Mr. Hockey memorabilia being auctioned off for Howe Foundation
Nearly 450 pieces are up for bid until April 25
Marty
and
Mark Howe
have dug through hundreds of boxes of family memorabilia - their father's and their own - to assemble the first significant auction that will benefit the Howe Foundation, nearly 450 items up for bid until April 25 at
auctions.nhl.com.](https://auctions.nhl.com/iSynApp/allAuction.action?sid=1100803&rc=40&pgmode1=profilepage&pgcust1=fpondcharity&pgcust2=partner&pgcust3=panname_profileName_s&qt[0].type=fieldmatch&qt[0].name=panname_profileName_s&qt[0
Founded some two decades ago by Mr. Hockey and his wife, Colleen, the
Howe Foundation
charity was established to provide funds to underprivileged children so that they might experience the passion of sports. With that, they might carry these lessons through life, passing them on to the next generation.
"The goal of our family is to keep alive the memory of Gordie and Colleen for as long as we can, and we can do this through the Foundation," said Mark Howe, the 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman.
Gordie Howe is flanked by sons Marty, l., and Mark at the latter's 2011 Hockey Hall of Fame induction, and in the same order as teammates on the 1973-74 WHA Houston Aeros. Matthew Manor/Hockey Hall of Fame; O-Pee-Chee/Hockey Hall of Fame
"Mom and dad always gave back. The four children -- Murray, Marty, Cathy and myself --- talked with dad years ago and we decided that all this stuff was going to go into the Howe Foundation and that any money raised from the sale of any of it would go to charity. Our goal as a family is to give back. We want to do what mom and dad taught us -- to do the right thing and help others."
A selection of Howe Foundation items up for bid were until recently displayed at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto as part of a Howe exhibit, including the stick and puck that Mr. Hockey used to score his 801st and final regular-season goal; that puck and the puck of his final Stanley Cup Playoff goal, plaque-mounted in 1980; game-used equipment; Howe's 2010 Vancouver Olympic torch and tracksuit; original Peanuts comic-strip artwork; a medal and letter from Canada's governor-general in celebration of Queen Elizabeth II, and several NHL trophies and awards.
Mark and Marty Howe auction items include WHA Avco Cup championship trophies and rings, a Rolex watch, milestone and commemorative plaques, a silver platter and game-used items.
Also for bid are autographed, top-graded hockey cards, various awards and original artwork.
Auction items include a plaque featuring Gordie Howe's final regular-season and Stanley Cup Playoff goals, each scored in April 1980, and a 1977 letter and medal which Mr. Hockey received from then-Canadian Governor-General Jules Leger celebrating the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne. Courtesy Frozen Pond
Collectors can bid on a signed original scoresheet from Wayne Gretzky's record-breaking 1,851st-point game, one of several Gretzky items from the Howe archives offered for sale. Bidders will find an Arnold Palmer-signed putter; Gordie Howe's fishing rods; jewelry; items autographed by the late Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Ted Lindsay, Ted Kennedy and Muhammad Ali; and items signed by Dave Keon, Ken Dryden, Mario Lemieux and others.
For decades, the massive Howe family collection was kept in Mr. Hockey's home and separate office house as well as storage units. In time, as Mark and Marty painstakingly catalogued it, the memorabilia was split between the brothers and Mark's son, Travis.
What's being offered for sale now is just a part of all that Gordie Howe won and collected through his unprecedented 32-year professional career and at countless public appearances made during his playing days and in retirement. There is a great deal more in the collection, his family for now keeping the things that are most precious to them.
That's not to say that some of what's being auctioned doesn't have great sentimental value. Marty and Mark Howe have also dipped into their personal collections to add to the sale.
Auction items include an autographed pair of Eaton's TruLine hockey gloves and a 12- by eight-inch Detroit Red Wings clock that features a photo of Mr. Hockey and sons Marty and Mark. Courtesy Frozen Pond
"Mom never threw anything away," Marty Howe said. "She and dad had an office house, a regular house and two storage units. Mom didn't want to write on the outside of the boxes, showing what they contained, so she coded them with letters and numbers."
It was up to the Howe boys to decipher the codes and try the best they could to catalogue their father's collection, from priceless items to odds and ends gathered through the years.
"Dear Lord, mom kept tons of stuff," Mark Howe said, laughing. "A box wouldn't say, 'Gordie's Stanley Cup ring,' it just had a code on it. Then things would be taken out and loaned for display in various places, replaced by other items. I spent three weeks at their home one summer, taking my own photos, trying to document things the best I could."
