Hockey legend Gordie Howe has died at the age of 88 in Ohio, the Detroit Red Wings confirmed Friday.
Howe has had up and down health the past few years, especially after suffering a stroke in 2014.
He stills holds many team records from his time as a Red Wing between 1946 and 1971, including winning the Stanley Cup with the Wings four times. When his career started, World War II had just ended. He scored more than 800 goals over a span of an amazing 1,700+ NHL games.
Not only that, he has six MVP awards (the Hard Trophy) and six Art Ross Trophies for leading scorer.
He was born in Floral, Saskatchewan – a province of Canada – on March 31, 1928.
The planned new bridge to Canada is to be named the Gordie Howe Bridge.
Here are 10 career facts about Gordie Howe:
- He played the most NHL regular season games with 1,767
- Had the most NHL regular season games with one team at 1,687
- He’s tied with Chris Chelios for most NHL seasons played (26)
- 22 consecutive NHL 20-goal seasons (1949-1971)
- He was the oldest player to play in the NHL at 52 years, 11 days old.
- First player to reach 1,500 games played in NHL History
- He became the only player to play in six different decades when he did a shift with the Detroit Vipers
- He had to get 500 stitches in his career
- 12 NHL All-Star Game appearances, the most
- Howe was chosen to join the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972.