Ebbie Goodfellow did in the 1930s, or what Gordie and his teammates did in the 1950s.
I'm not saying the Wings would have been appreciably better if they still had Gordie, and had drafted Mark and Marty, and had paid them all what they were worth. It would have been tough to break through in a League that had the Big Bad Bruins in Boston, the Broad Street Bullies in Philadelphia, and the Flying Frenchmen in Montreal. But at least they would have been better. Instead, Bruce Norris found out that karma's a bitch.
Baseball legend Stan Musial, when asked what he did for the St. Louis Cardinals in his nice office at Busch Memorial Stadium, smiled and said, "I don't know, but they pay me a lot of money for it!" In contrast, Gordie grumbled about not having any actual input in the running of the organization. He wasn't the head coach, or an assistant coach, or the general manager, or the director of scouting, or anything of substance. In his words, he was "vice president in charge of paper clips."
Before the 1972-73 season, the expansion New York Islanders, thinking they needed a big name to get attention in the nation's biggest market, offered to make him their 1st head coach. He turned it down. It was probably for the best: The World Hockey Association was launching at the same time, and their Quebec Nordiques offered their head coaching job to Maurice Richard, the Montreal Canadiens icon who was the NHL's all-time leading scorer until Howe. He took it, and hated it. He lost his 1st game, quit on the spot, was talked into keeping the job until they could find someone else, won his 2nd game, and left anyway, and never coached again. But that's 2 more games than Gordie ever had as a head coach.
Bill Dineen, a teammate of Gordie's on the '54 and '55 Cup winners, was named head coach of the WHA's Houston Aeros. Another '55 (but not '54) teammate, Larry Hillman, was his assistant. In the 1973 WHA Draft, Dineen took Gordie's sons Mark and Marty.
To help the WHA get better publicity -- they'd already gotten Hull onto the Winnipeg Jets, a team essentially named for him (the Golden Jet, although their uniforms were blue and had no gold), Dineen asked Gordie to come out of retirement. He was willing to get surgery on his troubled wrist, and give it a shot.
Bruce Norris told the Howes that if Gordie quit the Wings' front office and went to "the rebel league," not only would he be blackballed from the NHL, never to work in it again in any capacity, but that Mark and Marty would also be blackballed -- and since they were players just starting out, this would affect them much more. In other words, he gave Gordie and Colleen an anti-incentive that would have hurt them much more than Gordie's own blackballing would have. It may not be the biggest dick move in the history of hockey, but it's the best-known dick move in NHL history.
Bruce Norris
Attendance went up all over the WHA, as people wanted to see the Howes. It probably kept the league going long enough for a merger with the NHL to be plausible. The Aeros won the AVCO World Trophy as WHA Champions in 1974. And Gordie, age 46, was awarded the Gary Davidson Trophy as Most Valuable Player.
Gordie, Marty, Mark
The next season, the WHA MVP award was renamed the Gordie Howe Trophy. Gordie didn't win it again, but the Aeros again won the AVCO Trophy. They reached the Finals again in 1976, but lost to the Jets.
Meanwhile, from the time that Gordie signed with the Aeros in 1973 until 1983, the Wings made the Playoffs only once. From 1970 until 1987, they only won 1 Playoff series. From 1966, Gordie's last trip to the Finals, until 1986, 20 seasons -- ending the year Norris died, although he'd sold the team to Mike Ilitch in 1982 -- they played in only 17 Playoff games, winning 4 of them. They became known as "The Dead Things."
They moved from the Olympia, in a bad neighborhood on Detroit's northwest side, and built the Joe Louis Arena downtown, but that was about the only thing they had to draw fans. They certainly weren't caring about what Larry Aurie and Ebbie Goodfellow did in the 1930s, or what Gordie and his teammates did in the 1950s.
I'm not saying the Wings would have been appreciably better if they still had Gordie, and had drafted Mark and Marty, and had paid them all what they were worth. It would have been tough to break through in a League that had the Big Bad Bruins in Boston, the Broad Street Bullies in Philadelphia, and the Flying Frenchmen in Montreal. But at least they would have been better. Instead, Bruce Norris found out that karma's a bitch.