There were some interesting discoveries along the way, more than 400 file-folder boxes at various addresses packed with memorabilia. Colleen Howe had organized it all as the family historian and archivist but struggled with it during her battle with Pick's disease, an incurable neurological disorder causing dementia that would take her life in 2009.
"I had to go through every piece of paper, mom sometimes putting junk mail in the boxes," Mark said. "I'd look in one and find junk, junk, junk, a letter from (U.S. President) Gerald Ford, junk, junk, oh, a handwritten letter from (Canadian Prime Minister) Pierre Trudeau… I've spent 20 years going through everything. There was a master list, but some boxes contained only half of what they were supposed to."
Auction items include Gordie Howe's shin pads and shoulder pads worn during the 1974 Summit Series, eight games between players of the WHA and the Soviet Union. Courtesy Frozen Pond
Marty Howe joked that "Mark and I aren't getting any younger," the brothers respectively age 69 and 67.
"Some of the things in the auction are Howe Foundation stuff and Mark and I threw in some of our own items," he said. "I've kept things in drawers but I don't wear rings or watches. My wife Mary and I have no kids to give this stuff to so I woke up one morning and said, 'It must be time.' We're all on a timeline and I figure that at about 80, things will start to fall apart on me."
Gordie Howe, who died June 10, 2016 at age 88, is in every discussion about the greatest athletes of all time, in any sport. His pro career spanned 32 seasons -- 26 in the NHL, six in the WHA -- with a one-game contract signed on Oct. 3, 1997, with Detroit of the International Hockey League seeing him become the first player to skate in six decades. Howe's jersey and a puck from this IHL game are included in the auction.
Mr. Hockey's honor roll, in part: four Stanley Cup championships won with the Red Wings; Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 1972; 23 NHL All-Star Game appearances; six Hart Trophy and six Art Ross Trophy wins, as the NHL's most valuable player and top point-scorer, respectively; 22 consecutive NHL seasons of scoring at least 23 goals; top five in NHL scoring for 20 consecutive seasons, between 1949-69; countless off-ice honors that include bridges, arenas and buildings named for him.
Auction items include an autographed Gordie Howe puck and an original Peanuts comic panel given to Mr. Hockey by legendary cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Louis Jaques/Hockey Hall of Fame; courtesy Frozen Pond
Howe was the first NHL player to reach 1,000 points and would retire from the Hartford Whalers in 1980, at age 52, as the League's all-time leader in games played with 1,767 (now ranked second to the 1,779 of Patrick Marleau); goals with 801 (now third to Gretzky's 894 and Alex Ovechkin's 822); assists with 1,049 (now 10th, Gretzky ranked first with 1,963); and points with 1,850 (now fourth, Gretzky first with 2,857).
Both Marty and Mark Howe recall their father's love of people, fans flocking to him as he made appearances into the final years of his life.
"We received an email five years before Gordie passed from a guy in Western Canada," Mark said. "He wrote, 'I just waited in line for four hours to get Gordie's autograph. It's the 25th or 26th time I've got it and every time it's the greatest experience of my life.' "
The brothers remember their father's barnstorming tours across Canada from the 1960s into the 1970s for Eaton's, a national chain of department stores. After a full day of appearances, Howe would sit in his hotel room and autograph 1,500 or more picture postcards for an Eaton's meet-and-greet the following day.
"In the store, Gordie could then personalize the picture with his name already signed, which gave him an extra moment to chat with the fan," Marty said.
Gordie Howe in a 1953-54 Detroit Red Wings portrait and in a Canadian passport photo, circa mid-1940s. Louis Jaques; Le Studio du Hockey, both Hockey Hall of Fame
Mark Howe is impressed that his brother is auctioning his Houston Aeros championship ring, among other items.
"A lot of wonderful pieces," he said. "Marty, dad and I shared those things together. They were a part of all of our lives but there comes a time and a place to give things away."
Famous is the story of Gordie Howe's first skates, pulled at age 5 from a sack dropped in the family's Saskatoon home in Depression-era 1933 by a neighbor in exchange for a little money to buy milk.
"If it wasn't for that few dollars that Gordie's mom paid the woman, who knows if he ever would have played hockey," Mark said. "With the Howe Foundation, and this auction, we're hoping that we can make a difference in the lives of people who need assistance, and that would make mom and dad extremely proud."
Top photo: Gordie Howe in a late 1960s photo with the Detroit Red Wings. Hockey Hall of Fame
