Gordie Howe

The 1949-50 season was the first standout season of Howe's career. The Production Line of Lindsay, Abel, and Howe went one-two-three in that year's total points standings and the Red Wings made it to the championship against the New York Rangers. The finals produced a four-to-three games victory for the Wings, the team's first title in seven years. Unfortunately, Howe was not on the ice for the victory. In a playoff game against the Maple Leafs on March 28, 1950, Howe skidded into the boards while attempting to block an opponent; the freak mishap left him with a fractured nose and cheekbone, a lacerated eyeball, and a brain hemorrhage. After a surgeon drilled a hole through his skull to relieve the pressure from his brain, Howe's quick recovery astounded his doctors. Although his life had been in danger, the resilient Howe immediately announced that he would return to the Red Wings line up for the full 1951-52 season. Over the course of his career, the six-foot, two-hundred-eight pound hockey player would suffer from torn knee cartilage, a broken wrist, a dislocated shoulder, several concussions, numerous broken ribs and toes, and over three hundred stitches.

Howe began his run of four consecutive NHL scoring titles, symbolized by the Art Ross Trophy, in 1951; he won the title again in 1957. He added the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player to his collection in 1952, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1960, and 1963. Once again healthy for the 1952 Stanley Cup finals against Montreal, Howe helped the team to sweep the series in four games. The match was an early highlight of the legendary rivalry between the Red Wings and the Canadiens and between Howe and Maurice Richard, one of the most dynamic players of the day. Detroit would emerge as the winner in the 1954 and 1955 finals over Montreal, but the Canadiens took the Stanley Cup in 1956 over Detroit, the first of five consecutive championships for the team. Despite Howe's brilliance, the Red Wings would not win another Stanley Cup during his tenure with the team.

A series of poor trades by domineering Red Wings general manager Jack Adams sapped the team's strength from the mid-1950s onward. So too did his fury at the players for attempting to form a players' union. Ted Lindsay, who led such efforts in Detroit, was suddenly traded to the failing Chicago Blackhawks in 1957 in retribution. Howe, who was criticized for not speaking out in favor of the players' union at the time, later came to regret his unquestioning loyalty to Red Wings management. Although he earned about $20,000 in salary and up to $9,000 in bonuses in the late 1950s, it was only after the successful formation of the NHL Players' Association in 1967 that his salary climbed above $40,000. By that time Howe had assured himself of a place in the record books by breaking the all-time goal-scoring record held by Maurice Richard. On November 10, 1963, Howe scored his 545th goal in a game against the Canadiens. He went on to score 801 goals in 1,767 NHL games over twenty-six seasons.