The 1970s were a thrilling time for performances on the ice, in both leagues. But most hockey teams, in both leagues, were struggling financially. The Aeros needed money badly, and the New England Whalers were one of the few WHA teams that had it. So they bought all 3 Howes. Gordie was still a WHA All-Star.
In the 1979 off-season, the WHA folded, and 4 of its teams were admitted to the NHL. One was the renamed Hartford Whalers. The Wings still held Gordie's NHL rights, meaning that he could not legally play for any NHL team except Detroit. And Norris still owned the Wings.
But, despite being Chairman of the NHL's Board of Governors, Norris was outflanked by a former Wings executive, now President of the NHL, John Ziegler. Gordie was allowed to play in the NHL for Hartford. In that final season, Gordie played all 80 games, scored 15 goals, raising his record total to 801 (his 174 in the WHA giving him 975), and helped the Whalers make the Playoffs.
In the 1979 off-season, the WHA folded, and 4 of its teams were admitted to the NHL. One was the renamed Hartford Whalers. The Wings still held Gordie's NHL rights, meaning that he could not legally play for any NHL team except Detroit. And Norris still owned the Wings.
But, despite being Chairman of the NHL's Board of Governors, Norris was outflanked by a former Wings executive, now President of the NHL, John Ziegler. Gordie was allowed to play in the NHL for Hartford. In that final season, Gordie played all 80 games, scored 15 goals, raising his record total to 801 (his 174 in the WHA giving him 975), and helped the Whalers make the Playoffs.
Bruce Norris' world had fallen in on him. The Wings had become laughably bad in Gordie's absence. And building the Joe Louis Arena had put a major kink in his finances. Now, he had to watch as his blackballing of the Howes and they were welcomed back into the NHL, and not for his team.
The 1980 NHL All-Star Game was given to Detroit and its new arena, as kind of a "gold watch" for Norris, as it was clear he would soon have to sell. And when Scotty Bowman, coaching the Wales Conference All-Star Team in that game, used his prerogative to fill out the roster with non-starters, he chose 3 legends: Jean Ratelle, Phil Esposito... and the nearly 52-year-old Gordie Howe, who was introduced as "Mr. Hockey, Number 9," and got an ovation from the Detroit crowd that went on and on and on. It was a massive middle finger to Norris -- not from any member of the Howe family, but from the Detroit fans.
The 1980 NHL All-Star Game was given to Detroit and its new arena, as kind of a "gold watch" for Norris, as it was clear he would soon have to sell. And when Scotty Bowman, coaching the Wales Conference All-Star Team in that game, used his prerogative to fill out the roster with non-starters, he chose 3 legends: Jean Ratelle, Phil Esposito... and the nearly 52-year-old Gordie Howe, who was introduced as "Mr. Hockey, Number 9," and got an ovation from the Detroit crowd that went on and on and on. It was a massive middle finger to Norris -- not from any member of the Howe family, but from the Detroit fans.
This was the 32nd time the NHL had held an official All-Star Game. Howe had now appeared in 23 of them. Counting the WHA, he had played in an All-Star Game in 29 of a possible 32 seasons. In this game, he assisted on a goal by Real Cloutier of the Quebec Nordiques, and the Prince of Wales Conference team beat the Clarence Campbell Conference team 6-3. Playing for the Campbell team was 19-year-old Wayne Gretzky, of another team that came in from the WHA, the Edmonton Oilers.
The previous year, Howe and Gretzky had played together on a WHA All-Star Team that played legendary Soviet club Dinamo Moscow. It was the only time that "Mr. Hockey" and the man who would surpass him as the NHL's all-time leader in goals, assists and points would play together.
*
February 5, 1980 was a Tuesday. There were no other NHL games played. Baseball and football were out of season. These 6 games were played in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, 116-105 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Nets beat the San Antonio Spurs, 123-115 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.
* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 123-121 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. Dennis Johnson scored 34 points.
* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Indiana Pacers, 109-108 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 31 points.
* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Kansas City Kings, 105-99 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.
* And the Utah Jazz, in their 1st season after moving from New Orleans, beat the Chicago Bulls, 116-106 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Adrian Dantley led all scorers with 47 points.
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