Porch Notes
Gordie Howe and the Making of Hockeytown
History and culture
Detroit calls itself “Hockeytown,” and no one did more to earn the city that name than Gordie Howe — “Mr. Hockey” himself. Over an almost unbelievable career, Howe played 25 seasons for the Detroit Red Wings, won four Stanley Cups in the 1950s, and was named the league’s most valuable player six times.
He was the complete package: ambidextrous with his stick, deadly accurate, and famously, fearsomely tough — so much so that the “Gordie Howe hat trick” (a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game) is named for his all-around style. He anchored Detroit’s legendary “Production Line,” a forward trio nicknamed both for its scoring and for the city’s auto assembly lines.
And he simply would not stop. After retiring from the Wings, Howe came back in his mid-40s to play professionally alongside his sons Mark and Marty, then returned to the NHL one last time with the Hartford Whalers at age 52. He survived a near-fatal skull fracture, broke records that stood until Wayne Gretzky came along, and remains the soul of a hockey-mad city.
Where to see it
The Red Wings play downtown at Little Caesars Arena; the new international bridge linking Detroit and Windsor is named the Gordie Howe International Bridge in his honor.