Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe Shared Lifelong Friendship

By Eric Friesen | Jun 17, 2016

Mar 31, 2015; Detroit, MI, USA; Fans hold up a sign for Detroit Red Wings former player Gordie Howe during the first period against the Ottawa Senators at Joe Louis Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports /

We all had a favourite hockey player when we were growing up. A player that we aspired to be like and dreamed of one day playing alongside in the NHL. For me, it was Wayne Gretzky. As a kid, whether I was playing hockey on my driveway or at my local outdoor rink I would always pretend I was Gretzky flying down the ice and firing the puck past the goalie to win the game.

For Gretzky, it was “Mr. Hockey” Gordie Howe.

“You know, you get the puck and go around a pylon and it was always Gordie Howe goes around the defenceman and scores the winning goal in the Stanley Cup,” Gretzky said in a 2001 interview on the Biography Channel. “We all did that.”

Despite growing up 90 minutes south of Toronto in the small town of Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky grew up a Detroit Red Wings fan because of his hockey hero Howe. Gretzky first met Howe at a sports banquet in Brantford in 1971, which was the genesis of their friendship over the next 45 years.

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“When I met Gordie Howe I was 10-years-old and he was bigger and better and nicer than I ever imagined,” Gretzky said. “And all I ever did from that moment on was think about one day I’d love to play with Gordie Howe or against Gordie Howe.”

Before embarking on his 20-year Hockey Hall of Fame career in the NHL, Gretzky played one season in the World Hockey Association, which was late absorbed by the National Hockey League, as a 17-year-old player with the Indianapolis Racers and the Edmonton Oilers. During that season, Gretzky had his first chance to play with his idol Howe in the 1979 WHA All-Star Game in Edmonton against Moscow Dynamo.

“Well, that was one of my big thrills in my life,” Gretzky said in a 2001 interview on the Biography Channel. “I remember sitting there and was I petrified and Gordie said ‘just win the face-off, dump it in my corner and get to the front of the net’ and I scored nine seconds into the game.”

From that day on, Howe was a fan of Gretzky as well, and was one of the people who spoke highly of Gretzky in a 1980 interview shown on the Ultimate Gretzky DVD.

“Wayne is a super young man who is a reflection of his parents who brought him up,” Howe “He’s got a certain charisma that everybody falls in love with the kid.”

Howe retired from the NHL for the final time at the age of 52 on April 11, 1980, as the league’s all-time leading scorer with 1,850 career NHL points. Almost like a second father to Gretzky, Howe followed his career career closely during the 1980s as “The Great One” re-wrote the NHL record book with the Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings.

On October 15, 1989, Gretzky surpassed his idol to become the NHL’s new all-time scoring leader, and of course, Howe was in attendance at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton for Gretzky’s record breaking night.

“I can say in all honesty that I’ve been looking forward to this day,” Howe said in 1989 after Gretzky broke his all-time points record.

On March 23, 1994, Gretzky scored his 802nd career NHL goal, which he considers the most significant goal of his career, passing Howe’s legendary mark of 801 goals that had stood for 14 years.

“It was a record that no one thought would ever be broken,” Gretzky said. “I don’t think because I broke Gordie Howe’s record makes me the greatest.”

Unfortunately, Howe couldn’t be in Los Angeles that night, but he reached out to Gretzky earlier that day to wish him well. “That was one of the only records I broke that (Gordie) wasn’t at, but he called me before the game and he was always part of it, even if he wasn’t there.”

By the 1998-99 season, Wayne Gretzky’s last as an NHL player, he had broken virtually all of Howe’s records. But the one that eluded him to this point was most combined regular season and playoff goals in a professional hockey career. On March 29, 1999, he was again surpassed the legendary Gordie Howe by scoring his 1,072nd goal, the final goal of his NHL career.

“As I was getting close to the last few games (of my career), I was telling my friends and wife that maybe I’m supposed to be tied with Gordie for this record,” Gretzky said in 2003. “But as it turned out, the puck just kind of popped loose and I put it in.”

One of the greatest experiences of my life was attending the 2010 Kinsmen Celebrity Sports Dinner in my hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on February 5, 2010. Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe were the guests of honor that night and were interviewed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper for over an hour.

It was a true privilege for me, a 21-year-old lifelong hockey fan at the time, to hear two of the greatest players to ever lace up a pair a skates share stories from their own careers and hear Gretzky speak to why it was so important for him to come to Saskatoon.

Howe’s health took a turn for the worst in 2014 after suffering a series of strokes, but always a fighter, the tough 86-year-old NHL legend recovered well enough to make an appearance at the 2015 Kinsmen Celebrity Sports Dinner in Saskatoon with Gretzky, once again.

Gretzky thanked Howe that night for all of his contributions to the game of hockey over the past seven decades.

“I don’t think there’s any question that if it wasn’t for Gordie, and if it wasn’t for Bobby Hull jumping to the WHA in 1972 that I might not be standing here today,” Gretzky told CBC in 2015. “So they definitely laid a path for guys like Wayne Gretzky to become professional athletes.”

Sadly, Howe passed away last week at the age of 88. Gretzky, devastated by the loss of his idol and good friend, spoke glowingly of Howe before the funeral on Wednesday.

“(Gordie) was the greatest player ever,” Gretzky told NHL.com Tuesday. “But more importantly he was the nicest man I ever met.”

Next: A Tribute to Gordie Howe, Better Known as Mr. Hockey

There will never be another Gordie Howe and he will be greatly missed.

R.I.P. Gordon Howe (March 31, 1928 – June 10, 2016)

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