Murray Howe Reveals A More Personal Side of Gordie In New Book
By Nick Seguin
5 years ago“Skate hard and have fun”.
Many years ago, as he secured my helmet onto my head while the zamboni made its final rounds of the ice, my Dad would pat me on the head and repeat those words. Every time I stepped out onto the ice.
“What are you going to do today?” he’d ask.
“Skate hard and have fun,” I had to repeat.
Now that I’m older, these words resonate with me in more ways than just hockey. They’ve become a sort of guide to how I build my career and live my life. It’s one of those lessons that only a hockey-loving father could come up with.
In Murray Howe’s 9 Lessons I Learned From My Father, the youngest of the Howe children lays out nine of these kinds of lessons that he picked up from his hockey playing father. I recently read the book to gain a deeper understanding of the legend known as Mr. Hockey.
There’s one thing you should be aware of right off the bat: this is not primarily a hockey book. Of course, when a man has a nickname like “Mr. Hockey”, there’s bound to be hockey talk throughout, but Murray doesn’t just focus on Gordie’s hockey career and tell stories from the rink.
Instead, he tells the stories away from the rink. Stories like fishing trips his Dad took him on, favours he did for his neighbours, and how they learned to hug each other. Structured around nine life lessons that he learned from his Dad, Murray’s book was more than a tribute to the greatest hockey player in the world. It was a tribute from a son to a father.
The book is set the night after his Dad passed away. Murray stays up all night to write the eulogy for his father’s funeral. This eulogy served as the basis for the book and so we get the raw emotion of a son processing the loss of his father and being flooded with their memories together. Like when Murray was nine years old and his Dad took him on a fishing trip to an unnamed lake north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. They talked about girls, family, and what it was like for Gordie to grow up in rural Saskatchewan.
These are not the kinds of stories that are normally told about Gordie Howe. These are far more personal and open a window to the part of Gordie’s life that hockey didn’t allow us to see through.
Of course, there is more than enough hockey content throughout the book to satisfy the hockey lover. Murray tells stories of charity games that he played with his Dad, famous on-ice altercations that took place, and Gordie’s struggles after retirement that eventually led to him lacing up again for the Houston Aeros in the WHA.
Every story ties back to the all-important lesson that its respective chapter is named after. “Live Honourably“, “Be Tough“, and “Patience, Patience, Patience“ are just a few examples of the lessons Murray lists.
What I found most interesting in the book are the stories Murray told of Gordie’s later years. While Mr. Hockey showed up occasionally at Joe Louis Arena, he was largely outside of the spotlight. In the book, Murray speaks in detail about the experimental treatment that Gordie underwent in 2014, highlighting how tough his Dad was even with death knocking at the door. He also highlighted the early years of Gordie’s life and the people who inspired a young kid to become the best hockey player in the world.
Overall, Murray Howe beautifully complimented the hockey side of his father’s life with that of his personal life. Gordie Howe was more than just a hockey player. He was a son, a brother, a husband, and a father. Murray paints the greatest and perhaps most revered picture of Mr. Hockey that we’ve seen to date.
To Murray, he was more than Mr. Hockey. He was simply “Dad”.
In December of 2017, my Dad and I attended our first game at Little Caesars Arena together. It was against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it was difficult to keep our focus on the ice. We were marveling at the beautiful new building the Detroit Red Wings organization had built in downtown Detroit.
From left to right: me, my Dad and Murray Howe. Little Caesars Arena – December 15th, 2017.
As we walked the lower concourse, we saw that Murray Howe was doing a book signing. My Dad and I wandered over there. There wasn’t much of a line, so we walked right up to Murray and struck up a conversation, speaking briefly about the new arena and current Red Wings roster. My Dad picked up a copy of his book and opened it to the table of contents. The title of chapter three jumped out at him immediately and his face spread into a big smile.
“Look,” he said to me, pointing at the page.
It read, “Chapter 3 – Play hard, but have fun”
It wasn’t my Dad’s lesson word-for-word, but it was close enough. “I have to get it now,” he said, beaming with pride that he and the great Gordie Howe taught their sons nearly the exact same lesson.
He leaned in close to Murray and whispered something in his ear. This close to Christmas, I knew that I’d be unwrapping this book in a few weeks. The real surprise would be the message that Murray wrote inside of it.
Little did my Dad know, I had already ordered this book for him online. We’d be gifting each other the exact same book Christmas morning. I told Murray Howe this in an Ask Me Anything he did on Reddit a week later, asking if he’d divulge the secret message my Dad had him write in the book. Murray did not tell me what he was asked to write, but he sent me a private message asking for my address so that he could sign a bookplate that we could tape in my Dad’s copy of the book.
I was floored that he would go out of his own way to offer this, especially during the busy holiday season. I mean, who reaches out to an internet stranger of their own initiative to do something nice like that?
As I look back on it now having read the book, I think of the lessons Gordie passed on to his kids: Live Honorably. Live Generously. Live Selflessly. Murray Howe didn’t just write these lessons down, he lives by them, as evidenced by the kind gesture he made for me and my Dad.
It’s a testament to who his father was as a person and the kind of legacy he left behind.
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