This just makes sense: Detroit’s Mount Rushmore of Sports, at least according to the Sporting News’s Bill Bender, consists of Al Kaline, Barry Sanders, Isaiah Thomas and one Gordie Howe.
SANDERS. HOWE. KALINE. THOMAS.
Your Detroit Mount Rushmore has officially arrived 👀
📰: https://t.co/SUuVWuvE8r pic.twitter.com/qvFP7dLAxd— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰𝐬 (@sportingnews) July 28, 2022
GORDIE HOWE (Red Wings, 1946-71): Gordie Howe played 1,687 games with the Red Wings and remains the franchise’s all-time leader with 1,809 points. [Detroit News columnist Bob] Wojnowski still did not fully comprehend what the Red Wings right wing meant to the game until Howe died. Wojnowski attended Howe’s funeral at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit on June 15, 2016.
“I was amazed just at how many average hockey fans had personal stories with him,” Wojnowski said. “He would show up after retirement, which took a long time, at local rinks and have a game with them. He couldn’t have been nicer and couldn’t have been friendlier. It was the amount of tears I saw from people who met him maybe once.”
Howe endeared himself to hockey fans with the “Howe hat trick,” which was a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game. He was a “Hockeytown” hero as part of Stanley Cup championship teams in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955. He played for 25 more seasons in the NHL after that and still wasn’t done.
“He couldn’t get hockey out of his blood,” Wojnowski said. “He wasn’t the fastest skater. No, he didn’t have the best hands or best wrist shot, but he was the ultimate power hockey player.”
Continued, with comments from Mitch Albom and Bally Sports Detroit’s Johnny Kane…
